Quotes about enemy
page 29

“he regarded it with the feelings due not to a mere mental delusion, but to a great moral evil. He looked upon it as the greatest enemy of morality: first, by setting up factitious excellencies, -- belief in creeds, devotional feelings, and ceremonies, not connected with the good of human kind, -- and causing these to be accepted as substitutes for genuine virtues: but above all, by radically vitiating the standard of morals; making it consist in doing the will of a being, on whom it lavishes indeed all the phrases of adulation, but whom in sober truth it depicts as eminently hateful.”

John Stuart Mill book Autobiography

Source: Autobiography (1873)

https://archive.org/details/autobiography01mill/page/40/mode/1up p. 40

Hate, Truth, Making love, Feeling

“Perhaps there is some hope that its capacity for death and terror among the defenseless may restrain nations from using the atom bomb against each other, just as in the last war such fears made them avoid employment of the new and deadlier poison gases developed since World War I. However, I am forced to a reluctant conclusion that for the security of my own country which has been the guiding principle in my approach to all problems faced during my career, there is but one course open to us: Until the United Nations, or some world organization, can guarantee- and have the power to enforce that guarantee- that the world will be spared the terrors of atomic warfare, the United States must have more and better atomic bombs than any potential enemy.”

William D. Leahy (1875–1959) United States admiral, ambassador to France, Chief of Staff

Source: I Was There (1950), p. 442

Death, War, World, Fear

“We've defeated the wrong enemy”

George S. Patton (1885–1945) United States Army general

It is unknown if Patton ever said these precise words. However, Anthony Cave Brown notes https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/36062/did-gen-patton-say-we-defeated-the-wrong-enemy/36063#36063 in Bodyguard of Lies Volume II that "Patton was relieved of command of the 3rd Army by Eisenhower just after the end of the war for stating publicly that America had been fighting the wrong enemy— Germany instead of Russia", so it is at least an accurate paraphrase. For further discussion, see relevant threads on skeptics.stackexchange.com https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/36062/did-gen-patton-say-we-defeated-the-wrong-enemy and /r/AskHistorians https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/640pg5/what_did_general_george_s_patton_mean_when_he/. Disputed

“The fact is that over time the greatest enemy of Socialism is reality.The reality that human nature will invariably pull certain people toward individualism and success and others toward laziness and collectivism.”

Steven Crowder (1987) American actor

People, Nature, Reality, Time

“We emerged victorious in every battle with the enemy at all times and in all places, because we were full of confidence in victory, and maintained an indefatigable fighting and self-sacrificing spirit without losing our composure and hope, even in confrontation with an enemy force, which was dozens of times stronger in number.”

Kim Il-sung (1912–1994) President of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea

With the century, vol. 5

Hope, Confidence, Time, Victory

“What can my enemies do to me? I have in my breast both my heaven and my garden. If I travel they are with me, never leaving me. Imprisonment for me is a chance to be alone with my Lord. To be killed is martyrdom and to be exiled from my land is a spiritual journey.”

Ibn Taymiyyah (1263–1328) Sunni Islamic scholar and theologian, who lived during the era of the first Mamluks (1250-1328)

Ibn Taymiyyah, Diseases of the heart and their cures https://www.amazon.com/Diseases-Hearts-Their-Cures-Taymiyyah/dp/0953647633

Travel, Chance

“Socialism is possible only in a state that is united domestically and free internationally. The bourgeoisie and Marxism are responsible for failing to reach both goals, domestic unity and international freedom. No matter how national and social these two forces present themselves, they are the sworn enemies of a socialist national state.”

Joseph Goebbels (1897–1945) Nazi politician and Propaganda Minister

1930s, Die verfluchten Hakenkreuzler. Etwas zum Nachdenken (1932)

Freedom

“My friends, judge me by the enemies I have made.”

Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945) 32nd President of the United States

Speech made on the campaign trail in Portland, Oregon (21 September 1932)
1930s

“By willing endurance we cause suffering to pass. Evil becomes a spent force when we put up no resistance. By refusing to pay back the enemy with his own coin, and preferring to suffer without resistance, the Christian exhibits the sinfulness of contumely and insult. Violence stands condemned by its failure to evoke counter-violence.”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906–1945) German Lutheran pastor, theologian, dissident anti-Nazi

Source: Discipleship (1937), Revenge, p. 142

Failure, Suffering, Evil

“Cheap grace is the deadly enemy of our Church. We are fighting to-day for costly grace. Cheap grace means grace sold on the market like cheapjacks’ wares. The sacraments, the forgiveness of sin, and the consolations of religion are thrown away at cut prices. Grace is represented as the Church’s inexhaustible treasury, from which she showers blessings with generous hands, without asking questions or fixing limits. Grace without price; grace without cost! The essence of grace, we suppose, is that the account has been paid in advance; and, because it has been paid, everything can be had for nothing. Since the cost was infinite, the possibilities of using and spending it are infinite. What would grace be if it were not cheap?”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906–1945) German Lutheran pastor, theologian, dissident anti-Nazi

p 43
Costly Grace (1937)

Religion, Forgiveness, Question, Fight

“You know I believe we all begin equal parts light and dark. I fear you think your strength lies in your darkness. But the measure of a man is not the fear he sows in his enemies. It is the hope he gives his friends.”

Pierce Brown book Dark Age

Source: Dark Age (2019), Ch. 35: Endure; Virginia, in a recorded message to Darrow

Fear, Hope, Thinking, Light

“We who combat them are "the eternal enemies of order.". We are—for they can as yet find nothing but this worn-out word—we are demagogues. In the language of the Duke of Alva, to believe in the sacredness of the human conscience, to resist the Inquisition, to brave the state for one's faith, to draw the sword for one's country, to defend one's worship, one's city, one's home, one's house, one's family, and one's God, was called vagabondism... The man is a demagogue in the nineteenth century, who in the sixteenth would have been a vagabond.”

