A Friend Is An Enemy Quotes & Sayings

If I learned anything Downtown, it's this: the only real difference between an enemy and a friend is the day of the week. — Richard Kadrey

To oblige a friend by inflicting an injury on his enemy is often more easy than to confer a benefit on the friend himself. — Anthony Trollope

Listen! Clam up your mouth and be silent like an oyster shell, for that tongue of yours is the enemy of the soul, my friend. When the lips are silent, the heart has a hundred tongues. — Rumi

Wine is a turne-coate (first a friend, then an enemy).
[Wine is a turncoat, first a friend, then an enemy.] — George Herbert

It's more dangerous to have a friend then it is to have an enemy. — James Jean-Pierre

Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy. Whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a friend. — George Orwell

A prince is also esteemed when he shows himself a true friend or a true enemy, that is, when, without reservation, he takes his stand with one side or the other. This is always wiser than trying to be neutral, for if two powerful neighbors of yours fall out they are either of such sort that the victor may give you reason to fear him or they are not. In either case it will be better for you to take sides and wage an honest war. — Niccolo Machiavelli

Universe is a friend, it creates us; universe is an enemy, it kills us! It is neither a complete-friend, nor a complete-enemy. — Mehmet Murat Ildan

Change is a friend to a life with a vision, but an enemy to an aimless person. — Innocent Mwatsikesimbe

Hospitality means primarily the creation of free space where the stranger can enter and become a friend instead of an enemy. Hospitality is not to change people, but to offer them space where change can take place. It is not to bring men and women over to our side, but to offer freedom not disturbed by dividing lines. — Henri J.M. Nouwen

Your relationship with your brother will be, in many ways, the most complex and bewildering of all the interpersonal connections you will form. An older brother is both authority and peer, friend and bitter enemy, partner and rival, and will play these contradictory roles to varying degrees throughout your life. At this point the rivalry is most prominent, owing to the difference in age and the resentment your brother feels toward you monopolizing your mother's attention. Try to remember, in the face of the poor treatment you receive at his hands, that more than a pure desire to cause you harm or pain, this is an effort on his part to win back some of that attention, even if it's only through being scolded and punished. — Ron Currie Jr.

Past and Present I know well; each is a friend and sometimes an enemy to me. But it is the quiet, beckoning Future, an absolute stranger, with whom I have fallen madly in love. — Richelle E. Goodrich

I do remain optimistic that one day the world will realise that carbon dioxide is more of a friend than an enemy to the earth's flora and fauna, and I do seriously believe that, given the extraordinary complexity of the natural forces controlling our climate, which have done so for millions of years, the only sensible policy response to the natural process of climate change is prudent and cost-effective adaptation. — Nick Minchin

THE SEVEN COMMANDMENTS Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy. Whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a friend. No animal shall wear clothes. No animal shall sleep in a bed. No animal shall drink alcohol. No animal shall kill any other animal. All animals are equal. — George Orwell

We would be a lot safer if the Government would take its money out of science and put it into astrology and the reading of palms. Only in superstition is there hope. If you want to become a friend of civilization, then become an enemy of the truth and a fanatic for harmless balderdash. — Kurt Vonnegut

Indifference elicits no response. Indifference is not a response. Indifference is not a beginning; it is an end. And, therefore, indifference is always the friend of the enemy, for it benefits the aggressor - never his victim, whose pain is magnified when he or she feels forgotten. — Elie Wiesel

All women should understand that a mammogram is nothing to be afraid of. It's not an enemy but a friend. Early detection is the key to the cure. — Kate Jackson

The best thing to give
your enemy is forgiveness;
to an oponent, tolerance;
to a friend, your heart;
to your child, a good example;
to your father, deference;
to your mother, conduct that will make her proud of you;
to your self, respect;
to all men charity. — Swami Sivananda Radha

As an introvert, you can be your own best friend or your worst enemy. The good news is we generally like our own company, a quality that extroverts often envy. We find comfort in solitude and know how to soothe ourselves. Even our willingness to look at ourselves critically is often helpful.
But, we can go too far. We can hoard responsibility and overlook the role others play. We can kick ourselves when we're down. How many times have you felt lousy about something, only to get mad at yourself for feeling lousy? — Laurie A. Helgoe

The brutal honesty of a friend is better than the fake flattery of an enemy. — Me

