ENEMIES QUOTES VI

quotations about enemies

Personal affection is a luxury you can have only after all your enemies are eliminated. Until then, everyone you love is a hostage, sapping your courage and corrupting your judgment.

ORSON SCOTT CARD

Empire


We tend to become like the worst in those we oppose.

FRANK HERBERT

Chapterhouse: Dune


When the opportunity presents itself for you to defeat your enemy, that is the time which you must not do it. There will come a time, in many instances, when the person who hates you most, the person who has misused you most, the person who has gossiped about you most, the person who has spread false rumors about you most, there will come a time when you will have an opportunity to defeat that person. It might be in terms of a recommendation for a job; it might be in terms of helping that person to make some move in life. That’s the time you must do it. That is the meaning of love. In the final analysis, love is not this sentimental something that we talk about. It’s not merely an emotional something. Love is creative, understanding goodwill for all men. It is the refusal to defeat any individual. When you rise to the level of love, of its great beauty and power, you seek only to defeat evil systems. Individuals who happen to be caught up in that system, you love, but you seek to defeat the system.

MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.

sermon delivered at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, Nov. 17, 1957


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


The Bible tells us to love our neighbors, and also to love our enemies; probably because they are generally the same people.

G. K. CHESTERTON

Illustrated London News, Jul. 16, 1910


Your enemy brought out your dormant primal instincts, he lit up the primitive circuits of your brain.

E. L. DOCTOROW

Homer & Langley


Mortal enemies are like beautiful kitchens: Some households have them, and when they belong to famous people, we're immediately more interested in them. Which makes public feuds between mortal enemies akin to fancy custom appliances and gleaming copper pots as far as the eye can see.

ALEX ABAD-SANTOS

"Kanye West and Taylor Swift's latest fight explained", Vox, February 12, 2016


Our enemies come nearer the truth in the opinions they form of us than we do in our opinion of ourselves.

FRANÇOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims


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


We have two lessons to teach an enemy who despises us--to value himself less highly, and us more worthily.

CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE

Intuitions and Summaries of Thought


He makes no friends who never made a foe.

ALFRED TENNYSON

Alfred Lord Tennyson: A Memoir


It is noteworthy that in Japanese pop culture, enemies are not always villains. It is acknowledged that an enemy is simply the person fighting for the other side of the conflict and that if the story were told from his point of view, he would be the hero of the tale.

ROBIN E. BRENNER

Understanding Manga and Anime


Friends may come and go
but enemies accumulate.

JAYNE ANN KRENTZ

In Too Deep


An enemy is like a darkroom designed to develop you as a portrait for the next season of your life.

J. ELWOOD GATLIN, SR.

260 Gems of Wisdom, 624 Daily Confessions


Never speak harshly of your enemy -- when you can kick 'im in the shins instead!

STAN LEE

"Stan Lee's Soapbox", Conan the Barbarian #55, October 1975


Your enemy is any power, spirit, force and personality, that does not want you to fulfil your destiny.

D. K. OLUKOYA

When the Enemy Hides


Enemies were teachers in disguise.

EIJI YOSHIKAWA

Musashi


I hate admitting that my enemies have a point.

SALMAN RUSHDIE

The Satanic Verses


It is weakness which makes us hate an enemy and seek revenge, and it is idleness that pacifies us and causes us to neglect it.

JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE

"Of the Affections", Les Caractères


Enemies make us watchful of ourselves and induce self-examination; for we must argue thus: our foe hates us with reason or without reason; if without reason, then he not really hates us, but some other sort of person for whom he mistakes us; but if with reason, then it is plain we should improve, and remove the reason.

JAMES VILA BLAKE

Essays