Victor Hugo (1802–1885) French poet, novelist, and dramatist

Book II, XI
Napoleon the Little (1852)

God, Family, Faith, Home

“Let’s remember not only how many South Koreans were killed, injured or abducted during a war the North started, but also that one of the most shocking parts of that conflict for people who experienced KPA occupation was seeing neighbors emerge on day one as fully-formed, snitching supporters of the enemy. Many bore titles in the underground organizations to which, it turned out, they had belonged for years. In several recorded cases they denounced people who were shot on the spot. That trauma sits deep.”

Brian Reynolds Myers (1963) American professor of international studies

2010s, "Conspiracy Theory"? (August 2019)

War, People, Support, Parting

“Nobody could have imagined a thing like this — a tragedy like this would have happened: the invisible enemy.”

Donald J. Trump (1946) 45th President of the United States of America

As quoted in Remarks by President Trump in a Meeting with Supply Chain Distributors on COVID-19 https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-president-trump-meeting-supply-chain-distributors-covid-19/ (March 29, 2020), whitehouse.gov. 2020s, 2020, March

Imagination

“What if your enemy were your enemy because of poor communication and misunderstanding? What if your enemy were your enemy because of the instigative nature of the ego? What if your enemy were a necessary obstacle put in your life by fate to overcome in order to progress to the higher version of self? I wonder about that because what if your enemy is in fact your hero? Make sure the snake in your life isn't just your pride and ego.”

Scarlet Jei Saoirse (1984) American singer and actress

Life, Fate, Making love, Communication

“We are now raring to die for our country's sake
Let's see how much of strength the assassin can display!
O traveller on the path of love, do not drop mid-way,
It is the distance of the goal that glorifies the chase.
It is the distance of the goal that glorifies the chase.
Standing by the gallows the hangman makes a call,
Come, if there be any, by the martyr's zeal enthralled.
We'll tell you all, O sky, wait till he time arrives,
How can we at this stage, our secret plans unveil?
O martyrs in the nation's cause, kudos to your sacrifice,
Even in the enemy they talk of you with praise.
Fired by patriotic fervour, many a maddened youth.
Has gathered at the crossing, itching for the cross.
Why are they mute and silent? no whisper, no talk,
Everyone that I see has got his lips locked.”

Ram Prasad Bismil (1897–1927) revolutionary, poet & writer

Masterpieces of Patriotic Urdu Poetry, p. 109
Poetry, Desire for Self-sacrifice (Sarfaroshi Ki Tamanna)

Love, Secret, Youth, Making love

“We have an invisible enemy. We have a problem a month ago nobody ever thought about. [...] This is a bad one, this is a very bad one. This is bad in the sense that it's so contagious. It's just so contagious. Sort of record-setting type contagion.”

Donald J. Trump (1946) 45th President of the United States of America

Coronavirus task force press briefing, , quoted in * 2020-03-17

The Last Great Pandemic

Jarrett Stepman

The Daily Signal

https://www.dailysignal.com/2020/03/17/the-last-great-pandemic/
2020s, 2020, March

Bad luck, Problem, Sense

“Stalin originated the concept of 'enemy of the people.'”

Nikita Khrushchev (1894–1971) First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union

This term automatically rendered it unnecessary that the ideological errors of a man or men engaged in a controversy be proven; this term made possible the usage of the most cruel repression, violating all norms of revolutionary legality, against anyone who in any wat disagreed with Stalin, against those who were only suspected of hostile intent, against those who had bad reputations. This concept 'enemy of the people' actually eliminated the possibility of any kind of ideological fight or the making of one's views known on this or that issue, even those of a practical character. In the main, and in actuality, the only proof of guilt used, against all norms of current legal science, was the 'confession' of the accused himself.
"Secret Report to the 20th Party Congress of the CPSU"

People

“Allah has commanded rulers to be shepherds; He did not command them to be money-collectors. The attitude of the earliest leaders of this Ummah was that of shepherds, not money-collectors. Soon you will find your leaders becoming money-collectors, not shepherds. Once that happens, there will be no more modesty, trustworthiness or honesty. The best way of running the people's affairs is to examine the Muslims' situation, find out what their dues are and give them to them, and take from them what is due from them. Then go to ahl al-dhimmah and give them what is due to them and take from them what is due from them. Then confront the enemy and seek to defeat them by means of sincerity.”

Uthman (574–656) Companion of Muhammad and third Rashidun Caliph

Letter to Governors of Muslim Empire of Caliphate, quoted in History of the Prophets and Kings, Vol. 5, p. 244

Money, People, Way, Sincerity

“Exercise dissipates tension, and tension is the enemy of serenity. I found that I worked better and thought more clearly when I was in good physical condition, and so training became one of the inflexible disciplines of my life.”

Nelson Mandela (1918–2013) President of South Africa, anti-apartheid activist

Interview with Gavin Evans, Soweto (15 February 1990) recounted in COVID-19 lockdown: Can you do Nelson Mandela's Robben Island prison cell workout? https://nationalpost.com/news/world/covid-19-lockdown-can-you-do-nelson-mandelas-prison-cell-workout?video_autoplay=true, 7 April 2020 1990s

Life, Exercises, Training

“Non-violent resistance activities cannot succeed against an enemy that is able freely to use violence. That's pretty obvious. You can't have non-violent resistance against the Nazis in a concentration camp, to take an extreme case...”

Noam Chomsky (1928) american linguist, philosopher and activist

Chronicles of Dissent, December 13, 1989 https://web.archive.org/web/20000829081348/http://www.zmag.org/chomsky/interviews/db-8912.html Quotes 1960s–1980s, 1980s

“It was astonishing how quickly friendship could turn to enmity, she thought, like a compass needle swinging from one pole to the other.
They’d been excellent friends. They’d make excellent enemies as well.”

Alastair Reynolds book Pushing Ice

Source: Pushing Ice (2005), Chapter 8 (p. 132)

Friendship, Making love

“The choice of methods and weapons to be used by the champions of democracy will not depend upon our wishes but will be determined by political and social conditions. and especially by the methods and weapons of the enemy.”

