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