“A weak enemy in the fortress is more fearsome than the strongest outside.”

— Johann Jakob Wilhelm Heinse

Ein schwacher Feind in der Festung ist fürchterlicher als der stärkste von außen.
Ardinghell and the Blessed Islands (1787).

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Johann Jakob Wilhelm Heinse1

German writer 1746–1803

Teodor Burnar

“Even the strongest spirits have the moments of irresistible weakness”

José Saramago book The Cave

Source: The Cave (2000), p. 15 (Vintage 2003)

“Better make a weak man your enemy than your friend.”

Josh Billings (1818–1885) American humorist

Affurisms. From Josh Billings: His Sayings (1865)

“The weapons
that were once outside
sharpening themselves on war
are now indoors
there, in the fortress,
fragile
in glass cases”

Margaret Atwood (1939) Canadian writer

"The circle game"
Selected Poems 1965-1975 (1976)
Context: The weapons
that were once outside
sharpening themselves on war
are now indoors
there, in the fortress,
fragile
in glass cases; Why is it
(I’m thinking
of the careful moulding
round the stonework archways)
that in this time, such
elaborate defences keep
things that are no longer
(much)
worth defending?

“The castle was far more than a walled and turreted fortress; it was an instrument of social control and the symbol of power, authority, and wealth.”

Marilyn Stokstad (1929–2016) art historian

Preface
Medieval castles (2005)

“The Common lawes of the Realme should by no means be delayed for the law is the surest sanctuary, that a man should take, and the strongest fortresse to protect the weakest of all, lex et tutissima cassis.”

Edward Coke (1552–1634) English lawyer and judge

Institutes of the Laws of England, Second Part, vol. 1 (1642), Notes to Ch. XXIX of the Charter [Magna Carta], paragraph 1391 http://oll.libertyfund.org/index.php?option=com_staticxt&staticfile=show.php&title=912&search=%22tutissima%22&chapter=61105&layout=html#a_1375898 <br class="br">Institutes of the Laws of England