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Topics/Friendship

Quotes about enemies

49 quotes from 40 people

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Even good deeds by the enemy are considered a sign of particular devilishness, meant to deceive us and the world, while our bad deeds are necessary and justified by our noble goals which they serve.
Erich Fromm1900–1980The Art of Loving (1956)
Our worst enemies here are not the ignorant and the simple, however cruel; our worst enemies are the intelligent and corrupt.
Graham Greene1904–1991The Human Factor (1978), Pt. III, ch. 3 (1978)
- Intelligence
Trusting no man as his friend, he could not recognize his enemy when the latter actually appeared.
Nathaniel Hawthorne1804–1864The Scarlet Letter (1850), Chapter XIn context
- Friendship
There can be no covenants between men and lions, wolves and lambs can never be of one mind.
Homer900–800 BCThe Iliad (750 BC), Iliad, Book XXII, 262–263 (tr. Samuel Butler)In context
Never explain⁠—your friends do not need it and your enemies will not believe you anyway.
Elbert Hubbard1856–1915The Motto Book (1907)
- Friendship
But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.
Jesus7 BC–AD 30The Sermon on the Mount
- Forgiveness
- Love
I am inclined to believe that few attacks either of ridicule or invective make much noise, but by the help of those they provoke.
Samuel Johnson1709–1784Letter to Hester Thrale (5 July 1783)
Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names.
John F. Kennedy1917–1963
- Forgiveness
All political movements are like this — we are in the right, everyone else is in the wrong. The people on our own side who disagree with us are heretics, and they start becoming enemies.
Doris Lessing1919–2013Salon interview (1997)
- Politics
If we could read the secret history of our enemies, we should find in each man’s life sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all hostility.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow1807–1882Drift-wood. QuoteInvestigator (Aug. 19, 2019)
Men ought either to be well treated or crushed, because they can avenge themselves of lighter injuries, of more serious ones they cannot
Niccolò Machiavelli1469–1527The Prince (1532), Chapter IIIIn context
- Power
Anytime you have to rely upon your enemy for a job you’re in bad shape.
Malcolm X1925–1965Speech in Detroit, Michigan (12 April 1964)
- Work
If you want to make peace with your enemy, you have to work with your enemy. Then he becomes your partner.
Nelson Mandela1918–2013Long Walk to Freedom (1995)
- War & Peace
To the last I grapple with thee; from hell’s heart I stab at thee; for hate’s sake I spit my last breath at thee.
Herman Melville1819–1891Moby-Dick (1851), Chapter CXXXVIn context
- Anger
Persons are not known by intellect alone, not by principles alone, but only by love. It is when we love the other, the enemy, that we obtain from God the key to an understanding of who he is, and who we are.
TMThomas Merton1915–1968Letter to Dorothy Day (20 December 1961).
- Love