We must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love. There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies. Martin Luther King
Forgive your enemies but never forget their names. John F Kennedy
Money can’t buy you friends but you do get a better class of enemy. Spike Milligan, attributions & variations, viz Wikiquotes unsourced
Alcohol may be man’s worst enemy, but the bible says love your enemy. Frank Sinatra
To defeat this enemy it is necessary to wage a new all-out offensive. Richard Nixon
Never forget: the establishment is the enemy. The professors are the enemy. The press is the enemy. Richard Nixon, tapes
Homosexuality, dope, immorality in general. These are the enemies of strong societies. Nixon by Nixon: In His Own Words, Sky Atlantic 2018
The violence and intimidation we have seen should never have happened. It is the work of extremists. It is the enemy within. Margaret Thatcher, Newsnight interview
You don’t join with your enemy; you don’t make deals with him; you destroy him. Margaret starring Lindsay Duncan & Ian McDiarmid & Roger Allam & Michael Cochrane & Oliver Cotton & Philip Jackson & Robert Hardy & James Fox et al, director James Kent, BBC 2009
Do you know who was the enemy? The Bed Sitting Room 1969 starring Peter Cook & Peter Sellers & Spike Milligan & Harry Secombe & Ralph Richardson & Dudley Moore & Rita Tushingham & Arthur Lowe & Roy Kinnear & Jimmy Edwards & Ronald Fraser & Michael Hordern & Marty Feldman et al, director Richard Lester, doctor
In searching for a new enemy to unite us, we came up with the idea that pollution, the threat of global warming, water shortages, famine, and the like would fit the bill ... All these dangers are caused by human intervention ... But the real enemy, then, is humanity itself. The First Global Revolution, published Club of Rome 1991
Happiness lies in conquering one’s enemies, in driving them in front of oneself, in taking their property, in savouring their despair, in outraging their wives and daughters. Genghis Khan
Always forgive your enemies – nothing annoys them so much. Oscar Wilde
A man cannot be too careful in the choice of his enemies. Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1891
This was how an enemy should be dealt with: with a dagger, not a declaration. George R R Martin, A Feast for Crows
It’s treason to free your enemies. In war, you kill your enemies. Did your father not teach you that, boy? Game of Thrones s3e5: Kissed By Fire, Rickard Karstark, HBO 2013
I destroy my enemy when I make him my friend. Abraham Lincoln
We should forgive our enemies, but not before they are hanged. Heinrich Heine
You have enemies? Why, it is the story of every man who has done a great deed or created a new idea. It is the cloud which thunders around everything that shines. Fame must have enemies, as light must have gnats. Do not bother yourself about it; disdain. Keep your mind serene as you keep your life clear. Victor Hugo, Villemain, 1845; similar quote by Winston Churchill often misattributed
This is no time for making new enemies. Voltaire, attributed, asked to renounce devil bedside
Because in an age when all the grand ideas have lost credibility, fear of a phantom enemy is all the politicians have left to maintain their power. Adam Curtis, The Power of Nightmares, BBC 2004
Vladimir Putin, whose power in reality was becoming increasingly fragile at home in Russia, became in the eyes of the West a dark malevolent force, which made him seem far stronger than he really was. Adam Curtis, Can’t Get You Out of My Head VI Are We a Pigeon? Or Are We Dancer? ***** BBC 2021
I am the enemy you killed, my friend.
I knew you in this dark: for you so frowned
Yesterday through me as you jabbed and killed …
Let us sleep now. Wilfred Owen, Strange Meeting
People wish their enemies dead – but I do not; I say give them the gout, give them the stone! Lady Mary Wortley Montagu
The greatest enemy will hide in the last place you would ever look. Julius Caesar
He was within a few hours of giving his enemies the slip for ever. Laurence Sterne, Tristram Shandy
Fidel Castro is right. You do not quieten your enemy by talking with him like a priest but by burning him. Nicolae Ceausescu
I have written on all sorts of subjects ... Yet I have no enemies. Except indeed all the Whigs, all the Tories, and all the Christians. David Hume
The innocent and the beautiful
Have no enemy but time. W B Yeats
If we don’t have any real enemies, it may be necessary to create them. G Edward Griffin, interview Shadowplay I
Thou cam’st on earth to make the earth my hell ...
What comfortable hour canst thou name
That ever graced me in thy company? William Shakespeare, Richard III IV iv 167 & 174-175, Duchess of York to King Richard
My nearest and dearest enemy. William Shakespeare, I Henry IV III ii 123
I have been feasting with mine enemy. William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet II ii 49, Romeo to Friar Laurence
Thou seest the world, Volumnius, how it goes;
Our enemies have beat us to the pit:
It is more worthy to leap in ourselves,
Than tarry till they push us. William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar V v 22
When she was dear to us we did hold her so;
But now her price is fallen. William Shakespeare, The History of King Lear I i 186-187, Lear
Sir, will you with those infirmities she owes,
Unfriended, new-adopted to our hate,
Covered with our curse and strangered with our oath
Take her or leave her? ibid. I i @192
Combine together ’gainst the enemy. ibid. V i 31, Gonoril
Heat not a furnace for your foe so hot
That it do singe yourself. William Shakespeare, Henry VIII I i 140
Had I but served my God with half the zeal
I served my king, he would not in mine age
Have left me naked to mine enemies. ibid. III ii 456
An old man, broken with the storms of state
Is come to lay his weary bones among ye;
Give him a little earth for charity. ibid. IV ii 21
We can even learn from our enemies. Ovid, Metamorphoses
Thou shalt not delay to offer the first of thy ripe fruits, and of thy liquors: the firstborn of thy sons shalt thou give unto me. Exodus 22:29
And ye shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword.
And five of you shall chase an hundred, and an hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight: and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword. Leviticus 26:7&8
For the Lord your God is he that goeth with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you. Deuteronomy 20:4
Happy art thou, O Israel: who is like unto thee, O people saved by the Lord, the shield of thy help, and who is the sword of thy excellency! and thine enemies shall be found liars unto thee; and thou shalt tread upon their high places. Deuteronomy 33:29
And the Lord gave them rest round about, according to all that he sware unto their fathers: and there stood not a man of all their enemies before them; the Lord delivered all their enemies into their hand. Joshua 21:44