what does " an eye for an eye can make the world blind" mean?

Answer 1

you do something to me (one of my eyes is gone), I revenge (one of your eyes is gone), you revenge (im blind, I revenger (your blind)...it a nasty cycle

Answer 2

The original phrase was "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth". It was a form of justice that insured that the injuring party should suffer as much as the injured.
The phrase which you mention is talking more about revenge than justice. People often say that turnabout is fair, meaning that if you harm me, intentionally or not, it's fair for me to harm you. This isn't justice meted out by the authorities, but self-justified revenge.
In this case, revenge and revenge toward the revenge results in a vicious circle that ends only when everyone is injured. It implies that revenge for revenge's sake is ultimately pointless.

--Dee

Answer 3

An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind
"Nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral questions of our time; the need for mankind to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to oppression and violence. Mankind must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression, and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love." - Martin Luther King Jr.

"What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty or democracy?" - Mahatma Gandhi

Answer 4

I think, on a deeper level, this quote is referring to the fact that if we take and eye for an eye all the time, then we really lose "sight" of justice. we become barbaric. we do what was done to us and then the cylce can never end. we function on a basic, revengeful level that doesn't allow for higher-order thoughts concepts like justice, rehabilitation, and doing what is "right". if someone mugs me, i do not wish to one day mug them back. the crime will not turn me into a criminal. if it did, then my innocent victimization will have turned ME into a criminal. thus, the cycle could continue until the entire world skips the whole "what is right?" part and simply does what was done unto them.

Answer 5

I think it means if you hold a grudge for everything people do to you and always try and get them back for whatever they do to you then if that was the case the whole world would be blind by now

Answer 6

Like an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. It means that revenge and seeking compensation will condone failure for all eventually. I hope this makes more sense now!

Answer 7

well i never heard that one before, but as near as i can tell~and it makes perfect sense to me~an eye for an eye means if someone does something (bad) to you, you do something (bad) back to them.

now if everybody kept up that pattern, pretty soon everyone would be hurting everyone.

this is what the quote means by the whole world goes blind. they (the quoter) are trying to tell us not to hurt eachother even if someone else hurts us.

all that does is poison our soul. if someone hurts you (especially intentionally, or repeatedly) feel sorry for them because they will have kharma to deal with. and kharma is going to catch up eventually.

Answer 8

It means if you loose an eye in a conflict and you take an eye for it surely there will be another such conflict with the same results so to speak.

Answer 9

You're going to eventually run out of eyes..

no eyes = no sight

Answer 10

It means revenge for revenge