“ There is no satisfaction in vengeance unless the offender has time to realize who it is that strikes him, and why retribution has come upon him. ”
Arthur Conan Doyle, A Study in Scarlet (1887). copy citation
| Author | Arthur Conan Doyle |
|---|---|
| Source | A Study in Scarlet |
| Topic | revenge satisfaction retribution |
| Date | 1887 |
| Language | English |
| Reference | |
| Note | |
| Weblink | http://www.gutenberg.org/files/244/244-h/244-h.htm |
Context
“«The moment for which I had waited so long had at last come. I had my enemies within my power. Together they could protect each other, but singly they were at my mercy. I did not act, however, with undue precipitation. My plans were already formed. There is no satisfaction in vengeance unless the offender has time to realize who it is that strikes him, and why retribution has come upon him. I had my plans arranged by which I should have the opportunity of making the man who had wronged me understand that his old sin had found him out. It chanced that some days before a gentleman who had been engaged in looking over some houses in the Brixton Road had dropped the key of one of them in my carriage.”
source
Meaning and analysis
