“A man cannot be too careful in the choice of his enemies.”
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish writer and poet
Source: Surprised by Joy (1955), p. 191
“A man cannot be too careful in the choice of his enemies.”
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish writer and poet
Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States
Recollection by Gilbert J. Greene, quoted in The Speaking Oak (1902) by Ferdinand C. Iglehart and Latest Light on Abraham Lincoln (1917) by Ervin S. Chapman
Posthumous attributions
Eric Hoffer book The True Believer
Section 62
The True Believer (1951), Part Three: United Action and Self-Sacrifice
Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) logician, one of the first analytic philosophers and political activist
What is an Agnostic? (1953)
1950s
Henry David Thoreau book Life Without Principle
Life Without Principle (1863)
Context: I wish to suggest that a man may be very industrious, and yet not spend his time well. There is no more fatal blunderer than he who consumes the greater part of his life getting his living. All great enterprises are self-supporting. The poet, for instance, must sustain his body by his poetry, as a steam planing-mill feeds its boilers with the shavings it makes. You must get your living by loving.
John Bartholomew Gough (1817–1886) Anglo-American temperance orator
Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 561.
“Young man—Young man—Your arm’s too short to box with God.”
James Weldon Johnson (1871–1938) writer and activist
The Prodigal Son.
God's Trombones: Seven Negro Sermons in Verse (1927)
“I do believe a young lady can't be too careful who she marries.”
Anne Brontë book The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
Source: The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1848), Ch. XXII : Traits of Friendship; Rachel to Helen