Hoist by His Own Petard/Quotes

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


If you're gonna hire Machete to kill the bad guy, you'd better make damn sure the bad guy isn't you!
Machete trailer, Grindhouse
Violence, in truth, recoils upon the violent, and the schemer falls into the pit he has dug for another.
Sherlock Holmes, paraphrasing The Bible, in regard to the death of Doctor Grimesby Roylott in The Adventure of the Speckled Band

Ares: I was trying... to make you a great warrior!
Kratos: You succeeded.
(Kratos finishes off Ares)

Sideshow Bob: Oh dear...Sideshow Bob...hoist...on his own petard...
Lisa: It's hoist with his own petard.
Sideshow Bob: Oh get a life.

Do you think Saint Thrastus complained when he was strung up by his petard? No! Not one word! That's piety. Now get on with your work, you little ingrate.

Vandegraffe: It is a horribly blasphemous Yu'Vath lance weapon... Not sure I'd allow my players to install one on their ship since the technology base is so different.
Erathia: I absolutely would. It's a warp-powered Xenos weapon made by a race that brainwashed an entire planet into serving them whenever they went to sleep[1].
Erathia: I could justify so many horrible things happening to my players if they were reckless enough to install one.
Errant Knight: And Heck Yes! I'll let the players go with anything Yu'Vash! If the Psycharus Worm didn't teach them to let that dog lie then that's just more fun for me!

from the official Rogue Trader forum
He who digs a hole and scoops it out falls into the pit he has made. The trouble he causes recoils on himself; his violence comes down on his own head.
The Bible (New International Version), Psalms 7:15-16
If a man digs a pit, he will fall into it; if a man rolls a stone, it will roll back on him.
The Bible (New International Version), Proverbs 26:27
Why, as a woodcock to mine own springe, Osric. I am justly killed with mine own treachery.
Laertes, Hamlet

Narrator: It looks as though Boris Badenov is now hoist with his own petard. Meanwhile...
Boris: Hold it. Hold it! What does it mean I'm hoist with my own... what's its name?
Narrator: It means you fell into your own trap.
Boris: Then why didn't you say so? Okay, let's go.

The irony is exquisite, isn't it? Your mutant gifts will be used to bring your kind to its knees. This is your true destiny: the harbinger of mutant extinction.
But I'm not my "kind", not anymore — your shadow leeches saw to that. I'm half Toa of Light, half Toa of Shadow. This was what you wanted, wasn't it? Toa consumed by darkness, Toa not hampered by things like mercy or morality. Well, now you can choke on it.
Takanuva, Bionicle

Henry: Put things right? I killed her! Like you wanted! But you never returned to me!
Brie: You coward! You failure! You left her alive! I hid in the shadows of the attic, to finish the job I knew you could not do. Kill her outright? Too good for her. Locked in a chest to starve to death, her cries unheard below!
Henry: But I heard her screams! I bricked up the way to the attic to seal my guilt forever but her cries would not let me be!
Brie: Those were my cries, fool husband! I slipped on that candlestick. I was unconscious for mere minutes. I awoke a prisoner! Doors locked and reinforced with iron. Windows barred. As if this attic was used as a prison when it was called Kesandru House.
Brie: And then you sealed me in! It was I who starved screaming, for I heard only sobs from Beth! It's not fair!
Riff: (eating popcorn) Sounds like a little karmic evil nipping you in the butt!

Sluggy Freelance Haunted House story. 2001-12-06
The Bangalore torpedo was 50 feet long and packed with 85 pounds of TNT, and you assembled it along the way - by hand. I'd love to meet the asshole who invented it.
—Description of how soldiers can still get hoist by their own petard in The Big Red One

A tyrant is like an eagle; he looks down from a high place for prey to rend. Until one day, when swooping, he miscalculates

—from Ed Greenwood, on twitter

Tanya (thinking): The fate of the fleet is in my hands... Failure isn't an option. This is a huge undertaking! fucking hell!! That's enormous pressure!!! Was this Rudersdorf's idea? Or did General Zettour put it into his head? -No...
Zetour (Flashback): Hmm, how intriguing. -what do you mean by a "Decisive blow"?
Tanya (Flashback): We'll exhaust the enemy army... via tactical disruption and penetrating raids using arial mages
Tanya (thinking): I'm the one who planted it in his head-!!! They're using that idea for this operation!!!

"Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake."

  1. with a single ship, and not fully active one at that, but crippled and left for dead centuries ago