Quotes about enemy
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“No sacrifice which a lover would make for his beloved is too great for us to make for our enemy.”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer book The Cost of Discipleship

Source: The Cost of Discipleship

“The raw hunk of meat that used to be my enemy makes a sound, and I know where the mouth is. And I think the word he's trying to say is 'please'. Pity, not vengeance sends my arrow flying into his skull.”

Suzanne Collins (1962) American television writer and novelist

Thinking, Flying

“But remember that the Captain belongs to the most dangerous enemy to truth and freedom, the solid unmoving cattle of the majority”

Ray Bradbury book Fahrenheit 451

Source: Fahrenheit 451

Truth, Freedom

“The enemy of science is not religion…. The true enemy is the substitution of thought, reflection, and curiosity with dogma.”

Frans de Waal (1948) Dutch primatologist and ethologist

Religion, Science

“Ender understood more than she said. Manipulation of gravity was one thing; deception by the officers was another; but the most important message was this: the adults are the enemy, not the other armies. They do not tell us the truth.”

Orson Scott Card book Ender's Game

Source: Ender's Game

Truth

“But enemies can become friends.”

Rick Riordan book The Son of Neptune

The Son of Neptune

“Joking is a barrier between man and the world. Joking is the enemy of love and poetry.”

Milan Kundera book The Book of Laughter and Forgetting

Source: The Book of Laughter and Forgetting

Love, World

“You would have made a fine warrior, you know that?"

I am one. Death is my enemy."

Yeah, it is, isn't it." God, it made such sense that he'd bonded with her. She was a fighter… like him. "Your scalpel's your dagger."

Yup.”

Jessica Bird book Lover Unbound

Source: Lover Unbound

Death, God, Sense

“I grunted. “She’s not a delicate princess,” I said. “She’s a warrior. Warriors have enemies. Sometimes warriors get hurt.” I felt my jaws clench. “And then their friends even things up.”

Jim Butcher book Skin Game

Source: Skin Game

Hurt, Princess

“A man with no enemies is a man with no character.”

Paul Newman (1925–2008) American actor and film director

Quoted in Paul Newman: A Life in Pictures, ed. Yann-Brice Dherbier and Pierre-Henri Verlhac (2006), p. 120
As quoted in Words of Wisdom : From the Greatest Minds of All Time (2004) by Mick Farren
Variant: If you don't have enemies, you don't have character.

“Just remember, anger is always your enemy. You must keep your emotions in check. The moment you lose control of them, you lose the fight every time. (Takeshi)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Acheron

Time, Fight, Anger

“Is this one of those keep-your-friends-close-and-your-enemies-closer things?"
"I though it was keep your friends close so you have someone to drive the car when you sneak over to your enemy's house at night and throw up in his mailbox.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Fallen Angels

Source: City of Fallen Angels

Cars, Housing, Night

“The phenomenon of war is its hermaphroditism: the principles of victory and of defeat inhabit the same body and the necessary opponent, enemy, is merely the bed they self-exhaust each other on.”

William Faulkner book A Fable

Source: A Fable

War, Victory

“Treachery and violence are spears pointed at both ends; they wound those who resort to them worse than their enemies.”

Emily Brontë book Wuthering Heights

Source: Wuthering Heights

“One of the principal functions of a friend is to suffer (in a milder and symbolic form) the punishments that we should like, but are unable, to inflict upon our enemies.”

Aldous Huxley book Brave New World

Source: Brave New World

Suffering

“Fear is an enemy that can be killed only at close range. The closest range of all is intimacy. The deeper the fear is embedded in one’s spirit, the more vulnerable it is.”

Andrew Vachss (1942) American writer and lawyer

Source: Haiku

Fear

“And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise. The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.”

Sylvia Plath (1932–1963) American poet, novelist and short story writer

Source: The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath

Life, Way, Imagination

“Who in the universe halts when the enemy tells them to?”

Sherwood Smith book Crown Duel

Source: Crown Duel (Crown & Court #1 - 2, 1997)

Universe

“I stood my ground. "You evil scientist are all the same--evil. Count me out."

Fang and I brushed past Mr. God and walked quickly but smoothly to the exit. It was barely noon, and I'd already made a huge enemy.

Dang, I'm good.”

James Patterson (1947) American author

Source: Fang

God, Evil, Past

“When politicians start talking about large groups of their fellow Americans as 'enemies,' it's time for a quiet stir of alertness. Polarizing people is a good way to win an election, and also a good way to wreck a country.”

Molly Ivins (1944–2007) American journalist

People, Way, Time, Country

“Only a true best friend can protect you from your immortal enemies.”