Karl Kautsky (1854–1938) Czech-Austrian philosopher, journalist, and Marxist theoretician

Chap. V, The Period of Dictatorship "Hitlerism and Social Democracy" (1934) https://www.marxists.org/archive/kautsky/1934/hitler/index.htm

Democracy, Dependency

“Doubt is never simply an intellectual problem. There is always a spiritual dimension to doubt, as well. There is an enemy of your souls, Satan, who hates you intensely and is bent on your destruction and who will do everything in his power to see that your faith is destroyed. And therefore when we have these intellectual doubts and problems we should never look at them as something that is spiritually neutral or divorce them from the spiritual conflict that we are involved in. Rather we need to take these doubts to God in prayer, to admit them honestly, to talk to our Christian friends about them, to not stuff them or hide them, we need to deal with them openly and honestly and talk to people about them and seek God's help in dealing with them.”

William Lane Craig (1949) American Christian apologist and evangelist

Dealing with Doubt

18 November 2007

YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-fDyPU3wlQ (2:11 into video)

God, Hate, People, Faith

“They were more than a thousand in number, including the mere partizans of my enemies. Several attempts were made to press me down. I got many blows in the sides; and if I had been either a short or a weak man, I must have been pressed under foot, and inevitably killed. ... I had, when I left the Booth, my snuff-box in my right hand. It is oblong square, and has very sharp corners. The Savages pressed me side-ways towards my left; and I had to fight with my right hand, in order to prevent them from getting me down. I had to strike back-handed. One of the sharp corners of the snuff-box, which stuck out beyond the bottom of my little finger, did good service. It cut the noses and eyes of the Savages at a famous rate, and assisted mainly in securing my safe arrival, on the raised pavement, on which I got just opposite to the door of a shop. Just at this time, one of the Savages, foaming at the mouth like a mad dog, exclaimed: “damn him, I'll rip him up.””

William Cobbett (1763–1835) English pamphleteer, farmer and journalist

He was running his hand into his breeches pocket, apparently to take out his knife, but I...drew up my right leg, armed with a new and sharp-edged gallashe over my boot, dealt Mr. Ellice's ripping Savage so delightful a blow, just between his two eyes, that he fell back upon his followers.

‘History of the Coventry Election’, Political Register (25 March 1820), pp. 102–3
1820s

Dogs, Way, Time, Fight

“I would rather save the life of one citizen than kill a thousand enemies.”

Scipio Africanus (-235–-183 BC) Roman general in the Second Punic War

...malle se unum civem servare quam mille hostes occidere.

According to the Historia Augusta (fourth century), Roman emperor Antoninus Pius often repeated this saying of Scipio ("Antoninus Pius", 9.10); no earlier attribution to Scipio (or mention of the dictum itself, for that matter) is known.
Disputed

Life

“Perhaps the Church of Rome was but consistent in choosing as her titular founder the apostle who thrice denied his master at the moment of danger; and the only one, moreover, except Judas, who provoked Christ in such a way as to be addressed as the "Enemy." "Get thee behind me, Satan!"”

Helena Petrovna Blavatsky book Isis Unveiled

exclaims Jesus, rebuking the taunting apostle.(Gospel according to Mark, viii. 33.) There is a tradition in the Greek Church which has never found favor at the Vatican. The former traces its origin to one of the Gnostic leaders — Basilides, perhaps, who lived under Trajan and Adrian, at the end of the first and the beginning of the second century. With regard to this particular tradition, if the Gnostic is Basilides, then he must be accepted as a sufficient authority, having claimed to have been a disciple of the Apostle Matthew, and to have had for master Glaucias, a disciple of St. Peter himself...

Chapter III
Isis Unveiled (1877), Volume II

Way, Christ

“Censorship...ought to be confined to the temporary suppression of military and naval news which might assist the enemy. ... Public opinion might be fallible, but it was not half as fallible as individual opinion, and, good or bad, the Government had to lean upon it; how could they do that unless public opinion had full, free, and correct information as to facts?”

John Morley, 1st Viscount Morley of Blackburn (1838–1923) British Liberal statesman, writer and newspaper editor

Speech in the House of Lords (3 November 1915), quoted in The Times (4 November 1915), p. 9
1910s

Bad luck

“Between friends and enemies, there is no question of freedom, only violence and subjugation. This is the reality of politics, a reality that liberals often do not dare to face.”

Jiang Shigong (1967) Chinese legal and political theorist

《乌克兰宪政危机与政治决断》 ["Ukraine's constitutional crisis and political decisions"] (2004), translated by David Ownby in Rethinking China's Rise, p. 27

Question, Reality, Freedom

“The enemy is at the gates of the city. The day is perhaps not far off when our breasts will be the last defence for our country. We are the children of the Revolution. Let us take inspiration from our fathers of 1792, and, like them, we will conquer.”

Georges Clemenceau (1841–1929) French politician

Poster (23 September 1870) during the Franco-Prussian War, quoted in David Robin Watson, Georges Clemenceau: A Political Biography (London: Eyre Methuen, 1974), p. 38

Children, Country

“Even if you seek to harm an enemy,
You should remove your own defects and cultivate good qualities.
Through that you will help yourself,
And the enemy will be displeased.”

Nagarjuna (150–250) Indian philosopher

§ 132
Major attributed works, Ratnāvalī (Precious Garland)

Help

“Revolutionary morality consists, in whatever circumstances, in resolutely struggling against all enemies, maintaining one's vigilance, standing ready to fight, and refusing to submit, to bow one's head. Only by so doing can we defeat the enemy, and fulfill our revolutionary tasks.”

Ho Chi Minh (1890–1969) Vietnamese communist leader and first president of Vietnam

"On Revolutionary Morality" (1958)
1950's, On Revolutionary Morality (1958)

Fight

“In practice, the enemy has been making much more propaganda for us than we have ourselves.”

Ho Chi Minh (1890–1969) Vietnamese communist leader and first president of Vietnam

Instructions Given at the Conference (Fall 1950)
1950's

Making love

“In the long run more mercenaries have had their asses shot off by their contractors than by their enemies.”