Ranger is a man of few words. He's Cuban-American, former Special Forces, he makes a much better friend than an enemy, and he's Vinnie's numero uno bounty hunter. — Janet Evanovich

The attack of an enemy is easier to fend off than the betrayal of a friend. — Matshona Dhliwayo

It is easier to forgive an enemy than to forgive a friend. — William Blake

Once one recognizes the value of having difficult obstacles to overcome, it is a simple matter to see the true benefit that can be gained from competitive sports. In tennis who is it that provides a person with the obstacles he needs in order to experience his highest limits? His opponent, of course! Then is your opponent a friend or an enemy? He is a friend to the extent that he does his best to make things difficult for you. Only by playing the role of your enemy does he become your true friend. Only by competing with you does he in fact cooperate! No one wants to stand around on the court waiting for the big wave. In this use of competition it is the duty of your opponent to create the greatest possible difficulties for you, just as it is yours to try to create obstacles for him. Only by doing this do you give each other the opportunity to find out to what heights each can rise. — Zach Kleiman

Life becomes livable only to the extent that death is treated as a friend, never as an enemy. — Mahatma Gandhi

The only way we can change an enemy to a friend is by forgiveness. — Debasish Mridha

Nothing is so dangerous as an ignorant friend; a wise enemy is worth more.
[Fr., Rien n'est si dangereux qu'un ignorant ami;
Mieux vaudrait un sage ennemi.] — Jean De La Fontaine

Ignorance is an enemy, even to its owner.
Knowledge is a friend, even to its hater.
Ignorance hates knowledge because it is too pure.
Knowledge fears ignorance because it is too sure. — Sri Chinmoy

What you lend is lost; when you ask for it back, you may find a friend made an enemy by your kindness. If you begin to press him further, you have the choice of two things
either to lose your loan or lose your friend. — Plautus

By humility, out of an enemy He has made a friend, which is more than to have created a new earth. — Meister Eckhart

It is easier for an ambitious friend to become an enemy than for an enemy to become a friend. It is even easier to make friends than you can find people to trust as friends. — Janvier Chouteu-Chando

Do the people of the South really entertain fears that a Republican administration would, directly, or indirectly, interfere with their slaves, or with them, about their slaves? If they do, I wish to assure you, as once a friend, and still, I hope, not an enemy, that there is no cause for such fears. — Abraham Lincoln

What good is a friend if you cant make an enemy of him? — William Gillette

What is he? A friend or an enemy? The alethiometer answered: He is a murderer. — Philip Pullman

We need an enemy to give people hope. Someone said that patriotism is the last refuge of cowards: those without moral principles usually wrap a flag around themselves, and the bastards always talk about the purity of the race. National identity is the last bastion of the dispossessed. But the meaning of identity is now based on hatred, on hatred for those who are not the same. Hatred has to be cultivated as a civic passion. The enemy is the friend of the people. You always want someone to hate in order to feel justified in your own misery. Hatred is the primordial passion. It is love that's abnormal. — Umberto Eco

Wine is a turncoat; first a friend and then an enemy. — Henry Fielding

At the moment, the general perception ... is that the United States is an unreliable friend and a harmless enemy. — Bernard Lewis

What a need we humans have for confession. To a priest, to a friend, to a psychoanalyst, to a relative, to an enemy, even to a torturer when there is no one else, it doesn't matter so long as we speak out what moves within us. Even the most secretive of us do it, if no more than writing in a private diary. And I have often thought as I read stories and novels and poems, especially poems, that they are no more than authors' confessions transformed by their art into something that confesses for us all. Indeed, looking back on my life-long passion for reading, the one activity that has kept me going and given me the most and only lasting pleasure, I think this is the reason that explains why it means so much to me. The books, the authors who matter the most are those who speak to me and speak for me all those things about life I most need to hear as the confession of myself. — Aidan Chambers

It is better to decide a difference between enemies than friends, for one of our friends will certainly become an enemy and one of our enemies a friend. — Pierre-Jean De Beranger

To forgive is not to forget. The merit lies in loving in spite of the vivid knowledge that one that must be loved is not a friend. There is not merit in loving an enemy when you forget him for a friend. — Mahatma Gandhi

You seem to look upon depression as the hand of an enemy trying to crush you ... Do you think you could see it instead as the hand of a friend, pressing you down to the ground on which it is safe to stand? — Parker J. Palmer