Richelle Mead Vampire Academy

Source: Vampire Academy

Funny, Beauty, Friendship, Romantic

“I don't know who the good guys are anymore. But I do know what the enemy is. It's the compromise of principles. You lose the war when you lose your principles. And the first principle is to look out for your comrades.”

Karen Traviss British science fiction author

War, Guy

“When we see others as the enemy, we risk becoming what we hate. When we oppress others, we end up oppressing ourselves. All of our humanity is dependent upon recognizing the humanity in others.”

Desmond Tutu (1931) South African churchman, politician, archbishop, Nobel Prize winner

Hate, Dependency

“Utopia was here at last: its novelty had not yet been assailed by the supreme enemy of all Utopias—boredom.”

Arthur C. Clarke book Childhood's End

Source: Childhood's End

“You can discover what your enemy fears most by observing the means he uses to frighten you.”

Eric Hoffer (1898–1983) American philosopher

Section 222
The Passionate State Of Mind, and Other Aphorisms (1955)

Fear

“Every man with a bellyful of the classics is an enemy to the human race”

Henry Miller (1891–1980) American novelist

“Humiliate your enemy is dangerous.”

Karen Armstrong (1944) author and comparative religion scholar from Great Britain

Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life

“There is nothing more admirable than when two people who see eye to eye keep house as man and wife, confounding their enemies and delighting their friends.”

Homér The Odyssey (Cowper)

Source: The Odyssey

People, Housing, For Wife

“You cannot defeat your enemies until you know who they are.”

Anthony Horowitz book Crocodile Tears

Source: Crocodile Tears

“I want to tell her revenge is a devil you don’t want to worship. In destroying your enemy you become it.”

Karen Marie Moning (1964) author

Source: Burned

Revenge

“If those are your friends, you've got no need for enemies.”

E. Lockhart (1967) American writer of novels as E. Lockhart (mainly for teenage girls) and of picture books under real name Emily J…

Source: The Boyfriend List: 15 Guys, 11 Shrink Appointments, 4 Ceramic Frogs and Me, Ruby Oliver

“Never cease loving a person, and never give up hope for him, for even the prodigal son who had fallen most low, could still be saved; the bitterest enemy and also he who was your friend could again be your friend; love that has grown cold can kindle.”

Sören Kierkegaard (1813–1855) Danish philosopher and theologian, founder of Existentialism

Love, Hope, Personality

“My New Year’s Eve Toast: to all the devils, lusts, passions, greeds, envies, loves, hates, strange desires, enemies ghostly and real, the army of memories, with which I do battle — may they never give me peace.”

Patricia Highsmith (1921–1995) American novelist and short story writer

Love, Hate, Peace, Memory

“The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want for nothing. He makes me lie down in the green pastures. He greases up my head with oil. He gives me kung-fu in the face of my enemies. Amen”

Stephen King book The Stand

Source: The Stand

Lie

“The behavior of any bureaucratic organization can best be understood by assuming that it is controlled by a secret cabal of its enemies.”

Robert Conquest (1917–2015) poet and historian from England and the United States

Secret, Behavior

“I wanted to tell her not to entertain despair like this. Despaire wasn't a guest, you didn't play its favorite music, find it a comfortable chair. Despair was the enemy."
-white oleander”

Janet Fitch book White Oleander

Source: White Oleander

Music, Despair

“The reason grandparents and grandchildren get along so well is that they have a common enemy.”

Sam Levenson (1911–1980) American journalist

For Parents

“Humor was the enemy of desire.”

Arthur C. Clarke book 2010: Odyssey Two

Source: 2010: Odyssey Two

“If I couldn't be Eddis, I would be Attolia. If they needed to see my uncle in me, then I would show him to them. And I would take Attolia's advice because if I identified my enemy and destroyed him, Sounis would be safe.”

Megan Whalen Turner book A Conspiracy of Kings

Source: A Conspiracy of Kings

“Enemies,' the wizard said, 'are the price of honour.”

Terry Goodkind book Debt of Bones

Source: Debt of Bones

“Only he who is without anything is without enemies.”

Rafael Sabatini (1875–1950) Italian writer

Source: Captain Blood Returns

“Study nothing except in the knowledge that you already knew it. Worship nothing except in adoration of your true self. And fear nothing except in the certainty that you are your enemy's begetter and its only hope of healing.”

Clive Barker book Imajica

Source: Imajica

Fear, Hope, Knowledge, Study

“Nobody will ever win the battle of the sexes. There is too much fraternizing with the enemy.”

Henry Kissinger (1923–2023) United States Secretary of State

Sex, Valentine's Day

“You dare to stand with my enemy? (Stryker)
Against you, Father, I’d stand with Mickey Mouse. (Urian)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Acheron

“To destroy the enemy it can be necessary to understand him.”