Lois McMaster Bujold Vorkosigan Saga

Chapter 13 (p. 223) Vorkosigan Saga, The Warrior's Apprentice (1986)

“I have been helped by terror (in the hearts of enemies) and I have been given words which are concise but comprehensive in meaning.”

Muhammad (570–632) Arabian religious leader and the founder of Islam

Source: Sunni Hadith [4, 1067]

Help, Heart

“I have been given the keys of eloquent speech and given victory with awe (cast into the hearts of the enemy), and while I was sleeping last night, the keys of the treasures of the earth were brought to me till they were put in my hand.”

Muhammad (570–632) Arabian religious leader and the founder of Islam

Sunni Hadith Source: Narrated in Bukhari by Abu Huraira, Vol. 9, Book 87, Hadith 127 http://sunnah.com/bukhari/91/17

Sleep, Victory, Heart, Night

“Those whose minds are merged in Samadhi, are not deluded by the external jugglery. They are quite fearless. Siddhas (God realized souls) are not afraid of the world. A tiger or a cobra, when they see such a person, become calm, forgetting their ferocity. Similarly, all animals become calm at their sight. Even enemies forget their enmity and become friendly. As soon as they see a sadhu, they become stone-still. What is the cause of this? It is because of their doubting nature. At the sight of a sadhu, there is no darkness. Mind gets purified, realizing the Satwa quality.”

Bhagawan Nityananda (1897–1961) Hindu guru and saint

280
The Chidakasha Gita (1927)

God, World, Soul, Nature

“NO EMOTION IS A MISTAKE

Awakening is not about deleting or transcending human emotions, for how would the ocean transcend a single wave, and how would the sun transcend one of its beloved sunbeams? It's about seeing that every emotion - from joy to despair, bliss to boredom, agony to ecstasy - is only a movement of life energy, actually a movement of yourself, a wave in your vastness. No emotion is a threat, an enemy, or a punishment. Every emotion is an invitation to remember your vastness, rest in your oceanic nature. You are on a pathless path of radical inclusion, friend, and there are no mistakes here.”

Jeff Foster (1980) Spiritual teacher

Source: https://www.facebook.com/LifeWithoutACentre/photos/no-emotion-is-a-mistakeawakening-is-not-about-deleting-or-transcending-human-emo/1109464082484532/

“We may be opponents but we are not enemies. We are americans.”

Joe Biden (1942) 47th Vice President of the United States (in office from 2009 to 2017)

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDmTJXtfiKM

“I don't want any messages saying 'I'm holding my position.' We're not holding a goddamned thing. We're advancing constantly and we're not interested in holding anything except the enemy's balls.”

George S. Patton (1885–1945) United States Army general

Source: George S. Patton's speech to the Third Army https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_S._Patton%27s_speech_to_the_Third_Army
Context: I don't want any messages saying 'I'm holding my position.' We're not holding a goddamned thing. We're advancing constantly and we're not interested in holding anything except the enemy's balls. We're going to hold him by his balls and we're going to kick him in the ass; twist his balls and kick the living shit out of him all the time. Our plan of operation is to advance and keep on advancing. We're going to go through the enemy like shit through a tinhorn.

“Now, when anybody starts talking about this [an all-volunteer force] he immediately shifts language. My army is 'volunteer,' your army is 'professional,' and the enemy's army is 'mercenary.' All these three words mean exactly the same thing. I am a volunteer professor, I am a mercenary professor, and I am a professional professor. And all you people around here are mercenary professional people. And I trust you realize that. It's always a puzzle to me why people should think that the term 'mercenary' somehow has a negative connotation.”

Milton Friedman (1912–2006) American economist, statistician, and writer

And this is much more broadly based. In fact, I think mercenary motives are among the least unattractive that we have.
The Draft: A Handbook of Facts and Alternatives, Sol Tax, edit., chapter: “Why Not a Voluntary Army?” University of Chicago Press (1967) p. 366, based on the Conference Held at the University of Chicago, December 4-7, 1966

People, Thinking

“...my extreme anxiety about the Object of our common sollicitude and my clear and decided conviction, that there is one part of the War, which instead of being postponed and considered in a secondary light, ought to have priority over every other, and requires our most early and our most careful attention; I mean La Vendée. ... This is a War directly against Jacobinism and its principles. It strikes at the Enemy in his weakest and most vulnerable part. At La Vendée with infinitely less Charge, we may make an impression likely to be decisive. This goes to the heart of the Business.”

Edmund Burke (1729–1797) Anglo-Irish statesman

Letter to the Home Secretary Henry Dundas (8 October 1793), quoted in P. J. Marshall and John A. Woods (eds.), The Correspondence of Edmund Burke, Volume VII: January 1792–August 1794 (1968), p. 445
1790s

War, Making love, Business, Decision

“By a miracle the 19th amendment has been ratified, we women now have a weapon of defense ... it will be a shame to us if we do not use it … we shall give our enemies a stick with which to break our head, Hold meetings, every time you meet a woman talk to her about going to the polls and vote!”

Mary Church Terrell (1863–1954) African Americans' rights activist

Source: p.310

Women, Time

Milton Friedman (1912–2006) American economist, statistician, and writer

And this is much more broadly based. In fact, I think mercenary motives are among the least unattractive that we have.
Source: The Draft: A Handbook of Facts and Alternatives, Sol Tax, edit., chapter: “Recruitment of Military Manpower Solely by Voluntary Means,” chairman: Aristide Zolberg, University of Chicago Press (1967) p. 366, based on the Conference Held at the University of Chicago, December 4-7, 1966, also in Two Lucky People, Milton and Rose Friedman, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998, p. 380.

People, Thinking

“The fathers of American Democracy had no exaggerated respect for the State, because they were pre-eminently men of reason and common sense. They never, for instance, identified the State with the People. They knew that the State is, by very definition, an instrument of oppression and coercion, and their idea was to make it strong enough to keep order and ward off enemies, and limit it otherwise very strictly.”

