60 Enemy Quotes For Inspiration

In the tapestry of life, where allies and adversaries alike shape our experiences, the words of wisdom echo the loudest. Often, it’s our encounters with adversaries that forge our strength, ignite our resolve, and inspire us to strive harder. Throughout history, influential figures and great minds have shared profound insights about facing and understanding one’s enemies. Whether these quotes serve to motivate, offer solace, or provide a sharper perspective, they each hold a timeless truth. Join us as we delve into a curated collection of the top 60 enemy quotes designed to inspire and empower you in the face of challenges.

1. “Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?” - Abraham Lincoln

2. “It takes your enemy and your friend, working together, to hurt you to the heart: the one to slander you and the other to get the news to you.” - Mark Twain

3. “In the moment when I truly understand my enemy, understand him well enough to defeat him, then in that very moment I also love him. I think it’s impossible to really understand somebody, what they want, what they believe, and not love them the way they love themselves. And then, in that very moment when I love them.... I destroy them.” - Orson Scott Card

4. “An enemy, Ender Wiggin," whispered the old man. "I am your enemy, the first one you've ever had who was smarter than you. There is no teacher but the enemy. No one but the enemy will tell you what the enemy is going to do. No one but the enemy will ever teach you how to destroy and conquer. Only the enemy shows you where you are weak. Only the enemy tells you where he is strong. And the rules of the game are what you can do to him and what you can stop him from doing to you. I am your enemy from now on. From now on I am your teacher.” - Orson Scott Card

5. “In order to know your enemy, you must become your enemy.” - Chris Bradford

6. “I think that most people would rather face the light of a real enemy than the darkness of their imagined fears.” - Max Brooks

7. “Love your enemy.It will not only puzzle him,But finally illumine him.” - Sri Chinmoy

8. “To have a traitor for an ally is to have an enemy in waiting” - Jacqueline Carey

9. “I suppose [...] that the most convincing way to fool an enemy would be to fool a friend.” - Anne Bishop

10. “listen, a goad's anything that provokes or incites an enemy---let me have a go: cursed deamon! you have met your end! the shivering fire awaits you! i shall spread your vile essance across this hall like... um, like margarine, a very think layer of it...---ye-es... im not sure he'll pick up on that analogy. never mind, keep going.” - Jonathan Stroud

11. “Tis best to weigh the enemy more mighty than he seems.” - William Shakespeare

12. “Feeling of hatred unto your enemy, drains your energy as enemy wanted.” - Toba Beta

13. “If I ask God to punish my enemy with vengeful prayers,then He is fair to allow the enemy to do the same for me.” - Toba Beta

14. “If you claim to be a real friend then be real in your soul. If you claim to be fake then be an enemy instead.” - Santosh Kalwar

15. “When two wise men are blaming one another,then time has come for you to be the third one.” - Toba Beta

16. “If you're confused about what to do,it's a sign that your enemy is winning.” - Toba Beta

17. “That was when they suspended the Constitution. They said it would be temporary. There wasn't even any rioting in the streets. People stayed home at night, watching television, looking for some direction. There wasn't even an enemy you could put your finger on.” - Margaret Atwood

18. “I commissioned two political experts to advise me about what I could do to oppose the re-election of President Bush.” - George Soros

19. “Friendship's enemy is betrayal.” - Toba Beta

20. “There's a moment in fighting when strength of muscle ain't everything because enemy has already given you enough energy to gain the victory.” - Toba Beta

21. “The good enemy accompanies you on the journey,but you will never reach your destination with him.” - Toba Beta

22. “In making friends, she was wary of people who foster dependency and feed on it. She had been involved with a few--the blind attract them, and they are the enemy.” - Thomas Harris

23. “Right it is to be taught even by the enemy.” - Ovid

24. “E nevoie de un dușman ca să-i dai poporului o speranță. Cineva a spus că patriotismul e ultimul refugiu al canaliilor: cine nu are principii morale se înfășoară de obicei într-un steag, iar bastarzii fac întotdeauna apel la puritatea stirpei lor. Identitatea națională este ultima resursă a dezmoșteniților. Or, simțul identității se întemeiază pe ură, ura împotriva celui ce nu-i identic. Trebuie să cultivi ura ca patos cetățenesc. Dușmanul e prietenul popoarelor. E nevoie oricând de cineva demn de a fi urât ca să te simți justificat în propria-ți mizerie. Ura este adevărata pasiune primordială. Iubirea reprezintă o situație anormală.” - Umberto Eco

25. “Even though he's my enemy I don't know anything about him. Am I afraid to know about him? Do I want to think of him as a monster rather than a human being? (Sarsa, Basara, Vol. 13)” - Yumi Tamura

26. “Both friend and enemy reside within us. One lives by the rule of compassion, the other by the rule of hard knocks. Though potential influence of either extreme is inevitable, our actions bear witness to the one we embrace.” - T.F. Hodge

27. “The Christian must treat his enemy as a brother, and requite his hostility with love. His behavior must be determined not by the way others treat him, but by the treatment he himself receives from Jesus; it has only one source, and that is the will of Jesus.” - Dietrich Bonhoeffer

28. “Christian love draws no distinction between one enemy and another, except that the more bitter our enemy's hatred, the greater his need of love. Be his enmity political or religious, he has nothing to expect from a follower of Jesus but unqualified love. In such love there is not inner discord between the private person and official capacity. In both we are disciples of Christ, or we are not Christians at all.” - Dietrich Bonhoeffer

29. “A dead man is the worst enemy alive, I thought. You can't alter his power over you. You can't alter what you love or owe. And it's too late to ask him for his absolution. He has beaten you all ways.” - John le Carré

