For revenge is always the delight of a mean spirit, of a weak and petty mind! You may immediately draw proof of this—that no one rejoices more in revenge than a woman.

This sentiment is attributed to the Roman satirist Juvenal in the context of his moralizing, hyperbolic attacks on vice and social decay in imperial Rome. The line belongs to a passage where “revenge” is treated as a mark of smallness of character rather than strength, and the speaker reinforces the point with a misogynistic commonplace—casting women as especially prone to vindictiveness. Such gendered generalizations are characteristic of Roman satiric rhetoric, which often relies on sweeping stereotypes and provocation to sharpen its ethical critique and entertain its audience.

In this line Juvenal links the desire for revenge with moral smallness: to take pleasure in retaliation is presented as a symptom of a “mean,” weak, and petty character rather than strength or justice. The final clause turns the moral judgment into a gendered jab, reflecting the satirist’s broader habit of using misogynistic commonplaces to sharpen invective and provoke his audience. Read in context of Roman satire, the point is less a balanced psychological claim than a rhetorical escalation: Juvenal intensifies condemnation of vindictiveness by associating it with a socially disparaged stereotype, thereby reinforcing his theme that uncontrolled passions degrade the mind.