quotations about enemies
An adversary may spur us on to great efforts to excel; for there is pain in surpassing those who love us, however it be our duty to prevail; but to exceed any one who is hostile to us will try the heart with but a general compassion, and only a tender and charitable heart--which all, indeed, ought to be.
JAMES VILA BLAKE
Essays
What joins men together ... is not the sharing of bread but the sharing of enemies.
CORMAC MCCARTHY
Blood Meridian
Friends come and go, but enemies accumulate.
ANONYMOUS
The only good enemy is a dead enemy.
LAURELL K. HAMILTON
The Killing Dance
I like to have powerful enemies. Makes me feel important.
LEIGH BARDUGO
Siege and Storm
The only point in having enemies is so you can defeat them, kill them, brush them aside ... or give them a chance to redeem themselves.
DEREK LANDY
Death Bringer
In reality, there are no enemies; we're all souls in growth, waking up.
JAMES REDFIELD
The Tenth Insight: Holding the Vision
The assault of our enemies is not part of our life; it is only part of our experience; we throw it off and guard ourselves against it as against frost, storm, rain, hail, or any other of the external evils which may be expected to happen.
JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE
The Maxims and Reflections of Goethe
The dread of an enemy is more killing then an enemy.
JOSEPH CARYL
An Exposition with Practical Observations Continued upon the 18th, 19th, 20th, and 21st Chapters of the Book of Job
Your enemy brought out your dormant primal instincts, he lit up the primitive circuits of your brain.
E. L. DOCTOROW
Homer & Langley
How much reverence has a noble man for his enemies!--and such reverence is a bridge to love.--For he desires his enemy for himself, as his mark of distinction; he can endure no other enemy than one in whom there is nothing to despise and very much to honor! In contrast to this, picture "the enemy" as the man of ressentiment conceives him--and here precisely is his deed, his creation: he has conceived "the evil enemy," "the Evil One," and this in fact is his basic concept, from which he then evolves, as an afterthought and pendant, a "good one"--himself!
FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE
Genealogy of Morals
There's ways you can trust an enemy you can't always trust a friend. An enemy's never going to betray your trust.
DANIEL ABRAHAM
The Dragon's Path
People no longer need enemies--in this millennium their great dream is to become victims. Only their psychopathies can set them free.
J. G. BALLARD
Super-Cannes
We're locked in a death grip and it's taking its toll
When our enemies are what make us whole
ANDREW BIRD
"Archipelago", My Finest Work Yet
If you want enemies, excel others; if you want friends, let others excel you.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON
Lacon
Yet in one way enemies give us hope of good traits in ourselves; for since there will be enmity, those will incur it most who have strong points of character, which as much bring them against some men as close to others. So that we say in general, No enemies, no friends.
JAMES VILA BLAKE
Essays
He makes no friends who never made a foe.
ALFRED TENNYSON
Alfred Lord Tennyson: A Memoir
It is perilous to study too deeply the arts of the Enemy, for good or for ill.
J. R. R. TOLKIEN
The Fellowship of the Ring
Love your enemies but keep your gun oiled.
KEN ALSTAD
Savvy Sayin's
We must give even an enemy what credit he deserves. If thus we do, then whether we blame or excuse, it will be clear that we are looking at the wrong, not blinded by hatred of the person. This will gain credit for what we say. To this kind of high and self-contained justice, enemies may help us more directly than friends, perhaps, because it is so easy to commend the friend for love's sake, but a harder and higher virtue to excuse the enemy for justice's sake.
JAMES VILA BLAKE
Essays