“Often the most insidious enemies are those closest to you.”

“A civilization at war chooses only the most obvious enemy, and often also the one perceived, at first, to be the most easily defeatable. But that enemy is not the true enemy, nor is it the gravest threat to that civilisation. Thus a civilization at war often chooses the wrong enemy.”

Steven Erikson book The Bonehunters

“There is no real love in politics since you have to marry the daughter of your closest enemy to keep the peace for a while.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

“A pedestal is the most insidious prison ever devised.”

Neal Shusterman (1962) American novelist

“It’s the people you hold closest who have the most power to make you bleed.”

Ally Carter (1974) American writer

“Nothing is stable in the realm of power, and even closest of friends can be transformed into the worst of enemies.”

Robert Greene (1959) American author

“And action is the only remedy to indifference, the most insidious danger of all.”

Elie Wiesel book Night

“Happiness is a prison, Evey. Happiness is the most insidious prison of all.”

Alan Moore V for Vendetta

“Don’t you find that predators are those who most often assert absolute rights to personal freedoms?”

Sheri S. Tepper (1929–2016) American fiction writer

“The most frightening thing in the world is to discover the abnormal in that which is closest to us.”

Kóbó Abe (1924–1993) Japanese writer, playwright, photographer and inventor