“To make progress, we must stop treating our opponents as our enemy. We are not enemies. We are Americans.”

—  Joe Biden

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xiLR4sCgvnc
Context: But now, let’s give each other a chance.
It’s time to put away the harsh rhetoric.
To lower the temperature.
To see each other again.
To listen to each other again.
To make progress, we must stop treating our opponents as our enemy.
We are not enemies. We are Americans.

Last update Dec. 20, 2024. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "To make progress, we must stop treating our opponents as our enemy. We are not enemies. We are Americans." by Joe Biden?
Joe Biden photo
Joe Biden 187
47th Vice President of the United States (in office from 20… 1942

Related quotes

Joe Biden photo

“We may be opponents but we are not enemies. We are americans.”

Joe Biden (1942) 47th Vice President of the United States (in office from 2009 to 2017)

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDmTJXtfiKM

Guy Gavriel Kay photo

“We must be what we are, or we become our enemies.”

Guy Gavriel Kay (1954) Canadian author of fantasy fiction

Source: A Song for Arbonne

Greg Bear photo

“We must know our enemy, at least a little.”

“That’s dangerous,” Prufrax said, almost instinctively.
“Yes, it is. What you know, you cannot hate.”
Source: Short fiction, Hardfought (1983), p. 63

Pythagoras photo

“We ought so to behave to one another as to avoid making enemies of our friends, and at the same time to make friends of our enemies.”

Pythagoras (-585–-495 BC) ancient Greek mathematician and philosopher

As quoted in Diogenes Laërtius, Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers, "Pythagoras", Sect. 23, as translated in Dictionary of Quotations http://archive.org/details/dictionaryquota02harbgoog (1906) by Thomas Benfield Harbottle, p. 320

Gustav Stresemann photo

“We must become so strong and must so ruthlessly weaken our opponents that no enemy will ever dare to attack us again. To achieve this a modification of frontiers in the west as in the east is essential.”

Gustav Stresemann (1878–1929) German politician, statesman, and Nobel Peace Prize laureate

Speech at a joint meeting of the National Liberal Party and the National Liberal Central Committee (15 July 1915), quoted in W. W. Coole (ed.), Thus Spake Germany (London: George Routledge & Sons, 1941), p. 274
1910s

Martin Luther King, Jr. photo

“Third we must not seek to defeat or humiliate the enemy but to win his friendship and understanding. At times we are able to humiliate our worst enemy.”

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement

1950s, Loving Your Enemies (Christmas 1957)
Context: Third we must not seek to defeat or humiliate the enemy but to win his friendship and understanding. At times we are able to humiliate our worst enemy. Inevitably, his weak moments come and we are able to thrust in his side the spear of defeat. But this we must not do. Every word and deed must contribute to an understanding with the enemy and release those vast reservoirs of goodwill which have been blocked by impenetrable walls of hate.

George W. Bush photo

“Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.”

George W. Bush (1946) 43rd President of the United States

Remarks During Signing of Defense Bill http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2004/aug/06/uselections2004.usa2 (5 August 2004).
2000s, 2004

Dave Barry photo

“We must always remember that, as Americans, we all have a common enemy -- an enemy that is dangerous, powerful and relentless. I refer, of course, to the federal government.”

Dave Barry (1947) American writer

Washington Post December 19, 2004 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A218-2004Dec14.html (Second Source: A video of Dave Barry reacting to a university response to this quote) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tE3REvTJjXU,
Columns and articles

George W. Bush photo
Mao Zedong photo

“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)

Related topics