92 Insightful Quotes On Enemies

In the intricate tapestry of human relationships, enemies often hold a unique and thought-provoking place. They challenge us, push our limits, and at times, reveal aspects of our own character we might prefer to ignore. Throughout history, philosophers, leaders, and thinkers have reflected on this complex dynamic, leaving us with a wealth of insightful quotes to ponder. In this collection, you'll find the most profound and enlightening thoughts on enemies, offering perspectives that range from understanding and wisdom to strategy and resilience. Whether you're seeking guidance, reflection, or a different point of view, these quotes provide a rich source of inspiration and introspection.

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. “The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.” - J.K. Rowling

4. “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

5. “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

6. “I was angry with my friend: I told my wrath, my wrath did end. I was angry with my foe; I told it not, my wrath did grow.And I water'd it in fears, Night & morning with my tears; And I sunnéd it with smiles And with soft deceitful wiles. And it grew both day and night, Till it bore an apple bright; And my foe beheld it shine, And he knew that it was mine, And into my garden stole, When the night had veil'd the pole: In the morning glad I see My foe outstretch'd beneath the tree.” - William Blake

7. “In a fight, your doubt is a target of enemy's attack.” - Toba Beta

8. “Nobody me without my enemy.” - Toba Beta

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

10. “Give me honorable enemies rather than ambitious ones, and I'll sleep more easily by night.” - George R.R. Martin

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

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

13. “The deeper I go into myself the more I realize that I am my own enemy.” - Floriano Martins

14. “You're the enemy. I don't want to sympathize with you. So... So don't... Don't cry like that in front of me! Damn it...” - Masashi Kishimoto

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

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

17. “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

18. “Some one dear to one can be loved with human love; but an enemy can only be loved with divine love.” - Leo Tolstoy

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

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

21. “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

22. “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

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

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

25. “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

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

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

28. “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

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

30. “When you know your enemy is invincible,run and hide, or may do business with him.” - Toba Beta

31. “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.” - Anonymous

32. “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

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

34. “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

35. “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

36. “After long enough, everyone in the world will be you enemy.” - Chuck Palahniuk

37. “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

38. “When you begin to see that your enemy is suffering, that is the beginning of insight.” - Thich Nhat Hanh

39. “What man ever openly apologizes for slander? It is not so much a feeling of slander as it is that of a massive lie, a misdeed not only to the slandered but also to those manipulated in the process. He has made them all, every one, his enemies, thereupon he is so overwhelmed with guilt that he will deny it until his grave.” - Criss Jami

40. “Kill every enemy twice, Wilky said. Better than gettin' shot by a soldier pretending to be dead.” - Joseph Bruchac

41. “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

42. “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

43. “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

44. “I respect those who don't secretly hate me.” - Toba Beta

45. “The difference between a friend and an enemy is friendliness.” - Frank Delaney

46. “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

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

48. “Slowly we became silent, and silence itself if an enemy to friendship.” - Norman Maclean

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

50. “The unseen enemy is always the most fearsome.” - George R.R. Martin

51. “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

52. “If you truly want to know a person, talk to their enemies.” - Jamie Leanne Gaines

53. “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

54. “The enemy is the tyranny of the dull mind.” - Tom Robbins

55. “Maxim 9: Never turn your back on an enemy.-The Seventy Maxims of Maximally Effective Mercenaries” - Howard Tayler

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

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

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

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

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

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

62. “He remembered the old Chinese proverb, sometimes ascribed to Confucius: If you sit by the river for long enough, the body of your enemy will float by.” - Salman Rushdie

63. “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

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

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

66. “Nothing you do for them will harm the enemy, the real enemy, it will only draw in more support for them as a party.” - Selma Dabbagh

67. “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

68. “Routine is the one thing the can get you killed. It tells the enemy where you're going and when you're going to be there.” - Anthony Horowitz

69. “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

70. “I never killed anybody and I never developed an intense level of hatred for the enemy. Because my war ended before I ever put on a uniform; I was on active duty all my time at school; I killed my enemy there.” - John Knowles

71. “When unlimited and unrestricted by individual rights a government is men's deadliest enemy.” - Ayn Rand

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

73. “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

74. “Love can either be your greatest companion or your worst enemy, depending on your pride to accept or deny things.” - Anthony Liccione

75. “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

76. “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

77. “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

78. “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

79. “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

80. “As brother stands by brother in distress, binding up his wounds and soothing his pain, so let us show our love towards our enemy. There is no deeper distress to be found in the world, no pain more bitter than our enemy's. Nowhere is service more necessary or more blessed than when we serve our enemies.” - Dietrich Bonhoeffer

81. “Родих се в морето,отгледан бях от пиратистанах един от тях.Воювах срещу враговете сии спечелих името синаричат ме...ОКОТО НА ВЪЛКА” - Милен Иванов

82. “There are few things worse than mistaking an enemy for a friend.” - Wayne Gerard Trotman

83. “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

84. “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

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

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

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

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

89. “Men think that it is impossible for a human being to love his enemies, for enemies are hardly able to endure the sight of one another. Well, then, shut your eyes--and your enemy looks just like your neighbor.” - Søren Kierkegaard

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

91. “The enemy of my enemy is my friend.” - Dan Wells

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