Dorothy Thompson (1893–1961) American journalist and radio broadcaster

Dorothy Thompson’s Political Guide: A Study of American Liberalism and its Relationship to Modern Totalitarian States (1938)
Source: A Study of American Liberalism and its Relationship to Modern Totalitarian States (1938)
p. 102

Men, People, Making love, Democracy

“What confuses the mind of the average American is that the American collectivist calls himself a Liberal, and has pre-empted a word which has a totally different philosophy behind it. The Fascists and Communists know that Liberalism is the enemy. But the American collectivist, who calls himself a Liberal, believes that he can have the better of two worlds.”

Dorothy Thompson (1893–1961) American journalist and radio broadcaster

World

“Today in Germany the winner of the last Nobel peace prize is considered a traitor, and to attend any peace meeting would make one a candidate for a concentration camp. Today in Italy there is only one morality: the power and glory of Italy. Today in Russia all children are brought up to despise and hate ‘the class enemy.’”

Dorothy Thompson (1893–1961) American journalist and radio broadcaster

Hate, Children, Making love, Peace

“Pacifism only works when your enemy has a conscience.”

Daniel Abraham (1969) speculative fiction writer from the United States

Source: The Expanse, Tiamat's Wrath (2019), Chapter 2 (p. 31)

“One of the most dangerous words is 'extremist'. A person who commits acts of violence is not an 'extremist'; he is a criminal. If he commits those acts of violence with the object of detaching part of the territory of the United Kingdom and attaching it to a foreign country, he is an enemy under arms. There is the world of difference between a citizen who commits a crime, in the belief, however mistaken, that he is thereby helping to preserve the integrity of his country and his right to remain a subject of his sovereign, and a person, be he citizen or alien, who commits a crime with the intention of destroying that integrity and rendering impossible that allegiance. The former breaches the peace; the latter is executing an act of war. The use of the word 'extremist' of either or both conveys a dangerous untruth: it implies that both hold acceptable opinions and seek permissible ends, only that they carry them to 'extremes'. Not so: the one is a lawbreaker; the other is an enemy.The same purpose, that of rendering friend and foe indistinguishable, is achieved by references to the 'impartiality' of the British troops and to their function as 'keeping the peace.'”

Enoch Powell (1912–1998) British politician

The British forces are in Northern Ireland because an avowed enemy is using force of arms to break down lawful authority in the province and thereby seize control. The army cannot be 'impartial' towards an enemy, nor between the aggressor and the aggressed: they are not glorified policemen, restraining two sets of citizens who might otherwise do one another harm, and duty bound to show no 'partiality' towards one lawbreaker rather than another. They are engaged in defeating an armed attack upon the state. Once again, the terminology is designed to obliterate the vital difference between friend and enemy, loyal and disloyal.Then there are the 'no-go' areas which have existed for the past eighteen months. It would be incredible, if it had not actually happened, that for a year and a half there should be areas in the United Kingdom where the Queen's writ does not run and where the citizen is protected, if protected at all, by persons and powers unknown to the law. If these areas were described as what they are—namely, pockets of territory occupied by the enemy, as surely as if they had been captured and held by parachute troops—then perhaps it would be realised how preposterous is the situation. In fact the policy of refraining from the re-establishment of civil government in these areas is as wise as it would be to leave enemy posts undisturbed behind one's lines.
Source: Speech to the South Buckinghamshire Conservative Women's Annual Luncheon in Beaconsfield (19 March 1971), from Reflections of a Statesman. The Writings and Speeches of Enoch Powell (1991), pp. 487-488

War, World, Peace, Help

“It ought to be remembered that there is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things. Because the innovator has for enemies all those who have done well under the old conditions, and lukewarm defenders in those who may do well under the new. This coolness arises partly from fear of the opponents, who have the laws on their side, and partly from the incredulity of men, who do not readily believe in new things until they have had a long experience of them.”

Niccolo Machiavelli book The Prince

Source: The Prince (1513), Ch. 6; translated by W. K. Marriott

Men, Fear, Law, Success

“This Administration has been looking hard at exactly what civil defense can and cannot do. It cannot be obtained cheaply. It cannot give an assurance of blast protection that will be proof against surprise attack or guaranteed against obsolescence or destruction. And it cannot deter a nuclear attack. We will deter an enemy from making a nuclear attack only if our retaliatory power is so strong and so invulnerable that he knows he would be destroyed by our response. If we have that strength, civil defense is not needed to deter an attack. If we should ever lack it, civil defense would not be an adequate substitute. But this deterrent concept assumes rational calculations by rational men. And the history of this planet, and particularly the history of the 20th century, is sufficient to remind us of the possibilities of an irrational attack, a miscalculation, an accidental war, for a war of escalation in which the stakes by each side gradually increase to the point of maximum danger which cannot be either foreseen or deterred. It is on this basis that civil defense can be readily justifiable--as insurance for the civilian population in case of an enemy miscalculation. It is insurance we trust will never be needed--but insurance which we could never forgive ourselves for foregoing in the event of catastrophe. Once the validity of this concept is recognized, there is no point in delaying the initiation of a nation-wide long-range program of identifying present fallout shelter capacity and providing shelter in new and existing structures. Such a program would protect millions of people against the hazards of radioactive fallout in the event of large-scale nuclear attack. Effective performance of the entire program not only requires new legislative authority and more funds, but also sound organizational arrangements.”

John F. Kennedy (1917–1963) 35th president of the United States of America

Source: 1961, Speech to Special Joint Session of Congress

Men, War, People, Making love

“World Jewry has been, for sixteen years, despite our policy, an irreconcilable enemy of Fascism. In Italy our policy has led, in the Semitic elements, to what can today be called a true rush to board the ship.”