30. “Tyrion let the eunuch help him mount. "Lord Varys," he said from the saddle, "sometimes I feel as though you are the best friend I have in King's Landing and sometimes I feel you are my worst enemy." "How odd. I think quite the same of you.” - George R.R. Martin

31. “Never slay your enemies!Take advantage of them all!” - Toba Beta

32. “Onze boosaardige aartsvijand had de concentratieboog van een peuter die hyper was van de suiker.” - Shanna Swendson

33. “Stamp, your name is to be Laura. I'm sharing my name with you. I'm putting my power into you and you must do my work. Don't listen to anyone but me. You are to be my command laid on my enemy. you'll make a hole in him through which he'll drip away until he runs dry. As he drips out darkness, we'll smile together, me inside, you outside. We'll crush him between our smiles.” - Margaret Mahy

34. “You are your own worst enemy. If you can learn to stop expecting impossible perfection, in yourself and others, you may find the happiness that has always eluded you.” - Lisa Kleypas

35. “As long as we only have to lie to the enemy, it's honest enough for me.-Captain Tagon” - Howard Tayler

36. “To know your Enemy, you must become your Enemy.” - Sun Tzu

37. “If the enemy of my enemy is my friend, then a friend of my enemy, is my enemy.” - Pyreglide

38. “It's far easier to forgive an enemy after you've got even with him.” - Olin Miller

39. “It’s the enemy of your enemy who is your friend Sophie, not the friend of your friend.” - Somi Ekhasomhi

40. “If you want to strengthen an enemy and make him exult - hate him.” - Idries Shah

41. “And this was your friend?" Cordelia raised her eyebrows. "Seems to me the only difference between your friends and your enemies is how long the stand around chatting before they shoot you.” - Lois McMaster Bujold

42. “Un prigioniero di guerra è un uomo che cerca di ucciderti, non ci riesce, dopo di che ti chiede di non ucciderlo.” - Winston Churchill

43. “You cannot be betrayed by your enemies, only your friends.” - Brian D. Anderson

44. “It is always the enemy who started it, even if he was not the first to speak out, he was certainly planning it; and if he was not actually planning it, he was thinking of it; and, if he was not thinking of it, he would have thought of it.” - Elias Canetti

45. “I know it sounds foolishly old fashioned, but I'm stuck with this idea that there's something dignified and noble about facing your enemy and looking him in the eye before you thrust a saber in his heart.” - Michael Robotham

46. “You will never see things as they are; you will only see things as you are.” - Shannon L. Alder

47. “Then he was sorry for the great fish... How many people will he feed?.. But are they worthy to eat him? No, of course, not. There is no one worthy of eating him from the manner of his behavior and his great dignity.” - Ernest Hemingway

48. “Considering the notion that the spiritual battlefield is infinitely greater than the physical, perhaps God is more willing to bless with a sort of divine ecstasy those who see the devil as the enemy rather than those who see other people as the enemies.” - Criss Jami

49. “It was easier to deal with Tennyson when he was fighting me; but having him on my side was frightening, because now I didn't know who the enemy was.” - Neal Shusterman

50. “In such a beast as this..." (he means the army)"...it was the collective power that went, collapsing like a long-exhausted animal, at once falling under its own weight as much as that of its enemy. It was a collective death and not a matter of bravery or even strength, and once it was down it was finished as a battle.” - Paul Hoffman

51. “We are all cynics now, I suppose, and even a mewling infant knows that to save a life is to make an eternal enemy.” - Paul Hoffman

52. “Now there are many, many people in the world, but relatively few with whom we interact, and even fewer who cause us problems. So when you come across such a chance for practicing patience and tolerance, you should treat it with gratitude. It is rare. Just as having unexpectedly found a treasure in your own house, you should be happy and grateful toward your enemy for providing you that precious opportunity. Because if you are ever to be successful in your practice of patience and tolerance, which are critical factors in counteracting negative emotions, it is due to your own efforts and also the opportunity provided by your enemy.” - The Dalai Lama

53. “A great nation is like a great man:When he makes a mistake, he realizes it.Having realized it, he admits it.Having admitted it, he corrects it.He considers those who point out his faultsas his most benevolent teachers.He thinks of his enemyas the shadow that he himself casts.” - Lao Tzu

54. “Every war and conflict that the United States enters has its own ROE [rules of engagement]. Contrary to what most people think, the U.S. military does not have a complete license to kill, even in wartime. We are not a barbaric state, and we do not enter any war with the intention of unilaterally killing anything in our path. We go out of our way to spare civilian lives, to keep those who are not in the war out of it--sometimes even at the expense of risking our own soldiers' safety. We do this by creating strict rules to which our soldies adhere. These rules govern when they can fire, when they cannot; what type of force they can use, what type they cannot; what they can do in particular situations, and what they cannot. The reason for this is that battles can become very confusing very quickly, and a common soldier needs simple rules to guide him, to know when he is or is not allowed to kill--and who is and is not the enemy.” - Michael DeLong

55. “Fear is the greatest enemy; the father of all suffering, and love is the only cure for humanity's great afflictions” - Bryant McGill

56. “Wish for the happiness of your enemies, for if they are happy, they are your enemy no more.” - Bryant McGill

57. “Be where your enemy is not.” - Sun Tzu

58. “Time is your only enemy, it disappears very quickly and never gives you a second chance.” - Steve Douglas

59. “People would say bad things about you, because it is the only way their insignificant self can feel better than you.” - Dennis E. Adonis

60. “Resistance is not a peripheral opponent. Resistance arises from within. It is self-generated and self-perpetuated. resistance is the enemy within.” - Steven Pressfield