Straight from today’s Quotle — here’s who really said it, and the story behind it. Play again

Who really said it

Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves

Not Confucius — a Japanese proverb first recorded by William Elliot Griffis A traditional Japanese proverb Earliest documented 1876 · recorded by an American orientalist, not by Confucius
Disputed Free to reuse

There is no trace of this line in Confucius. Its oldest known ancestor is a Japanese proverb printed in William Elliot Griffis’s The Mikado’s Empire (1876) — “If you call down a curse on any one, look out for two graves” — which only later mutated into a “revenge” line and was mis-relabeled Chinese, then Confucian.

Last verified 7 Jul 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

For presentations

Put it on a slide

Disputed — copy with the correction

“Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves” Traditional Japanese proverb (earliest recorded by W. E. Griffis, 1876) — not Confucius

Can you use it?

Free to use, including in commercial and paid presentations — no permission or licence needed.

Image direction — grounded in this quote’s real context; paste into your image tool

In context

Evoking the world of William Elliot Griffis — American orientalist & author. Theme: "Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves". Atmospheric and restrained, cinematic directional light, a muted period-appropriate palette, fine grain and texture. Compose with generous empty space for the quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Minimalist

Minimalist editorial slide for the quote "Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves". Clean background, a single muted accent color, generous negative space, subtle paper or linen texture, no literal illustration — let the words carry it. Reserve clear space for a serif quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Provenance

The source

Earliest source
The Mikado’s Empire
Recorded by
William Elliot Griffis, 1876
Original form
A Japanese proverb about curses, not revenge
Attributed instead to
Confucius (unsupported)

If you call down a curse on any one, look out for two graves. ↑ the 1876 original is about curses — “revenge” was swapped in decades later

Griffis glossed the proverb as “Curses, like young chickens, always come home to roost.” By 1915 the line was being restated as “If you would revenge yourself, dig two graves,” and only after mid-century did writers relabel it a “Chinese” proverb and, later still, credit Confucius.

Scanned first edition (1876)
Griffis, The Mikado’s Empire on the Internet Archive
Quote Investigator: the full “two graves” chronology

How a curse became Confucius

  • 1876: William Elliot Griffis prints the Japanese proverb “If you call down a curse on any one, look out for two graves” in The Mikado’s Empire.
  • 1915: the wording shifts from “curse” to “revenge” — Griffis is credited with “If you would revenge yourself, dig two graves,” per Quote Investigator.
  • 1951 – 1968: the saying is re-labeled a “Chinese proverb,” and Walter Winchell calls it Chinese in 1968, according to the same chronology.
  • Modern era: the polished “Before you embark on a journey of revenge…” line is pinned on Confucius, though researchers find no such words in his writings.
Public domain

The 1876 Griffis wording is long in the public domain. The modern “revenge” phrasing is anonymous folk paraphrase — there is no author to credit, and certainly not Confucius.

Fact-check

Who it’s wrongly pinned on

The elegant modern wording is almost universally credited to Confucius. It is not his — and it wasn’t even about revenge to begin with.

Confucius

Researchers have found no instance of this saying anywhere in the writings of Confucius; The World of Chinese lists it among sayings the sage “didn’t actually say,” and Quote Investigator traces the line to a Japanese proverb instead.

an ancient Chinese proverb common

The “Chinese” label only appears from the 1950s — a 1951 newspaper and Walter Winchell in 1968 call it Chinese — long after its documented Japanese origin.

The oldest known form is a Japanese proverb about curses, printed by W. E. Griffis in 1876 as “If you call down a curse on any one, look out for two graves” — per Quote Investigator’s chronology.

Context

How a proverb about curses became a Confucius quote

The saying most people know — grave, symmetrical, faintly Eastern — is a textbook example of a proverb drifting across cultures and picking up a prestigious name along the way. Its earliest recorded ancestor isn’t about revenge at all: it warns that cursing someone may doom you too, “curses, like young chickens,” coming home to roost.

Only over the twentieth century did “curse” harden into “revenge,” the origin migrate from Japan to China, and the author blank get filled in with the most famous Chinese name available. The polish is real; the attribution is not.

It started as a warning about curses — not revenge — and it was Japanese, not Confucian.

Explore

Filed under

More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.

Wisdom Justice

Go further

Dig deeper

Trusted places to keep pulling the thread — primary archives, fact-checks, and scholarship. We show how we used each one before you leave.

Quote Investigator: the two-graves chronologyquoteinvestigator.com

The definitive dated trail from Griffis’s 1876 curse proverb through the 1915 revenge wording to the Chinese/Confucius mislabels.
The World of Chinese: quotes Confucius didn’t saytheworldofchinese.com

Opens with this exact quote as a Confucius misattribution and confirms he never said it.
The Mikado’s Empire (1876) full scanarchive.org

Griffis’s original book, the earliest documented source, readable in full.
William Elliot Griffisen.wikipedia.org

Biography of the orientalist who first recorded the proverb for English readers.
Confucius Didn’t Say Thatjeffreynall.substack.com

Scholarly essay debunking the Confucius attribution and summarizing the proverb’s real path.

The author

About William Elliot Griffis

William Elliot Griffis

1843–1928 · American orientalist & author

William Elliot Griffis was an American minister, lecturer and prolific writer who taught in Japan in the early 1870s and became a leading Western authority on the country. His 1876 book The Mikado’s Empire collected Japanese history and folklore for English readers — including the “two graves” proverb that, generations later and heavily reworded, would be misattributed to Confucius. Griffis recorded the saying; he did not coin the revenge version, and neither did the Chinese sage.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

The Mikado’s Empire (1876)

Earliest documented in William Elliot Griffis, The Mikado’s Empire (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1876), as “If you call down a curse on any one, look out for two graves”; chronology per Garson O’Toole, “If You Seek Revenge You Should Dig Two Graves,” Quote Investigator, 7 July 2019.

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves’?” Last verified 7 Jul 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/before-you-embark-on-a-journey-of-revenge-dig-two-graves

Copied