Cassandra Clare The City of Lost Souls

Source: City of Lost Souls

Understanding

“I have no enemies. I dont permit such a thing.”

Cormac McCarthy book No Country for Old Men

Source: No Country for Old Men

“Scientists are the enemies of tradition, and tradition own all the prisons. - Victor Vigny”

Eoin Colfer book Airman

Source: Airman

“The absence of limitations is the enemy of art.”

Orson Welles (1915–1985) American actor, director, writer and producer

Art

“The only thing that gets me high is the musky scent of my enemy's fear”

Stephen Colbert (1964) American political satirist, writer, comedian, television host, and actor

Fear

“There was no warning, not even a knock. The door flew open, and he forgot his present aches and pains in anticipation of what lay in store. The figure that stood in the door was not that of an enemy. It was worse. It was his mother.”

Elizabeth Peters The Ape Who Guards the Balance

Source: The Ape Who Guards the Balance

Pain

“Self-consciousness is the enemy of all art, be it acting, writing, painting, or living itself, which is the greatest art of all.”

Ray Bradbury (1920–2012) American writer

Art, Painting

“Memory - that fiend, that cruel enemy of comfort.”

Paullina Simons book Tatiana and Alexander

Source: Tatiana and Alexander

Memory

“For I conclude that the enemy is not lipstick, but guilt itself; that we deserve lipstick, if we want it, AND free speech; we deserve to be sexual AND serious--or whatever we please; we are entitled to wear cowboy boots to our own revolution.”

Naomi Wolf (1962) American writer

For women

“Enemies are nothing compared to traitors, after all. It's the people you hold closest who have the most power to make you bleed.”

Ally Carter (1974) American writer

People

“I think that most people would rather face the light of a real enemy than the darkness of their imagined fears.”

Max Brooks book World War Z

Source: World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War

People, Fear, Imagination, Thinking

“Your enemy is never a villain in his own eyes. Keep this in mind; it may offer a way to make him your friend. If not, you can kill him without hate — and quickly.”

Robert A. Heinlein (1907–1988) American science fiction author

Hate, Way

“It's not your enemies who are likeliest to hurt you. It is, always, those you trust.”

Rachel Caine (1962) American writer

Source: Bitter Blood

Hurt

“Self-pity is our worst enemy and if we yield to it, we can never do anything good in the world.”

Helen Keller (1880–1968) American author and political activist

World

“These times make for strange friends and unexpected enemies.”

Rick Riordan book The Blood of Olympus

Source: The Blood of Olympus

Time

“He was her enemy, and she hated him because she could not hate him enough.”

Catherine Fisher (1957) Welsh children's writer

Hate

“Don't explain. Your friends do not need it, and your enemies will not believe you”

Paulo Coelho (1947) Brazilian lyricist and novelist

Source: Economic Warfare Quotes

“If everybody loves you, something is wrong. Find at least one enemy to keep you alert.”

Paulo Coelho (1947) Brazilian lyricist and novelist

Love

“Please be peaceful. We believe in law and order. We are not advocating violence, I want you to love your enemies… for what we are doing is right, what we are doing is just -- and God is with us.”

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement

Love, God, Peace, Law

“Adam gave me a scandalized look. "Fraternizing with the enemy!" he cried. "For shame, wench!”

Meg Cabot book Haunted

Source: Haunted

“Find the enemy. Don't let the enemy find you. Reconnaissance! Reconnaissance! Reconnaissance!”

Tom Clancy book Executive Orders

Executive Orders

“It seems to me people tend to forget that we are to love our enemies, not to satisfy some standard of righteousness but because God their Father loves them.”

Marilynne Robinson Gilead

Source: Gilead

Love, God, People, Forgetting

“There is nothing worse than an enemy with imagination.”

Sharon Kay Penman (1945) American historical novelist

Imagination

“Only people who're positive enough to have friends have enemies. When you're as glum and morose as he was, people just give up and go away.”

Ellis Peters (1913–1995) British writer

Source: A Nice Derangement of Epitaphs

People

“The trouble with unknown enemies is that they are so difficult to identify.”

Elizabeth Peters The Hippopotamus Pool

Source: The Hippopotamus Pool

“Enemies can't break your spirit, only friends can.”

Arundhati Roy book The Ministry of Utmost Happiness

Source: The Ministry of Utmost Happiness

“The nuclear arms race is like two sworn enemies standing waist deep in gasoline, one with three matches, the other with five.”

Carl Sagan (1934–1996) American astrophysicist, cosmologist, author and science educator

“You are your own worst enemy. If you can learn to stop expecting impossible perfection, in yourself and others, you may find the happiness that has always eluded you.”

