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Topics/Friendship

Quotes about enemies

49 quotes from 40 people

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Tact is the knack of making a point without making an enemy.
HNHoward W. NewtonOften credited to Isaac Newton
It is right to learn even from an enemy.
Ovid43 BC–AD 17Metamorphoses (Transformations), Book IV, 428
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
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
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
A trifling debt makes a man your debtor; a large one makes him an enemy.
Seneca the Younger5 BC–AD 65Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium (Moral Letters to Lucilius), Letter XIX: On worldliness and retirement, Line 11.
- Money
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
Do as adversaries do in law,
Strive mightily, but eat and drink as friends.
William Shakespeare1564–1616The Taming of the Shrew (c. 1591), Act I, Scene II, spoken by TranioIn context
- Friendship
- Laws
Not even death can make a foe a friend.
Sophocles496–406 BCAntigone (c. 441 BC), spoken by CreonIn context
He who is prudent and lies in wait for an enemy who is not, will be victorious.
Sun Tzu544–496 BCThe Art of War, Chapter III · Strategic Attack
- War & Peace
Be extremely subtle, even to the point of formlessness. Be extremely mysterious, even to the point of soundlessness. Thereby you can be the director of the opponent’s fate.
Sun Tzu544–496 BCThe Art of War, Chapter VI · Weaknesses and Strengths
- War & Peace
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