“Those who oppose our purposes are not always to be regarded as our enemies. We usually think and act from our immediate surroundings. The better rule is to judge our adversaries from their standpoint, not from ours.”

— Robert E. Lee

"Memoirs of Robert E. Lee" by A. L. Long (1886)
1870s

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Those who oppose our purposes are not always to be regarded as our enemies. We usually think and act from our immediate…" by Robert E. Lee?

Robert E. Lee 55

Confederate general in the Civil War 1807–1870

Related quotes

“We should support whatever our enemies oppose and oppose whatever our enemies support.”

Mao Zedong (1893–1976) Chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China

Fánshì dírén fǎnduì de, wǒmen jiù yào yǒnghù; fánshì dírén yǒnghù de, wǒmen jiù yào fǎnduì.
If the enemy opposes, we must support it; if the enemy supports it, we must oppose it.
Chapter 2 https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/mao/works/red-book/ch02.htm, originally published in Interview with Three Correspondents from the Central News Agency, the Sao Tang Pao and the Hsin Min Pao (September 16, 1939), Selected Works, Vol. II, p. 272.
Quotations from Chairman Mao Zedong (The Little Red Book)

“It is always safe to learn, even from our enemies, seldom safe to venture to instruct, even our friends.”

Charles Caleb Colton (1777–1832) British priest and writer

Vol. I; CCLXXXVI
Lacon (1820)

“Our goodness comes solely from thinking on goodness; our wickedness from thinking on wickedness. We too are the victims of our own contemplation.”

John Jay Chapman (1862–1933) American author

Source: Practical Agitation (1900), Chapter 7

“Not a little of our condemnation of the acts of others is spillage from our own condemnation of our own acts.”

Henry S. Haskins (1875–1957)

Source: Meditations in Wall Street (1940), p. 110

“Our enemy is by tradition our savior, in preventing us from superficiality.”

Joyce Carol Oates (1938) American author

As quoted in "Master Race," Partisan Review 50th Anniversary Edition (1985), edited by William Phillips

“The small size of our territory, as well as our turbulent history, has rendered us deeply conscient of our dependence upon those who surround us. I believe that this understanding has had the merit of keeping us from arrogance.”

Henri of Luxembourg (1955) Grand Duke (head of state) of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg

L’étroitesse de notre territoire ainsi que notre histoire mouvementée nous ont rendus pleinement conscients de notre dépendance à l’égard de tous ceux qui nous entourent. Je pense que cette prise de conscience a le mérite de nous préserver de l’arrogance.
Christmas message http://www.monarchie.lu/fr/actualites/discours/2014/12/discours-noel-lu/index.html (25 December 2015)
Luxembourg