Lisa Kleypas (1964) American writer

Source: Love in the Afternoon

Happiness, Learning, Perfection

“The only teacher that's worth anything to you is your enemy.”

Orson Scott Card book Xenocide

Source: Xenocide

Teachers

“Never hate your enemies. It affects your judgment.”

Mario Puzo The Godfather

Source: The Godfather

Hate

“The enemy is anybody who's going to get you killed, no matter which side he's on.”

Joseph Heller book Catch-22

Source: Catch-22 (1961)

“Every war is a murderous struggle between foes. And yet, no army has ever marched into battle believing that the Creator had sided with their enemy.”

Terry Goodkind book Wizard's First Rule

Source: Wizard's First Rule

War

“Never offend an enemy in a small way.”

Gore Vidal book Julian

Source: Julian

Way

“Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.”

George W. Bush (1946) 43rd President of the United States

Remarks During Signing of Defense Bill http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2004/aug/06/uselections2004.usa2 (5 August 2004). <br class="br">2000s, 2004

People, Way, Thinking, Country

“I can tell we’re going to get along like Batman and the Joker. (Fang)
Just remember one thing, world. I’m the best friend you’ll ever have or the last enemy you’ll ever make. (Thorn)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Bad Moon Rising

World

“A man can condemn his enemies, but it’s wiser to know them.”

Harper Lee book Go Set a Watchman

Source: Go Set a Watchman

“You don't want to fight the enemy anymore?"
"I don't want to fight anyone. I have no enemies. I want to go home.”

Ágota Kristóf (1935–2011) Hungarian Swiss writer

Source: The Notebook, The Proof, The Third Lie: Three Novels

Home, Fight

“Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy to a friend.”

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement

1950s, Loving Your Enemies (Christmas 1957)
Context: A third reason why we should love our enemies is that love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend. We never get rid of an enemy by meeting hate with hate; we get rid of an enemy by getting rid of enmity. By its very nature, love creates and builds up. Love transforms with redemptive power.

Love, Friendship, For Him, For Friend

“If you take a shot at someone, you keep firing until they can no longer return fire. Wound them, and you have an angry enemy who knows your position.”

Karen Traviss British science fiction author

“Shall there be truth between us, as two men? Not as friends, but as enemies and equals?”

Stephen King book The Gunslinger

Source: The Gunslinger

Men, Truth

“You're an enemy of art and I pity your ignorance," Domingo said.”

William Goldman book The Princess Bride

Source: The Princess Bride

Art

“Perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor, the enemy of the people.”

Anne Lamott (1954) Novelist, essayist, memoirist, activist

Source: Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life

People, Motivational, Back To Work

“Once you best a man, never gloat. Be generous and find something in his actions to praise. He won't enjoy being bested but he'll make a good face about it. Show him you appreciate it. Praise can win you a friend. Gloating will only ever make enemies.”

John Flanagan (1873–1938) Irish-American hammer thrower

Source: The Ruins of Gorlan

“However, it has long been said that "my enemy's enemy is my friend.”

Seth Grahame-Smith (1976) US fiction author

Source: Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter

“And you know, I agree to everything:
I will condemn, I will forget, I will give comfort to the enemy,
Darkness will be light and sin lovely.”

Anna Akhmatova (1889–1966) Russian modernist poet

Source: The Complete Poems of Anna Akhmatova

Love, Light, Forgetting

“It is certain, in any case, that ignorance, allied with power, is the most ferocious enemy justice can have.”

James Baldwin book No Name in the Street

No Name in the Street (1972)
Context: Well, if one really wishes to know how justice is administered in a country, one does not question the policemen, the lawyers, the judges, or the protected members of the middle class. One goes to the unprotected — those, precisely, who need the law's protection most! — and listens to their testimony. Ask any Mexican, any Puerto Rican, any black man, any poor person — ask the wretched how they fare in the halls of justice, and then you will know, not whether or not the country is just, but whether or not it has any love for justice, or any concept of it. It is certain, in any case, that ignorance, allied with power, is the most ferocious enemy justice can have.

Justice

“Let's never try to get even with our enemies, because if we do we will hurt ourselves far more than we hurt them. Let's do as General Eisenhower does: let's never waste a minute thinking about people we don't like.”

Dale Carnegie book How to Stop Worrying and Start Living

Source: How to Stop Worrying and Start Living (1948), p. 101.

People, Thinking, Hurt

“Wait!" Conrad said. "Did someone… one of my enemies set this fire?"
Nix turned back with a grin. "Unless you'd pissed off some wirring-hungry nutrias, then I'm going with no.”

Kresley Cole American writer

Source: Dark Needs at Night's Edge

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