I took note of the Buddha's teaching that in one sense a supposed enemy is more valuable than a friend, for an enemy teaches you things, such as forbearance, that a friend generally does not. — Dalai Lama XIV

A false friend is more dangerous than an open enemy — Francis Bacon

The simplest words we use to describe each other - such as friend, family, stranger - are loaded with judgments. The enormous gulf in meaning between friend and stranger, for example, is filled with interpretations. A friend is treated one way, an enemy another. Even if we do not bring these judgments to the surface, they cloud our vision like dust obscuring a lens. — Deepak Chopra

The only peace that can be made with a dictator is once that must be based on deterrence. For today, the dictator may be your friend, but tomorrow he will need you as an enemy. — Natan Sharansky

Fire is our friend, fire is our enemy! This idea is also valid for all other things; all the things we see around us are both our friends and our enemies! With rocks you can build a house but rocks can also kill you! Everything is a friend, everything is an enemy! Water is your friend, water is your enemy! — Mehmet Murat Ildan

An intelligent enemy,' he would say, stroking his beard as if it were a bristly pet, 'rather than a foolish friend.' Or, 'He learnt the language of pigeons, and forgot his own.' Or, the favourite of Jan Fishan Khan: 'Nothing is what it seems. — Tahir Shah

Education is a companion which no misfortune can depress, no crime can destroy, no enemy can alienate, no despotism can enslave. At home, a friend, abroad, an introduction, in solitude a solace and in society an ornament. It chastens vice, it guides virtue, it gives at once grace and government to genius. Without it, what is man? A splendid slave, a reasoning savage. — Joseph Addison

AugustineThe wounds of a friend are better than the kisses of an enemy. To love with sternness is better than to deceive with gentleness ... In Luke [14:23] it is written: "Compel people to come in!" By threats of the wrath of God, the Father draws souls to his Son. — Saint Augustine

Just the wrong perspective," he said. "We're squaring them up to be the enemy, but mostly because we need an enemy." "So you're saying you're wrong about the cyberthreat?" "No, but . . ." Chuck left his fork in the fries and picked up a shrimp with his fingers. "But what?" "Maybe we're blinding ourselves to the real enemy." "What enemy is that, my conspiracy-loving friend?" I asked, rolling my eyes, expecting some rhetoric about the CIA or NSA. Chuck finished shelling his shrimp and pointed it at me. "Fear. Fear is the real enemy." He looked up at the ceiling. "Fear and ignorance." I laughed. "With all this stuff you're stockpiling, aren't you the one that's afraid?" "Not afraid," he said deliberately, looking straight into my eyes. "Prepared." — Matthew Mather

The poor man looks upon the law as an enemy, not as a friend. For him, the law is always taking something away. — Robert Kennedy

A Fake Friend is an enemy in disguise. — Ellen J. Barrier

The difference between a friend and an enemy is friendliness. — Frank Delaney

She had asked: What is he? A friend or an enemy?
The alethiometer answered: He is a murderer.
When she saw the answer, she relaxed at once. He could find food, and show her how to reach Oxford, and those were powers that were useful, but he might still have been untrustworthy or cowardly. A murderer was a worthy companion. She felt as safe with him as she'd done with Iorek Byrnison the armoured bear. — Philip Pullman

The man journeyed far, and he heard and saw many strange things on his travels. He learned that - that the friend and the enemy are but two faces of the same self. That the path one believes chosen long since, constant and unchangeable, straight and wide, can alter in an instant. Can branch, and twist and lead the traveler to places far beyond his wildest imaginings. That there are mysteries beyond the mind of mortal man, and that to deny their existence is to spend a life of half-consciousness. — Juliet Marillier

A sword by itself is not evil. A sword can be used to slay an enemy, or release a suffering friend into the darkness. A sword can cut ropes that bind the helpless. A raised sword can be a threat or it can be a symbol of leadership ... A weapon, my children, is good or evil depending on the intention of whoever holds it. — Jonathan Maberry

Do you know what a friend is, milord? (Emily)
An enemy in disguise. (Draven) — Kinley MacGregor

America is harmless as an enemy but treacherous as a friend. — Bernard Lewis

It may be doubtful, at first, whether a person is an enemy or friend. Meat, if not properly digested, becomes poison; But poison, if used rightly, may turn medicinal. — Saskya Pandita

It is better to have an enemy than to have a fool for a friend. — Matshona Dhliwayo

The best time to stop a fight is before it starts.
The best vitamin for developing friends is B1.
The best way to destroy an enemy in to make him a friend. — Abraham Lincoln

The slap of a friend is trusted to help you ... but the kisses of an enemy is nothing but lies — Anonymous

A sister is a dearest friend, a closest enemy, and an angel at the time of need. — Debasish Mridha

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, hate destroys and tears down; by its very nature, love creates and builds up. Love transforms with redemptive power. — Martin Luther King Jr.

