“Born enemies don't fight. Nations you would say were designed to go to war against each other — by their skins, their language, their smell: always jealous of each other, always hating each other — they're not the ones who fight. You will find the real antagonists in nations fate has groomed and made ready for the same war.”

Tiger at the Gates (1935)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Born enemies don't fight. Nations you would say were designed to go to war against each other — by their skins, their l…" by Jean Giraudoux?
Jean Giraudoux photo
Jean Giraudoux 14
French novelist, essayist, diplomat and playwright 1882–1944

Related quotes

“The wars ended when there were no longer two societies left to fight against each other.”

Henry Kuttner (1915–1958) American author

Two-Handed Engine (p. 135)
Short fiction, No Boundaries (1955)

Leonardo Da Vinci photo

“Animals will be seen on the earth who will always be fighting against each other with the greatest loss and frequent deaths on each side.”

Leonardo Da Vinci (1452–1519) Italian Renaissance polymath

"Of the Cruelty of Man"
The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci (1883), XX Humorous Writings
Context: Animals will be seen on the earth who will always be fighting against each other with the greatest loss and frequent deaths on each side. And there will be no end to their malignity; by their strong limbs we shall see a great portion of the trees of the vast forests laid low throughout the universe; and, when they are filled with food the satisfaction of their desires will be to deal death and grief and labour and wars and fury to every living thing; and from their immoderate pride they will desire to rise towards heaven, but the too great weight of their limbs will keep them down. Nothing will remain on earth, or under the earth or in the waters which will not be persecuted, disturbed and spoiled, and those of one country removed into another. And their bodies will become the sepulture and means of transit of all they have killed.
O Earth! why dost thou not open and engulf them in the fissures of thy vast abyss and caverns, and no longer display in the sight of heaven such a cruel and horrible monster.

Paul Valéry photo

“War: a massacre of people who don't know each other for the profit of people who know each other but don't massacre each other.”

Paul Valéry (1871–1945) French poet, essayist, and philosopher

La guerre, c'est un massacre de gens qui ne se connaissent pas, au profit de gens qui se connaissent, mais ne se massacrent pas.
Bizarre, issues 24-31 (1962), p. 102
This apocryphal quote from Paul Valéry is never precisely sourced: neither on the internet nor in the works we have consulted. See: https://www.guichetdusavoir.org/question/voir/52650

Abdel Fattah el-Sisi photo

“Simply, all what we did is that we avoided the country a big crisis and a battle between Egyptians. Beware, instead of Egyptians fighting each other, no, you can fight us, and we protect all. how many would fight us? but Egyptians fighting each other would be a big war, thousands may die, and maybe miliions.”

Abdel Fattah el-Sisi (1954) Current President of Egypt

Remarks by el-Sisi during a military conference (28 April 2013) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LC93fn9s3-c.
2013
Variant: Simply, all what we did is that we avoided the country a big crisis and a battle between Egyptians. Beware, instead of Egyptians fighting each other, no, you can fight us, and we protect all. how many would fight us? but Egyptians fighting each other would be a big war we couldn't have had the ability to deal with.

Chandrika Kumaratunga photo

“We have erected a terribly divided Nation at War with each other – the Tamils and Sinhala against each other, the Tamils and Muslims similarly and the State against the Tamils and now against everyone who opposes them even democratically, irrespective of their community.”

Chandrika Kumaratunga (1945) President of Sri Lanka

Justice Palakidnar Memorial Oration http://groundviews.org/2011/07/27/justice-palakidnar-memorial-oration-economic-development-inclusive-societies-and-peace/, speech delivered at the Justice Palakidnar Memorial Oration in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on 24 July 2011.
Also quoted by BBC News, "Chandrika Kumaratunga berates Sri Lankan government" http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-14274988, 25 July 2011.

Nycole Turmel photo

“Mr. Harper always has an approach that is divisive and we don't agree with that. Create an environment where people are talking to each other, where they are helping each other, instead of an environment where you create things that will go against the security of the people.”

Nycole Turmel (1942) Canadian politician

NDP blasts PM for singling out threat of 'Islamicism' http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/Canada/20110907/ndp-criticizes-harper-singling-out-islamicism-110907/ September 7, 2011.

Kurt Vonnegut photo
Herta Müller photo

Related topics