The enemy advances, we retreat; the enemy camps, we harass; the enemy tires, we attack; the enemy retreats, we pursue.
—Mao Zedong (1893–1976) Chinese Statesman
I have no trouble with my enemies. I can take care of my enemies all right. But my damn friends—they’re the ones that keep me walking the floor nights!
—Warren G. Harding (1865–1923) American Head of State, Businessperson
If you want to make enemies, try to change something.
—Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924) American Head of State
Art hath an enemy called ignorance
—Ben Jonson (1572–1637) English Dramatist, Poet, Actor
The enemy of the conventional wisdom is not ideas but the march of events.
—John Kenneth Galbraith (1908–2006) Canadian-Born American Economist
The enemy of society is middle class and the enemy of life is middle age.
—Orson Welles (1915–85) American Film Director, Actor
False friends are worse than bitter enemies.
—Scottish Proverb
The real enemy can always be met and conquered, or won over. Real antagonism is based on love, a love which has not recognized itself.
—Henry Miller (1891–1980) American Novelist
If there be no enemy there’s no fight. If no fight, no victory and if no victory there is no crown.
—Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish Historian, Essayist
Our enemies approach nearer to truth in their judgments of us than we do ourselves.
—Francois de La Rochefoucauld (1613–80) French Writer
The enemy is more easily overcome if he be not suffered to enter the door of our hearts, but be resisted without the gate at his first knock.
—Thomas a Kempis (1379–1471) German Religious Priest, Writer
We make our friends; we make our enemies; but God makes our next-door neighbor.
—G. K. Chesterton (1874–1936) English Journalist, Novelist, Essayist, Poet
Only enemies speak the truth; friends and lovers lie endlessly, caught in the web of duty.
—Stephen King (b.1947) American Novelist, Short-Story Writer, Screenwriter, Columnist, Film Director
Our greatest foes, and whom we must chiefly combat, are within.
—Miguel de Cervantes (1547–1616) Spanish Novelist
So long as governments set the example of killing their enemies, private citizens will occasionally kill theirs.
—Elbert Hubbard (1856–1915) American Writer, Publisher, Artist, Philosopher
There is nothing like the sight of an old enemy down on his luck.
—Euripides (480–406 BCE) Ancient Greek Dramatist
One enemy can do more hurt than ten friends can do good.
—Jonathan Swift (1667–1745) Irish Satirist
No man should ever display his bravery unless he is prepared for battle, nor bear the marks of defiance, until he has experienced the abilities of his enemy.
—The Hitopadesha Indian Collection of Fables
If you want to make peace, you don’t talk to your friends. You talk to your enemies.
—Moshe Dayan (1915–81) Israeli Soldier, Statesman
There is no such thing as an insignificant enemy.
—French Proverb
If you are near the enemy, make him believe you are far from him.
If you are far from the enemy, make him believe you are near.
—Sun Tzu (fl. c.544–496 BCE) Chinese General, Military Theorist
A man can’t be too careful in the choice of his enemies.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
The best way to destroy your enemy is to make him your friend.
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–65) American Head of State
He who has a thousand friends has not a friend to spare, and he who has one enemy will meet him everywhere.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Give us courage and gaiety and the quiet mind. Spare to us our friends, soften to us our enemies. Bless us, if it may be, in all our innocent endeavors. If it may not, give us the strength to encounter that which is to come, that we be brave in peril, constant in tribulation, temperate in wrath, and in all changes of fortune and down to the gates of death, loyal and loving one to another.
—Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–94) Scottish Novelist
Even a paranoid can have enemies.
—Henry Kissinger (b.1923) American Diplomat, Academician
No prudent antagonist thinks light of his adversaries.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
It is difficult to say who do you the most mischief, enemies with the worst intentions, or friends with the best.
—Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton (1803–73) British Novelist, Poet, Politician
Our enemies come nearer the truth in the opinions they form of us than we do in our opinion of ourselves.
—Francois de La Rochefoucauld (1613–80) French Writer
Thus, what is of supreme importance in war is to attack the enemy’s strategy.
—Sun Tzu (fl. c.544–496 BCE) Chinese General, Military Theorist
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