“Go up close to your friend but do not go over to him! We should respect the enemy that is in our friend”
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Friedrich Nietzsche655
German philosopher, poet, composer, cultural critic, and cl… 1844–1900Related quotes
Jim C. Hines (1974) American writer
Source: The Goblin Quest Series, Goblin Hero (2007), Chapter 7 (p. 117)
“Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer.”
Niccolo Machiavelli (1469–1527) Italian politician, Writer and Author
Machiavelli commented on the relative ease of gaining favor from friends and enemies in Chapter 20 of The Prince, quoted above. However, this particular wording comes from a line spoken by Michael Corleone in The Godfather Part II (1974), written by Mario Puzo and Francis Ford Coppola:
My father taught me many things here. He taught me in this room. He taught me: keep your friends close, but your enemies closer.
Misattributed
“Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer.”
Sun Tzu (-543–-495 BC) ancient Chinese military general, strategist and philosopher from the Zhou Dynasty
This has often been attributed to Sun Tzu and sometimes to Petrarch. It comes most directly from a line spoken by Michael Corleone in The Godfather Part II (1974), written by Mario Puzo and Francis Ford Coppola:
My father taught me many things here. He taught me in this room. He taught me: keep your friends close but your enemies closer.
Niccolò Machiavelli, who is also sometimes credited, wrote on the subject in The Prince:
It is easier for the prince to make friends of those men who were contented under the former government, and are therefore his enemies, than of those who, being discontented with it, were favourable to him and encouraged him to seize it.
Misattributed
“Friends may come and go
but enemies accumulate.”
Jayne Ann Krentz (1948) American novelist
Source: In Too Deep
“If the enemy of my enemy is my friend, then surely you should be friend to my friend.”
Holly Black book The Coldest Girl in Coldtown
Source: The Coldest Girl in Coldtown