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Who really said it

In taking revenge, a man is but even with his enemy; but in passing it over, he is superior; for it is a prince's part to pardon

Written by Francis Bacon 1561–1626 · English philosopher, Lord Chancellor & essayist
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This is genuine Bacon, and it is verifiable down to the page: it opens his essay “Of Revenge,” essay IV of The Essayes or Counsels, Civill and Morall, first published in 1625. A facsimile of that 1625 printing carries the sentence in its original spelling — the popular version simply modernises it and drops Bacon’s opening word, “Certainly.”

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

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“In taking revenge, a man is but even with his enemy; but in passing it over, he is superior; for it is a prince's part to pardon” Francis Bacon, "Of Revenge," in The Essayes or Counsels, Civill and Morall (London, 1625). The 1625 original reads: "Certainly, in taking Revenge, A Man is but even with his Enemy; But in passing it over, he is Superiour: For it is a Prince's part to Pardon."

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Provenance

The source

Work
The Essayes or Counsels, Civill and Morall
Essay
“Of Revenge” — essay IV, new in the 1625 edition
First published
1625, London — the third and last edition of the Essays, fifty-eight pieces
Language
English original — no translation involved

Revenge is a kind of wild justice; which the more man’s nature runs to, the more ought law to weed it out. For as for the first wrong, it doth but offend the law; but the revenge of that wrong, putteth the law out of office. Certainly, in taking revenge, a man is but even with his enemy; but in passing it over, he is superior; for it is a prince’s part to pardon. And Solomon, I am sure, saith, It is the glory of a man, to pass by an offence. Opening of the essay

Modern-spelling text as printed by Project Gutenberg ↗. Editions that keep Bacon’s own spelling render the key sentence “Certainly, in taking Revenge, A Man is but even with his Enemy; But in passing it over, he is Superiour: For it is a Prince’s part to Pardon” — West, 1908 ↗. The “glory of a man” line is Bacon citing Solomon, i.e. Proverbs.

The 1625 first printing of the essay
Read the 1625 Essayes in facsimile
Read "Of Revenge" in full at Project Gutenberg

How we traced it

  • Started at the primary artifact rather than a quote site. A facsimile of the original London printing — “The Essayes or Counsels, Civil and Moral, of Francis Lo. Verulam, Viscount St. Alban,” 1625 ↗ — carries the sentence inside “Of Revenge,” immediately after the “wild justice” opening.
  • Confirmed the essay is new to that edition. Wikipedia’s contents table for the Essays, drawn from Thomas Markby’s 1853 edition, dates “Of Revenge” to 1625 ↗ — not to the ten essays of 1597 or the thirty-eight of 1612.
  • Checked the wording against pre-1931 scholarly editions. Mary Augusta Scott’s 1908 edition ↗ gives the modernised sentence exactly as it circulates today, and the 1909 Harvard Classics volume ↗ prints the 1625 Essays with “Of Revenge” in its contents.
  • Looked for a dispute and found none. Quote Investigator has no article on this line, and the sourced sections of Wikiquote’s Francis Bacon page do not carry it either — there is no controversy to resolve, because the book itself settles it.
Public domain

The work containing this sentence — The Essayes or Counsels, Civill and Morall — was first published in London in 1625, and Bacon wrote in English, so no translator’s copyright sits between you and the text. The 1625 printing and every edition cited here (West 1908, Scott 1908, Harvard Classics 1909) were published well before 1931 and are in the public domain in the United States. Quote it freely.

Rights status is our research, not legal advice — and copyright varies by country and edition. For commercial or published use, confirm with the rightsholder. See terms.

Fact-check

The author is right — the wording is what gets mangled

This is one of the rare famous-name quotations where the attribution needs no defending. Bacon really wrote it, and the source is a printed book you can look at. What travels badly is the sentence itself: the versions on the big aggregator sites are shortened, unsourced, and silently modernised.

Goodreads Truncated

Displays only “In taking revenge, a man is but even with his enemy; but in passing it over, he is superior ↗” — cutting the clause that carries Bacon’s actual argument, “for it is a prince’s part to pardon,” and naming no book at all.

BrainyQuote Unsourced

Carries the same shortened sentence with no work, essay or date attached — the entry credits “Francis Bacon” and stops there ↗. With two Francis Bacons in the reference books, a bare name is thin attribution.

