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.
“Humiliate your enemy is dangerous.”
Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life
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Karen Armstrong 56
author and comparative religion scholar from Great Britain 1944Related quotes
“The followers must feel humiliated by the ostentatious wealth and force of their enemies.”
Ur-Fascism (1995)
Context: The followers must feel humiliated by the ostentatious wealth and force of their enemies. When I was a boy I was taught to think of Englishmen as the five-meal people. They ate more frequently than the poor but sober Italians. Jews are rich and help each other through a secret web of mutual assistance. However, the followers must be convinced that they can overwhelm the enemies. Thus, by a continuous shifting of rhetorical focus, the enemies are at the same time too strong and too weak.
“the most dangerous enemy is that which no one fears!”
Source: Angels & Demons
“Most dangerous enemy of British rule in the country.”
Lord Harding in [Guha, Ramachandra, Makers of Modern India, http://books.google.com/books?id=rWxXqEp4eQsC&pg=PA92, 31 March 2011, Harvard University Press, 978-0-674-05246-8, 94]
“Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies.”
Section IX, "Man Alone with Himself" / aphorism 483
Human, All Too Human (1878), Helen Zimmern translation
Context: Enemies of truth. Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies.
“An enemy forgiven is more dangerous than a thousand foes.”
Quoted in "The Suez Canal in World Affairs" - Page 79 - by Hugh Joseph Schonfield - 1952
“Nothing is as dangerous as an ignorant friend; a wise enemy is to be preferred.”
Rien n'est si dangereux qu'un ignorant ami;
Mieux vaudrait un sage ennemi.
Book VIII (1678-1679), fable 10.
Fables (1668–1679)
Variant: Nothing is more dangerous than a friend without discretion; even a prudent enemy is preferable.
“Stupidity is a more dangerous enemy of the good than malice.”
The Bonhoeffer Reader https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Bonhoeffer_Reader/CNZgAwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PA766, p. 766
Letters and Papers from Prison (1967; 1997), On Stupidity
“Count me not your friend but the enemy of your enemies.”
Source: Lyonesse Trilogy (1983-1989), The Green Pearl (1985), Chapter 8, section 3 (p. 480)
“To know your Enemy, you must become your Enemy.”
This is sometimes attributed to Sun Tzu in combination with the above quote, as well as alone, but it too has not been sourced to any published translation of The Art of War, though it is similar in concept to his famous statement in Ch. 3 : "It is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles..."
Misattributed