He that studieth revenge keepeth his own wounds green, which otherwise would heal and do well.

The saying likens revenge to repeatedly reopening a physical injury: the fixation on retaliation preserves pain rather than resolving it. Its moral psychology is that resentment binds the injured person to the original harm, preventing recovery and “doing well” (flourishing). The image also implies that time and forbearance are natural healers, while revenge is an artificial interference that prolongs suffering. In quotation history, this line is frequently attributed to John Milton, but it is more reliably associated with Francis Bacon, which affects how it should be interpreted in a database: as a Renaissance commonplace about the self-destructive nature of vengeance rather than a distinctly Miltonic political or theological claim.