Benito Mussolini (1883–1945) Duce and President of the Council of Ministers of Italy. Leader of the National Fascist Party and subsequen…

Speech held in Trieste (September 18, 1938) Source: Il discorso di Trieste, archivioluce, 2021-01-04 https://www.archivioluce.com/2019/09/18/il-discorso-di-trieste/,

World, Relation ships

“War means fighting. The business of the soldier is to fight. Armies are not called out to dig trenches, to throw up breastworks, to live in camps, but to find the enemy and strike him; to invade his country, and do him all possible damage in the shortest possible time. This will involve great destruction of life and property while it lasts; but such a war will of necessity be of brief continuance, and so would be an economy of life and property in the end. To move swiftly, strike vigorously, and secure all the fruits of victory is the secret of successful war.”

Thomas Jackson (1824–1863) Confederate general

As quoted in Stonewall Jackson and the American Civil War (1904) by George Francis Robert Henderson http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/12233, Ch. 25 : The Soldier and the Man, p. 481 Q him, never let up in the pursuit so long as your men have strength to follow…]]

Life, War, Secret, Business

“Always mystify, mislead, and surprise the enemy, if possible; and when you strike and overcome him, never let up in the pursuit so long as your men have strength to follow; for an army routed, if hotly pursued, becomes panic-stricken, and can then be destroyed by half their number. The other rule is, never fight against heavy odds, if by any possible maneuvering you can hurl your own force on only a part, and that the weakest part, of your enemy and crush it. Such tactics will win every time, and a small army may thus destroy a large one in detail, and repeated victory will make it invincible.”

Thomas Jackson (1824–1863) Confederate general

As quoted in Battles and Leaders of the Civil War (1884 - 1888) edited by Robert Underwood Clarence C. Buel, Vol. II, p. 297
Q him, never let up in the pursuit so long as your men have strength to follow…]]

Men, Making love, Time, Victory

“I yield to no man in sympathy for the gallant men under my command; but I am obliged to sweat them tonight, so that I may save their blood tomorrow. The line of hills southwest of Winchester must not be occupied by the enemy's artillery. My own must be there and in position by daylight. … You shall however have two hours rest.”

Thomas Jackson (1824–1863) Confederate general

To Col. Sam Fulkerson, who reported on the weariness of their troops and suggested that they should be given an hour or so to rest from a forced march in the night. (24 May 1862); as quoted in Mighty Stonewall (1957) by Frank E. Vandiver, p. 250
Q him, never let up in the pursuit so long as your men have strength to follow…]]

Men

“When the Jews were prisoners of the King of Babylon, they sent a message to the Jews of Jerusalem, saying,
Pray for the life of Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, and for the life of Belshazzar his son, that their days may be like the days of heaven upon the earth. And the Lord, will give us strength, … and we will live under the shadow of Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, and under the shadow of Belshazzar his son, and we will serve them for a long time and find favor in their sight.
This prayer was offered by prisoners – and they prayed for the king their jailer. He was their enemy, and yet they prayed for him…”

Petr Chelčický book The Net of Faith

Source: The Net of Faith (c. 1443), Chapter 92, Interpretation of 1 Timothy 2:1-3 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20Timothy%202:1-3&version=NIV There Can Be No Christian Sovereignty

Life, Time

“Just because I have forgotten so many old enemies does not mean they have forgotten me.”

Lois McMaster Bujold Vorkosigan Saga

Source: Vorkosigan Saga, Captain Vorpatril's Alliance (2012), Chapter 9 (p. 196)

“The truth is that the connection of Ireland with England has been full of trouble, and I fear there is no remedy. ... It is a chronic disease, and even if it is not to be cured we have proved in the past that we can get on with it and yet carry on our Empire to a vast pitch of prosperity. What has been done in the past can be done in the future. ... [D]o not let us attempt to cure it by a measure which will put this island into a condition which never during 700 years of our history has existed—which will hand over those who have had the courage to defend us to the maltreatment of their worst enemies, and which will establish at our very doors a post—a hostile post—which will be at the pleasure of any foreign power which may sometimes be hostile to us.”

Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury (1830–1903) British politician

Speech to a banquet of the Merchant Taylors' Company, London (10 May 1886), quoted in The Times (11 May 1886), p. 12
1880s

Hostility, Pleasure, Truth, Fear

“I believe that any repeal of the Union [with Ireland] or any substantial tampering with it is fraught with danger to this country. That has always been the opinion of the Conservative party and always will remain so. It is granting a separate government and separate executive. ... The result is that the [Protestant] minority will not only have laws passed of which they disapprove, but they will have to depend on the toleration and good will of their enemies for the common privileges of civilised life and securities.”

Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury (1830–1903) British politician

Speech to a banquet of the Merchant Taylors' Company, London (10 May 1886), quoted in The Times (11 May 1886), p. 12
1880s

Life, Law, Dependency, Country

“England is, I believe, the only country in which during a great war eminent men write and speak publicly as if they belonged to the enemy.”

Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury (1830–1903) British politician

Letter to Miss Milner (11 November 1901), quoted in The Times (19 November 1901), p. 10
1900s

Men, War, Country

“Talent is the enemy of taste. Taste is the enemy of talent.”

Ron English (1959) American artist

Ron English's Fauxlosophy (2016)

“Familiarity is the enemy of admiration.”

Ron English (1959) American artist

Ron English's Fauxlosophy (2016)

“These men are the enemies of science—of intellectual progress. They ridicule and calumniate the great thinkers. They deny everything that conflicts with the “sacred Scriptures.””

Robert G. Ingersoll (1833–1899) Union United States Army officer

They still believe in the astronomy of Joshua and the geology of Moses. They believe in the miracles of the past, and deny the demonstrations of the present. They are the foes of facts—the enemies of knowledge. A desire to be happy here, they regard as wicked and worldly—but a desire to be happy in another world, as virtuous and spiritual.
The Truth (1896)

Men, Science

“We must know our enemy, at least a little.”

Greg Bear book Hardfought

“That’s dangerous,” Prufrax said, almost instinctively.
“Yes, it is. What you know, you cannot hate.”
Source: Short fiction, Hardfought (1983), p. 63

“The time has come when we must proceed with the business of carrying the war to the enemy, not permitting the greater portion of our armed forces and our valuable material to be immobilized within the continental United States.”