The best way to get along is never to forgive an enemy or forget a friend. — Walter Winchell

Huzzah! Free Trade and Sailors' Rights! But instead American ships are captured and sailors impressed by the thousands into the British Navy, becoming slaves to the lash, while the United States has virtually no navy to back them up. Baltimore native, Nathan Jeffries, son of an American hero, Captain William Jeffries, and his Quaker wife, Amy, is haunted by the memories of his fiancee, his best friend, his enemy's woman and his betrayal. Chesapeake Bay is no refuge aboard his father's brig Bucephalus;facing his worst fears, he is chased and captured by armed privateer schooner Scourge. In a violent world at war, Nathan must break his most solemn promise to his mother. For Nathan and the young United States, 1812 would severely challenge rights of passage. — Bert J. Hubinger

For the young, death is an enemy they wish to try their strength against. For those of us a little older, she is an old friend, an old lover, but one we are not eager to meet again soon. — Robert Jordan

THE SEVEN COMMANDMENTS 1. Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy. 2. Whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a friend. 3. No animal shall wear clothes. 4. No animal shall sleep in a bed. 5. No animal shall drink alcohol. 6. No animal shall kill any other animal. 7. All animals are equal. It — George Orwell

If any speak ill of thee, flee home to thy own conscience, and examine thy heart: if thou be guilty, it is a just correction; if not guilty, it is a fair instruction: make use of both; so shalt thou distil honey out of gall, and out of an open enemy create a secret friend. — Francis Quarles

Life is a series of diminishments. Each cessation of an activity either from choice or some other variety of infirmity is a death, a putting to final rest. Each loss, of friend or precious enemy, can be equated with the closing off of a room containing blocks of nerves and soon after the closing off the nerves atrophy and that part of oneself, in essence, drops away. The self is lightened, is held on earth by a gram less of mass and will. — Coleman Dowell

He is many things - dangerous and devious, cunning and deadly, a good friend and an implacable enemy - but he comes from an age when a man's word was indeed precious. — Michael Scott

Another way to put an end to self-rejection is ask yourself whether what you're telling yourself is what a friend would say, or what an enemy would. Friends are supportive. Enemies put us down and undermine our confidence. So if you say something that an enemy would say, stop. Answer back, 'I'm going to be supportive of myself. As a friend, what I have to say to myself is ... ' Then say something supportive. — Mira Kirshenbaum

Those who live with insomnia and who consider sleep both an enemy and a gift will understand the following. Some of us cannot comprehend how anyone except the very good or those who have no conscience at all can sleep from dark to dawn without dreaming or waking. We hear William Blake's tiger padding softly through a green jungle, his stripes glowing, his whiskers spotted with gore. Psychoanalysis does no good. Neither does a health regimen that induces physical exhaustion. The only solution that is guaranteed is the one provided by our old friend Morpheus, who requires our souls in the bargain. — James Lee Burke

He asked, 'Croesus, who told you to attack my land and meet me as an enemy instead of a friend?'
The King replied, 'It was caused by your good fate and my bad fate. It was the fault of the Greek gods, who with their arrogance, encouraged me to march onto your lands. Nobody is mad enough to choose war whilst there is peace. During times of peace, the sons bury their fathers, but in war it is the fathers who send their sons to the grave. — Herodotus

The best way to lose an enemy is to treat him like a friend. — John Maxwell

To forgive a friend, one must practice generosity. To forgive an enemy, one must practice empathy. To forgive yourself requires charity. Forgiveness is a sacred act of gallantry. — Mac MacKenzie

The best way to destroy an enemy is to make him a friend. — Abraham Lincoln

To a friend, achievement is good news, to an enemy, it's bragging. — Vanna Bonta

The most powerful force that can transform an enemy into a friend is simple kindness. — Debasish Mridha

