Enemies

"His father was no man's friend but his owne, and he (saith the prouerbe) is no man's foe else."

"The shaft of the arrow had been feathered with one of the eagle's own plumes. We often give our enemies the means of our own destruction."

"Your friends are three and your enemies are (also) three. Your friends are: your friend, your friend's friend and your enemy's enemy. And your enemies are: your enemy, your friend's enemy and your enemy's friend."

"There is only one thing more useful in politics than having the right friends, and that is having the right enemies."

"Observe your enemies, for they first find out your faults."

"Our No. 1 enemy is ignorance. And I believe that is the No. 1 enemy for everyone — it's not understanding what actually is going on in the world."

"You have to start with the truth. The truth is the only way that we can get anywhere. Because any decision-making that is based upon lies or ignorance can't lead to a good conclusion."

"Have you forgotten the story of "Lorna Doone"—how the Doones, men of high family, who had fallen under the displeasure of the Government, had betaken themselves to the Doone Valley, surrounded on all sides by precipitous mountains, and from this strongly fortified position levied their blackmail upon the surrounding country, killing and robbing and outraging the people of the land until the citizens were aroused and determined to extirpate them? Do you recall how the men of the eastern county gathered together on the eastern mountain, and the men from the western county gathered on the western mountain, with their arms and cannon ready to fall upon the Doones and destroy them, when by some untoward accident a cannon from the western ranks was trained across the valley and shot into the ranks of the men of the east, and how, inflamed by this accident, the men on the east trained their guns across the valley into the ranks of the men of the west, and while these foolish people were slaughtering one another, the Doones sallied forth and put both counties to flight and continued to rob and kill and outrage for years to come. Let us heed the lesson, my countrymen! Let me say to Governor Kitchin and Senator Simmons and Chief Justice Clark: The Doones are in the valley. I pray you, gentlemen, train your guns a little lower."

"I tell thee, be not rash; a golden bridge is for a flying enemy."

"You will learn to defeat the enemy. He will teach you how."

"A reckless king will easily fall into the hands of his enemies. Hence the king shall ever be wakeful."

"The king who is situated anywhere immediately on the circumference of the conqueror's territory is termed the enemy. The king who is likewise situated close to the enemy, but separated from the conqueror only by the enemy, is termed the friend (of the conqueror)."

"But I tell you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who mistreat you and persecute you."

"Never give in — never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy."

"A weak Invention of the Enemy."

"Never hate your enemies, it clouds your judgement."

"But a companion and a friend shall be turned to an enemy."

"No people on earth can be held, as a people, to be an enemy, for all humanity shares the common hunger for peace and fellowship and justice."

"Let us admit, then, quite frankly that the military profession was a means of making a living by taking the property of others. Its peculiarity was that it was the only means to that end that was—I suppose that I may say that is—reckoned honourable. The only essential point was that the person whose property was to be taken should be declared, or at any rate considered, to be an enemy. A penniless younger son who stole a sheep in England was liable to be hanged for his pains; but, if he joined some adventure overseas, or took service in the army of some foreign power, he could steal as many of the enemy's sheep as pleased him. Moreover, he was tolerably sure of a share of plunder, and he might, if lucky, capture some prisoner of high rank and obtain high ransom for him."

"If you wou'd be reveng'd of your enemy, govern your self."

"'Thou canst not joke an Enemy into a Friend; but thou may'st a Friend into an Enemy."

"Who judges best of a Man, his Enemies or himself?"

"You and I were long friends; you are now my enemy, and I am yours."

"Depend on me; never fear your enemies. Ill warrant We make more noise than they."

"A man's enemies have no power to harm him, if he is true to himself and loyal to God."

"The wise person finds enemies more useful than the fool does friends."

"The less you know about your enemies, the easier it is to project all your fantasies on to them. The closer you come to the other, the more you see the vulnerabilities, the paradoxes, the contradictions."

"Arnon Grunberg, Opinion: My Settler Sister Knows Her Enemies. First of All, She Hates the Germans. Then the Arabs, Haaretz, 18 January 2019"

"Never fear your, enemies. A bold fight is the best: we should advance, and not retrograde."

"We have met the enemy and he is us."

"It is hard to fight an enemy who has outposts in your head."

"Now the trumpet summons us again—not as a call to bear arms, though arms we need—not as a call to battle, though embattled we are—but a call to bear the burden of a long twilight struggle, year in and year out, "rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation"—a struggle against the common enemies of man: tyranny, poverty, disease and war itself."

"Wee commonly say of a prodigall man that hee is no man's foe but his owne."

"He who forgiveth, and is reconciled unto his enemy, shall receive his reward from God; for he loveth not the unjust doers."

"We pray for our enemies; we seek to persuade those who hate us without cause to live conformably to the goodly precepts of Christ, that they may become partakers with us of the joyful hope of blessings from God, the Lord of all."

"He who is not with Me is against Me; and he who does not gather with Me scatters."

"The only 'natural enemies' are those who take one’s very nature as an offence."

"What boots it at one gate to make defence, And at another to let in the foe?"

"We have met the enemy and they are ours—two ships, two brigs, one schooner and a sloop."

"If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat; and if he be thirsty, give him water to drink: For thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head, and the LORD shall reward thee."

"Keep your friends close, your enemies closer."

"Inventé par le caloumnateur ennemy."

