quotations about enemies
It is easy to crush an enemy outside oneself but impossible to defeat an enemy within.
EIJI YOSHIKAWA
Musashi
Even God herself has enemies.
BILLIE EILISH
"all the good girls go to hell"
We often give our enemies the means of our own destruction.
AESOP
Fables
Enemies are human beings--creations of God--just as followers of Jesus are. This reality is more fundamental than their status as enemies and so is the controlling factor in how Jesus' followers are to behave toward them.
JOHN FREDERIC KILNER
Life on the Line
Nothing is so awkward as a demonstration of humanity by the enemy.
KOBO ABE
Secret Rendezvous
Oh, my beautiful enemy, beautiful
I send my scorn and ridicule
You're not innocent
No, not innocent
No one's innocent
DAR WILLIAMS
"Beautiful Enemy", My Better Self
It's not enough to hate your enemy. You have to understand how the two of you bring each other to deep completion.
DON DELILLO
Underworld
Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer.
MARIO PUZO
The Godfather
Quite often, our enemies are our enemies because of miscommunications, misunderstandings, irrational emotional states, and illogical, ungrounded conclusions. An enemy can be an enemy for a very justifiable reason. An enemy can be a true intellectual, emotional, or physical threat. A single individual or a group of people can be a real danger to our life and the way that we live it. Despite our perceptions of the level of danger our enemies present, we must act. We must make war. We must kill our enemies with love. We must destroy our enemies by making them our friends and loved ones. And if our enemies refuse to be loved, we must continue to love them as best we can.
JOSHUA MILLER
The Heart of Love
When your true enemies are too strong, you have to choose weaker enemies.
UMBERTO ECO
Name of the Rose
Love your enemies.
BIBLE
Matthew 5:44
A wise man gets more use from his enemies than a fool from his friends.
BALTASAR GRACIAN
The Art of Worldly Wisdom
Choose your enemies carefully 'cause they will define you
Make them interesting 'cause in some ways they will mind you
They're not there in the beginning but when your story ends
Gonna last with you longer than your friend
U2
"Cedars of Lebanon"
Your worst and most dangerous enemy is the person that injures you under the pretensions of friendship.
NORMAN MACDONALD
Maxims and Moral Reflections
Home is anywhere that you know all your friends and all your enemies.
ORSON SCOTT CARD
Hart's Hope
The worst enemy you can meet will always be yourself; you lie in wait for yourself in caverns and forests.
FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE
Thus Spoke Zarathustra
No people on earth can be held, as a people, to be an enemy, for all humanity shares the common hunger for peace and fellowship and justice.
DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER
speech, Apr. 16, 1953
Instead of loving your enemies, have no enemies to love.
NORMAN MACDONALD
Maxims and Moral Reflections
The most certain way to make a man your enemy is to tell him you esteem him such.
GEORGE WASHINGTON
letter to John Banister, Apr. 21, 1778
Only enemies speak the truth; friends and lovers lie endlessly, caught in the web of duty.
STEPHEN KING
The Last Gunslinger