George Marshall (1880–1959) US military leader, Army Chief of Staff

As quoted by the Times-Herald [Washington, D.C.] (3 March 1942) p. 1

War, Business, Time

“If I have tried to observe the personal courtesies of public life, it is not because I fail to hate the political enemy’s creed. If I have sought to find some humour in the conflict, it is not because I under-estimate the gravity of the battle. The best years of my life have been given to what I deeply believe is a struggle for freedom.”

Robert Menzies (1894–1978) Australian politician, 12th Prime Minister of Australia

1949 election campaign speech https://electionspeeches.moadoph.gov.au/speeches/1949-robert-menzies, delivered in Melbourne on November 10, 1949 Wilderness Years (1941-1949)

Life, Hate, Freedom, Personality

“Apocalypse does not point to a fiery Armageddon but to the fact that our ignorance and our complacency are coming to an end… The exclusivism of there being only one way in which we can be saved, the idea that there is a single religious group that is in sole possession of the truth—that is the world as we know it that must pass away. What is the kingdom? It lies in our realization of the ubiquity of the divine presence in our neighbors, in our enemies, in all of us.”

Joseph Campbell book Thou Art That

Source: Thou Art That: Transforming Religious Metaphor

“It is written that the last enemy to be vanquished is death. We should begin early in life to vanquish this enemy by obliterating every trace of the fear of death from our minds. Then can we turn to life and fill the whole horizon of our souls with it, turn with added zest toall the serious tasks which it imposes and to the pure delights which here and there it affords.”

Felix Adler (1851–1933) German American professor of political and social ethics, rationalist, and lecturer

Section 8 : Suffering and Consolation
Life and Destiny (1913)

Life, Death, Fear, Soul

“Don't underestimate the power of your enemy, no matter how big or small, one day it could be to your detriment.”

Attila (406–453) King of the Hunnic Empire

Turkish Wikipedia
https://quotestats.com/topic/attila-hun-quotes/

“The greater your successes and victories, the more opposition your enemies will come your way, with painful and discouraging events.”

Attila (406–453) King of the Hunnic Empire

Turkish Wikipedia
https://quotestats.com/topic/attila-hun-quotes/

Pain, Way, Success, Victory

“If you want your enemy to trust you in the future, keep the promises you made during bargaining.”

Attila (406–453) King of the Hunnic Empire

Turkish Wikipedia
https://quotestats.com/topic/attila-hun-quotes/

Future

“Chaos and Order are not enemies, only opposites.”

Richard Garriott (1961) video game developer, astronaut and entrepreneur

“Your worst enemy cannot harm you as much as your own unguarded thoughts.”

Gautama Buddha (-563–-483 BC) philosopher, reformer and the founder of Buddhism

“One of the effects, among others, of modern science has been that of mortally wounding religion by posing in concrete terms problems which esoterism alone can resolve and which remain unresolved because esoterism is not heeded and is heeded less now than ever. Faced by these new problems, religion is disarmed, and it borrows clumsily and gropingly the arguments of the enemy, and this obliges it to falsify its own perspective imperceptibly and disavow itself more and more; its doctrine is certainly not affected, but false opinions borrowed from its repudiators corrode it insidiously "from within", as witnessed by modernist exegesis, the demagogic leveling of the liturgy, Teilhardian Darwinism or the "sacred art" of surrealist and "abstract" persuasion.”

Frithjof Schuon (1907–1998) Swiss philosopher

[2006, Light on the Ancient Worlds, World Wisdom, 27, 978-0-941532-72-3]
Miscellaneous, Religion

Religion, Art, Problem, Science

“Under the Constitution giving 'aid and comfort' to a wartime enemy can lead to a charge of treason.”

Walter Cronkite (1916–2009) American broadcast journalist

Free the Airwaves! (2002)

“I consider Xi Jinping the most dangerous enemy of open societies in the world.”

George Soros (1930) Hungarian-American business magnate, investor, and philanthropist

Tweet 16 August 2021 https://twitter.com/georgesoros/status/1427244353714544644

World

“Women actually have a fantastic sense of humour, better than men. Men tend to have crass and predictable humour. Women see human foibles and minute details, and they can laugh at eccentricities and peculiarities. They are also more understanding. Go ahead and quote me and let me make some enemies.”

Sai Paranjpye (1938) Indian film director

Scroll.in article by Nandini Ramnath - Sai Paranjpye interview: ‘I guess I was born with a grin’ https://scroll.in/reel/979306/sai-paranjpye-interview-i-guess-i-was-born-with-a-grin - 28 November 2020 - Archive https://web.archive.org/web/20210901094227/https://scroll.in/reel/979306/sai-paranjpye-interview-i-guess-i-was-born-with-a-grin Quotes from Sai Paranjpye

Women, Men, Quotes, Understanding

“When they are asked the question by a journalist, a country, a friend, an enemy or anybody, "What is the real purpose of the taliban movement?" the answer to them all is that the taliban's mission and purpose is to implement the sharia on this land of Allah. That is their answer, true purpose and their mission from the beginning.”

Mohammed Omar (1959–2013) Founder and former leader of the Taliban

Appeal to the ulama of Afghanistan https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNAR3CZhUKo, 2 April 1996

Question, Country

“American military power has been the enemy of the White race and the tool of Jewry and international finance ever since.”

David Lane (white nationalist) (1938–2007) American white supremacist, convicted felon

Revolution by Number

“Do not make an enemy of anyone until you know what there is between him and God! If he is good, God will not leave him to you and if he is bad, then your knowing of his badness will make you safe from him and so you do not need to make him your enemy.”

Muhammad al-Taqi (811–835) ninth of the Twelve Imams of Twelver Shi'ism

[Baqir Sharīf al-Qurashi, The life of Imam Muhammad al-Jawad, Wonderful Maxims and Arts, 2005]

God

“Every crusader is apt to go mad. He is haunted by the wickedness which is attributed to his enemies; it becomes in some sort a part of him.”

