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Topics/Friendship

Quotes about enemies

49 quotes from 40 people

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“You are worse than twenty foes, you poisonous friend!”
Emily Brontë1818–1848Wuthering Heights (1847), Chapter XIn context
- Friendship
Treachery and violence are spears pointed at both ends; they wound those who resort to them worse than their enemies.
Emily Brontë1818–1848Wuthering Heights (1847), Chapter XVIIIn context
- Morality
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
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
A word of command has made these silent figures our enemies; a word of command might transform them into our friends.
Erich Maria Remarque1898–1970All Quiet on the Western Front (1929), Chapter VIIIIn context
- War & Peace
Why do they never tell us that you are just poor devils like us, that your mothers are just as anxious as ours, and that we have the same fear of death, and the same dying and the same agony⁠—. Forgive me, comrade; how could you be my enemy?
Erich Maria Remarque1898–1970All Quiet on the Western Front (1929), Chapter IXIn context
- War & Peace
We have scorch’d the snake, not kill’d it.
William Shakespeare1564–1616Macbeth (c. 1606), Act III, Scene II, spoken by MacbethIn context
A plague o’ both your houses.
William Shakespeare1564–1616Romeo and Juliet (c. 1595), Act III, Scene I, spoken by MercutioIn context
Et tu, Brute?⁠—Then fall, Caesar!
William Shakespeare1564–1616Julius Caesar (1599), Act III, Scene I, spoken by CaesarIn context
- Friendship
I know you now, old enemies of mine!
Falsehood!
Have at you! Ha! and Compromise!
Prejudice, Treachery!…
Surrender, I?
Parley? No, never! You too, Folly,⁠—you?
I know that you will lay me low at last;
Let be! Yet I fall fighting, fighting still!
Edmond Rostand1868–1918Cyrano de Bergerac (1897), Act V: Cyrano’s Gazette, Scene VI, spoken by CyranoIn context
- Courage
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
The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could; but when he ventured upon insult, I vowed revenge.
Edgar Allan Poe1809–1849The Cask of Amontillado (1846)In context
- Anger
Not even death can make a foe a friend.
Sophocles496–406 BCAntigone (c. 441 BC), spoken by CreonIn context
If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.
Sun Tzu544–496 BCThe Art of War (5th century BC), Chapter IIIIn context
- Knowledge
- War & Peace
To secure ourselves against defeat lies in our own hands, but the opportunity of defeating the enemy is provided by the enemy himself.
Sun Tzu544–496 BCThe Art of War (5th century BC), Chapter IVIn context
- War & Peace