"If this law of Karma, "an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth," is inevitable and exact justice, it by no means follows that we ourselves, personally, should attempt to fulfil it in this way. If we do so, we shall never emerge from the magic circle of karma. Indeed, we must forgive our personal enemies, as who knows but that the blow one receives is a return blow, well-deserved under the law of Karma? By returning such a blow with another and with a feeling of revenge in our heart, we do not outlive this karma, but we continue and even intensify it in the worst way for ourselves. Moreover, by forgiving our enemies we decrease the amount of evil in space and become immune against many blows. Similarly, let us understand the words "Love thine enemies." However, with all this, we must resist evil, if we do not want to be entirely overwhelmed by it. (26 May 1934)"

"I have political enemies, of course—men who, influenced by party feeling, are not above attacking methods and possibly my official reputation; but personal ones—wretches willing to stab me in my homelife and affections, that I can not believe. My life has been as an open book. I have harmed no man knowingly and, as far as I know, no man has ever cherished a wish to injure me."

"In cases of defence 'tis best to weigh The enemy more mighty than he seems; So the proportions of defence are fill'd; Which of a weak and niggardly projection Doth, like a miser, spoil his coat with scanting A little cloth."

"Be advis'd; Heat not a furnace for your foe so hot That it do singe yourself: we may outrun, By violent swiftness, that which we run at, And lose by over-running."

"I do believe, Induced by potent circumstances, that You are mine enemy; and make my challenge You shall not be my judge."

"That you have many enemies, that know not Why they are so, but, like to village-curs, Bark when their fellows do."

"O cunning enemy, that, to catch a saint, With saints dost bait thy hook!"

"I do defy him, and I spit at him; Call him a slanderous coward and a villain: Which to maintain I would allow him odds, And meet him, were I tied to run afoot Even to the frozen ridges of the Alps."

"A thing devised by the enemy."

"It will let in and out the enemy With bag and baggage."

"No enemy is worse than bad advice."

"The Americans, my people, are our enemies."

"We need to think very, very clearly about who the enemy is. The enemy is the United States of America and everyone who supports it."

"To mortify and even to injure an opponent, reproach him with the very defect or vice … you feel … in yourself."

"J'ai toujours fait une prière à Dieu, qui est fort courte. La voici: Mon Dieu, rendez nos ennemis bien ridicules! Dieu m'a exaucé."

"A man cannot be too careful in the choice of his enemies."

"You can know an awful lot about an enemy if you know what he didn’t do as well as what he did do. If you figure out what you yourself should have done under the same circumstances, and know he didn’t do, why, that gives you some valuable hints as to his deficiencies."

"Heero Yuy: Who...Who are...My Enemies? My enemies are the ones after my life...My enemies are the ones that are after my life and the ones that toy with my life...They're all my enemies."

"March 27. Still they come in, with about fifty more of the rebels. They look starved and wild, but here they will have enough to eat, and will be cared for as our own men. How strange it seems to see them lying so close to those whom they met so lately with bloody intent—now all powerless to harm them, even if rage had not died out in their hearts."

"Wars teach us not to love our enemies, but to hate our allies."

"He who has a thousand friends has not a friend to spare, And he who has one enemy will meet him everywhere."

"At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide."

"Since the general civilization of mankind, I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people, by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power, than by violent and sudden usurpations."

"Again people are looking for scapegoats. But this time the attack comes not from the outside but from within, from extremist splinter groups of the New Left made up of students and—I am sorry to acknowledge—also of some faculty who would like to see our colleges and universities denigrated, maligned and even shut down. They insinuate, distort, accuse, their aim being not to identify and correct real abuses, but always rather by crying alarm intentionally to arouse and inflame passions in order to build support for "non-negotiable demands." Clearly the old McCarthy technique is at work again…. It is more difficult to maintain a realistic sense of human limitation, to refuse to become frustrated and angry; to analyze, to assess, to seek to understand and explain; to determine to be adult and fair; and thus to work patiently to improve while refusing to succumb to either cynicism or hopelessness. It is the long way around, but it is the civilized way, and the only way for those [who] have come truly to understand the role of humane learning."

"I have beheld no day since the commencement of hostilities that I have thought her liberties in such eminent danger as at present. Friends and foes seem now to combine to pull down the goodly fabric as we have hitherto been raising at the expence of so much time, blood, and treasure; and unless the bodies politick will exert themselves to bring things back to first principles, correct abuses, and punish our internal foes, inevitable ruin must follow."

"Nos amis, les ennemis."

"It is better to decide a difference between enemies than friends, for one of our friends will certainly become an enemy and one of our enemies a friend."

"We love him for the enemies he has made."

"Every man is his own greatest enemy, and as it were his own executioner."

"Whatever the number of a man's friends, there will be times in his life when he has one too few; but if he has only one enemy, he is lucky indeed if he has not one too many."

"Nihil inimicius quam sibi ipse."

"Pereant amici, dum una inimici intercidant."

"Our enemies will tell the rest with pleasure."

"He has no enemy, you say; My friend your boast is poor, He who hath mingled in the fray Of duty that the brave endure Must have made foes. If he has none Small is the work that he has done. He has hit no traitor on the hip; Has cast no cup from perjured lip; Has never turned the wrong to right; Has been a coward in the fight."

"Rien n'est si dangereux qu'un ignorant ami; Mieux vaudrait un sage ennemi."

"None but yourself who are your greatest foe."

"My nearest And dearest enemy."

"The world is large when its weary leagues two loving hearts divide; But the world is small when your enemy is loose on the other side."

"His enemies shall lick the dust."

"Pour tromper un rival l'artifice est permis; On peut tout employer contre ses ennemis."

"If thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head."

"Earth could not hold us both, nor can one heaven Contain my deadliest enemy and me."

"One enemy can do more hurt than ten friends can do good."

"Le corps d'un ennemi mort sent toujours bon."

"Je vais, combattre les ennemis de votre majeste, et je vous laisse au milieu des miens."

"Fas est et ab hoste doceri."

"Les dons d'un ennemi leur semblainte trop à craindre."