Aldous Huxley (1894–1963) English writer

Aldous Huxley, The Devils of London Chatto & Windus, London, (1951) p. 274

Parting, Madness

“I think the biggest enemy in this country is the corruption. I think everybody will - now they learn it.”

Cui Jian (1961) Chinese rock musician of Korean descent

Interview with CNN (2012)

Thinking, Learning, Country

“The moment I boarded the flight I was thinking, 'This is an enemy state.'”

Kim Hyon-hui (1962) former North Korean agent

But then, placing the bomb, I was nervous, anxious, scared of being caught. I had a brief moment thinking that all the people in this plane will die, but I was frightened to even have such feelings. I wasn’t supposed to have such feelings. I was trained only to take orders like a robot. I tried to get rid of the feelings by thinking that for the sake of reunification these people had to be sacrificed. In North Korea, you can’t have these doubts, because if you do, it means your ideology has been corrupted and you’ll be executed or sent to a prison camp.
Interview with NBC (23 January 2018)

Thinking

“... many large insects come out at dusk. By doing so they escape many enemies, but not all, since here the nightjar tribe takes over, many of which are larger than the largest swifts.”

David Lack (1910–1973) British ornithologist and biologist

Source: Swifts in a Tower (1956), p. 108, 2nd edition, 1973

“Personally, I am against deeper integration with Russia because Belarus is a sovereign nation. We want to be independent. We want to find friends and not enemies among other countries.”

Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya (1982) Belarusian politician and educator

"«Нельзя так со своим народом»Главная соперница Лукашенко — о том, почему у белорусов кончилось терпение и нужна ли им Россия" https://lenta.ru/articles/2020/07/30/tihanovskaya/ (30 July 2020)

Personality, Country

“The more I prayed for my enemies, the softer my heart became. When I felt real forgiveness, my heart was set free. If I can do it, all of you can do it too.”

Phan Thi Kim Phuc (1963) Child depicted in the Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph taken during the Vietnam War on June 8, 1972

"In Napa, “napalm girl” Kim Phuc shares story of suffering and forgiveness in Vietnam and beyond" in Napa Valley Register https://napavalleyregister.com/news/local/in-napa-napalm-girl-kim-phuc-shares-story-of-suffering-and-forgiveness-in-vietnam-and/article_4f9225b8-0938-5509-b69b-abe13479fd4d.html (24 February 2019)

Forgiveness, Heart

“I die happy for at least the world will be able to say that I have employed every effort to destroy the enemies of the Muhammedan faith.”

Aurangzeb (1618–1707) Sixth Mughal Emperor

Aurangzeb, just before his death, as quoted from Niccolao Manucci, Storia do Mogor; or, Mogul India 1653-1708 https://archive.org/details/storiadomogororm04manu/page/398/mode/2up, Vol. 4, p. 398.

Happiness, World, Faith, Effort

“It is so easy to be an enemy of the United States, but so difficult to be a friend.”

Nguyễn Văn Thiệu (1923–2001) president of South Vietnam from 1965–75

As quoted in a response to Anna Chennault in 1975
Langguth, A.J. Our Vietnam, New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000 page 656.

“Dictatorship and authentic literature are incompatible... The writer is the natural enemy of dictatorship.”

Ismail Kadare (1936) Albanian writer

Ismail Kadare

Literature, Nature

“The person who has many friends, will be forced by necessity to create some imaginary enemies inside his mind.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

Personality

“: According to different points of view. To the pessimist: Enemies are everywhere, waiting to ambush you. For the optimist: friends are everywhere, waiting to embrace you.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

Waiting

“As for the methods of survival, feel free to use your divine weapons to defeat the enemy.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

Feeling

“I have forgiven all my enemies and forced karma to go unemployed.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

“In religion, you are fighting with an invisible enemy or perhaps, your mindset and the power of your imagination.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

Religion, Imagination, Fight

“There is no real love in politics since you have to marry the daughter of your closest enemy to keep the peace for a while.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

Love, Peace, Daughters

“I wanted to study the enemy on his home grounds.”

Joseph Kasa-Vubu (1910–1969) President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (1910-1969)

The new leaders of Africa https://archive.org/details/newleadersofafri0000unse/page/150/mode/2up Rolf Italiaander, Englewood Cliffs, N.J., Prentice-Hall 1690, p 147. Kasa-Vubu explains why in 1942 Leopoldville, he became a clerk at the Belgian financial administration.

Home, Study

“The truth is respectful opposition is not the enemy, it’s an important part of a health a democracy.”

Peadar Tóibín (1974) Irish politician

Peadar Tóibín to host Waterford meeting about new party https://www.wlrfm.com/2019/01/21/peadar-toibin-to-host-waterford-meeting-about-new-party/ (January 21, 2019)

Health, Truth, Democracy, Parting

“And captains that we thought were dead,
And dreamers that we thought were dumb,
And voices that we thought were fled,
Arise, and call us, and we come;
And "search in thine own soul," they cry;
"For there, too, lurks thine enemy."”

Alfred Noyes (1880–1958) English poet

Search for the foe in thine own soul,
The sloth, the intellectual pride;
The trivial jest that veils the goal
For which our fathers lived and died;
The lawless dreams, the cynic Art,
That rend thy nobler self apart.
The Search-Lights
The Lord of Misrule and Other Poems (1915)

Soul, Search, Cry, Dead

“When a scientific principle puts on the toga of social dignity, it turns itself into a bell or a parrot; such phantoms have always been the most dangerous enemies of reason.”

Miroslav Krleža (1893–1981) Croatian writer

Aristocrats of Spirit, in: Eseji IV, p.76 (Zora, 1963)
Essays

“A man has four natural enemies: fear, clarity, power, and old age. Fear, clarity and power can be overcome, but not old age. Its effect can be postponed, but it can never be overcome.”

Carlos Castaneda book The Wheel of Time

Source: The Wheel of Time: Shamans of Ancient Mexico, Their Thoughts About Life, Death and the Universe], (1998), Quotations from The Teachings of Don Juan (Chapter 4)

Age, Fear, Nature

Quotes about enemy page 29

Quotes about enemy
page 29