Source: Lyonesse Trilogy (1983-1989), The Green Pearl (1985), Chapter 8, section 3 (p. 480)
“Your Worst Enemy Could Be Your Best Friend && Your Best Friend Your Worst Enemy”
Source: The Goblin Quest Series, Goblin Hero (2007), Chapter 7 (p. 117)
“You've got to take it on faith that the enemy of your enemy is your friend.”
Source: Last Sacrifice
“Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer.”
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.”
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
“Understand that some of your enemies are amongst your best friends.”
Diary of an Unknown (1988)
“Better make a weak man your enemy than your friend.”
Affurisms. From Josh Billings: His Sayings (1865)
“Hate your enemies
Save your friends
Find your place
Speak the truth.”
Radio Friendly Unit Shifter.
Song lyrics, In Utero (1993)
“If you want enemies, excel your friends; but if you want friends, let your friends excel you.”
How to Win Friends and Influence People