While a battle is raging one can see his enemy mowed down by the thousand, or the ten thousand, with great composure; but after the battle these scenes are distressing, and one is naturally disposed to do as much to alleviate the suffering of an enemy as a friend. — Ulysses S. Grant

Solitude is an interesting companion. It is both enemy and friend, comforter and tormentor. I spent a lot of time in Dun Cinzci's meat locker trying to decide which. Fortunately, when I tired of solitude, I had guilt to keep me company. Guilt is an even more interesting acquaintance than solitude, let me tell you. Solitude is a harsh but essentially benign attendant. Guilt, on the other hand, is a living, breathing creature, cruel and remorseless. It eats you from the inside out; devours what little hope you have left. It feeds on you, growing stronger with every accursed replayed memory, every useless recrimination." ~ Cayal, The Immortal Prince — Jennifer Fallon

A friend whose hopes we cannot satisfy is a friend we would rather have as an enemy. — Friedrich Nietzsche

To be an enemy of America can be dangerous, but to be a friend is fatal — Henry A. Kissinger

For it is not an enemy who taunts me - then I could bear it; it is not an adversary who t deals insolently with me - then I could hide from him. 13 u But it is you, a man, my equal, my companion, my familiar friend. 14 We used to take sweet counsel together; within God's house we walked in v the throng. — Anonymous

It is my conviction that nothing enduring
can be built on violence.
The only safe way to overcome an enemy
is to make of that enemy a friend. — Mahatma Gandhi

Nothing is as dangerous as an ignorant friend; a wise enemy is to be preferred. — Jean De La Fontaine

What madness it is for a man to starve himself to enrich his heir, and so turn a friend into an enemy! For his joy at your death will be proportioned to what you leave him. — Seneca The Younger

Death is either a friend who rocks us gently as a nurse, or an enemy who violently drags the soul from the body. — Alexandre Dumas

An act by which we make one friend and one enemy is a losing game; because revenge is a much stronger principle than gratitude — Charles Caleb Colton

The best thing to give to your enemy is forgiveness; to an opponent, tolerance; to a friend, your heart; to your child, a good example; to a father, deference; to your mother, conduct that will make her proud of you; to yourself, respect; to all others, charity. — Benjamin Franklin

A man that is a friend to everyone is an enemy to himself. — Mike Tyson

Google is my best friend and my worst enemy. It's fabulous for research, but then it becomes addictive. I'll have a character eating an orange, and next thing I'm Googling types of oranges, I'm visiting chat rooms about oranges, I'm learning the history of the orange. — Liane Moriarty

Why, a dog, whenever he sees a stranger, is angry; when an acquaintance, he welcomes him, although the one has never done him any harm, nor the other any good. Did this never strike you as curious? The matter never struck me before; but I quite recognise the truth of your remark. And surely this instinct of the dog is very charming; - your dog is a true philosopher. Why? Why, because he distinguishes the face of a friend and of an enemy only by the criterion of knowing and not knowing. And must not an animal be a lover of learning who determines what he likes and dislikes by the test of knowledge and ignorance? Most — Plato

Pride, oh pride - a friend from the past, a bodyguard of the present, and an enemy of the future. Books, oh books - a friend from the past, a soul mate of the present, and a protector of the future.
Slowly, softly, and surely through the pages of the past, I have found a new me. There were so many things to learn and so many things remaining to learn. I delight in the truth of why some books I will read, and other I will not. The truth is: I was not choosing.
In pleasing myself with books, I transform myself. And I've found sometimes the most amazing keys to unlocking a different part of me in the strangest of books. I go to libraries and there they are waiting for me. I love them, and they love me. — Mark Donnelly

The mind becomes a friend to the one who has control over it and an enemy to the one who is controlled by it. — Edward Viljoen

In order to have an enemy, one must be somebody. One must be a force before he can be resisted by another force. A malicious enemy is better than a clumsy friend. — Sophie Swetchine

Truth from an enemy is better than lies from a friend. — Matshona Dhliwayo

He can hardly be a true friend to another, who is an enemy to himself. — James Howell

There is an Italian proverb which saith, From my enemy let me defend myself; but from a pretensed friend Lord deliver me — Elizabeth I

If you treat people with dignity, respect and friendliness, you can turn enemies into friends. An enemy is nothing but a friend in disguise. — Ted Turner