Modern quote pages generally Modernised

Every popular version is a modernisation, not a transcription. Editions preserving Bacon’s spelling print “he is Superiour” and “And Salomon, I am sure, saith” — see the West 1908 text ↗. Bacon’s sentence also begins “Certainly,” which the circulating form drops.

The substance is entirely Bacon’s: the sentence stands, unaltered in meaning, at the head of “Of Revenge” in the 1625 Essayes ↗. If you want the whole thought, quote the pardon clause too — without it the line loses the point Bacon was making.

Context

Why it mattered

Bacon was not preaching meekness. The essay opens by calling revenge “a kind of wild justice” — wild because it is justice, a real claim honestly felt, but taken outside the law. His objection is structural rather than sentimental: the first wrong merely offends the law, but revenge “putteth the law out of office.” A society where injured people settle their own accounts has quietly dissolved its courts.

The line about the prince is the pivot. Bacon frames forgiveness not as weakness but as rank — the avenger is merely level with his enemy, while the man who lets it go stands above him, exercising the one prerogative that belongs to sovereigns. It is an argument aimed at ambitious men, and it works by appealing to their pride rather than their conscience.

For it is a prince’s part to pardon.

Where the essay sits in Bacon’s life

“Of Revenge” was not in the first Essays of 1597, nor in the enlarged edition of 1612. It appears for the first time in the 1625 collection, which grew the book to fifty-eight essays — the last edition Bacon published. He died on 9 April 1626.

That 1625 book was assembled after his 1621 impeachment, when Parliament brought twenty-three counts of corruption against him and stripped him of the Lord Chancellorship. Readers have long found it hard not to hear something personal in an essay on grievance, wounded parties and the wisdom of not labouring in past matters — though Bacon nowhere says so, and the connection is inference, not record.

Explore

Filed under

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

Character Kindness Wisdom

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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.

"Of Revenge" — full textgutenberg.org

Project Gutenberg's modern-spelling Essays. The essay opens with the sentence in exactly the wording that circulates today.
The 1625 Essayes in facsimilearchive.org

Scan of the original 1625 London printing — the primary artifact. "Of Revenge" carries the sentence in period spelling.
"Of Revenge" in original spellingen.wikisource.org

Alfred S. West's 1908 edition, which preserves Bacon's capitalisation: "he is Superiour", "And Salomon, I am sure, saith".
The Essays of Francis Bacon, IV — Of Revengeen.wikisource.org

Mary Augusta Scott's 1908 scholarly edition, scan-backed, giving the modernised sentence in full including the pardon clause.
Essays (Francis Bacon) — publication historyen.wikipedia.org

Editions of 1597, 1612 and 1625, with a contents table dating each essay. "Of Revenge" is marked (1625).
Essays, Civil and Moral — Harvard Classics vol. 3en.wikisource.org

Charles W. Eliot's 1909 Harvard Classics printing of the 1625 Essays, listing "Of Revenge" in its contents.

About the author

Francis Bacon

Francis Bacon

1561–1626 · English philosopher, statesman & essayist

Francis Bacon (born 22 January 1561, died 9 April 1626) rose to become Attorney General and then Lord Chancellor of England, and was created Baron Verulam and Viscount St Alban. In 1621 Parliament brought twenty-three counts of corruption against him; he was fined and barred from office, and his public career ended in disgrace. He is remembered less for the offices than for the prose — the Essays, which he expanded across three editions (ten pieces in 1597, thirty-eight in 1612, fifty-eight in 1625), remain among the most quoted short works in English.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Essays (1625), “Of Revenge”

Francis Bacon, "Of Revenge," essay IV in The Essayes or Counsels, Civill and Morall (London, 1625). Modern-spelling text: The Essays of Francis Bacon, ed. Mary Augusta Scott (1908); also Essays, Civil and Moral, Harvard Classics vol. 3, ed. Charles W. Eliot (New York, 1909).

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘In taking revenge, a man is but even with his enemy; but in passing it over, he is superior; for it is a prince's part to pardon’?” Last verified 7 Aug 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/in-taking-revenge-a-man-is-but-even-with-his-enemy-but-in/

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