My Opponent Quotes & Sayings

I can hardly think of an occasion when I've got into a stand-up fight with any political opponent. I've got my views, people know what they are, they can agree or they can choose to disagree. I'm not going to waste time just rubbishing everybody else. — Charles Kennedy

After a match, my opponent goes to the hospital and gets an IV and I have a martini. — Tank Abbott

I don't want to give my opponent the satisfaction of watching me celebrate, which would make it look like a big deal that I beat him. — Brent Metcalf

I was just glad I've got an opponent, to be honest. This is my third opponent for this fight prep. [I'm over the moon] to be fighting in my hometown and I just didn't want that taken away. The fact that they've got me a new opponent, I'm not bothered who it is. I just focus on what I can control in my preparation and that's all I've got to worry about. My opponent changes but they're all great fighters in the UFC. Doesn't matter who you step in there with, it's going to be a tough fight. — Richie Vaculik

I feel old when I see mousse in my opponent's hair. — Andre Agassi

Another thing is war. I am naturally warlike. Attacking is one of my instincts. Being able to be an enemy, being an enemy - these require a strong nature, perhaps; in any case every strong nature presupposes them. It needs resistances, so it seeks
resistance: aggressive pathos is just as integrally necessary to strength as the feeling of revenge and reaction is to weakness. Woman, forinstance, is vengeful: that is a condition of her weakness, as is her sensitivity to other people's afflictions. - The strength of anattacker can in a way be gauged by the opposition he requires; allgrowth makes itself manifest by searching out a more powerful opponent - or problem: for a philosopher who is warlike challenges problems to duels, too. The task is not to master all resistances, but only those against which one has to pit one's entire strength, suppleness, and mastery-at-arms - opponents who are equal ... — Friedrich Nietzsche

When you have butterflies and you're feeling anxious and you have anxiety or are nervous, that's when you're most powerful... A lot of people, instead of honing this power and using it, they allow it to just consume them. There's another quote that says, 'A big challenge, a big pressure is like a fire, it's like a raging fire. Either you can allow this fire to consume you and just take you over completely, or you can gain control of this fire and harness it and you blow it right at your opponent, Dragonball Z style.' That's what I'm trying to do, trying to get my emotions under control and use this adrenaline to my advantage. — Jon Jones

This year I guess I decided in the bigger matches to take it more to my opponent instead of waiting a bit more for the mistakes. Yeah, this is I guess how you want to win Wimbledon, is by going after your shots, believing you can do it, and that's what I was able to do today. — Roger Federer

While I was boxing professionally, I never thought about my looks. The furthest thing from my mind was 'messing up my pretty face' when I was on my way to the ring to meet my opponent. Yet, people I'd meet along the way would always ask me if I was worried about my looks. Then they would go on to say that I was 'too pretty to box.' — Laila Ali

I keep on fighting as long as my opponent can make a mistake. — Emanuel Lasker

In the days that followed the Columbine tragedy, I was amazed at how quickly fingers began to be pointed at groups such as the NRA. I am not a member of the NRA. I am not a hunter. I do not even own a gun. I am not here to represent or defend the NRA - because I don't believe that they are responsible for my daughter's death. Therefore I do not believe that they need to be defended. If I believed they had anything to do with Rachel's murder I would be their strongest opponent. — Darrell Scott

My opponent asks her supporters to recite a three-word loyalty pledge. It reads, 'I'm With Her.' I choose to recite a different pledge. My pledge reads, 'I'm with you - the American people.' — Donald Trump

The challenge for me is his size because, for the first time in my career, I'll be meeting an opponent who is taller than me and has a longer reach. — Wladimir Klitschko

If you're going to try to win an election, you can't be 80 percent. You can't say, I'm for what my Democratic opponent is, for but not quite so much of it. — Pete Du Pont

My favourite victory is when it is not even clear where my opponent made a mistake. — Peter Leko

I like to grasp the initiative and not give my opponent peace of mind. — Mikhail Tal

It is an Akido style of martial art. The family disturber throws their disturbance at me like a punch, and I flow with it and its energy, while taking care of myself and my opponent. In Mindell's work, an attitude of eldership means the elder uses dance to dance freely between the energy of the disturber and the energy of the one disturbed. In Mindell's talk, he explains that when we get down to this level, we are in Process Mind or into the mind behind the system itself. — Gary Reiss

My opponent is Short and the match will be short. — Garry Kasparov

I look in the mirror, my only opponent — Jay-Z

My opponent left a glass of whisky 'en prise' and I took it 'en passant'. — Joseph Henry Blackburne

In chess, we have styles - like in any other field. There are also fashions in the kinds of systems that people play. So I'm trying to know my opponent as much as possible. — Garry Kasparov

I must add ... my gratitude to you for the attention with which you have listened to me, for, from my numerous observations, our Liberals are never capable of letting anyone else have a conviction of his own without at once meeting their opponent with abuse or even something worse. — Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Said an opponent to me after my last protest was sent in, what party would you vote for, if you could? Neither. I would have a moral sentiment party. I would know the private character of my candidate, would know also whether he takes care of his own property
whether he had failed in business
if so, whether he had paid back every dollar of debt as fast as he had earned them. Yes, every candidate should be examined morally, and if it be found that he has not been true to the monitions of conscience in one direction, he cannot or will not be in another ... — Harriot Kezia Hunt

I ran two campaigns for governor in a state that's 2-1 Democrat where I did not mention my opponent in print, radio, or television. I don't know if any other politician at a gubernatorial, congressional, or a senatorial level can make the claim. — Gary Johnson

I won't play with you anymore. You have insulted my friend -when an opponent cursed himself for a blunder — Miguel Najdorf

My philosophy of defense is to keep the pressure on an opponent until you get to his emotions — John Wooden

In the strategy of my school, keep your body and mind straight and make your opponent go through contortions and twist about. The essence is to defeat him in the moment when, in his mind, he is pivoting and twisting. You should examine this well. — Miyamoto Musashi

I tried to get into the mind of my opponent and psyche him out. — Muhammad Ali

I would not want to be a politician ... Let me tell you this: If I was campaigning, and I go against my opponent and he started attacking my character, and I leap over the table and choke him unconscious, would that help my campaign? — Chuck Norris

Throughout the war, it was always my endeavour to view my opponent without animus, and to form an opinion of him as a man on the basis of the courage he showed. I would always try and seek him out in combat and kill him, and I expected nothing else from him. But never did I entertain mean thoughts of him. When prisoners fell into my hands, later on, I felt responsible for their safety, and would always do everything in my power for them.
p. 58 — Ernst Junger

I'm pregnant! " (Cassidy)
"Your face isn't, and quite frankly, you need to be put in yiur place. You are no longer a child and playing petty games such as these should get you punished." (Ashling)
"My father is the mayor of this town!" (Cassidy)
"Run along to Daddy then, but don't expect me to frighten me when you're too much of a coward to fight your own battles against an opponent who will not cower before your nonexistent wrath." (Ashling) — Rosetta M. Overman

I don't like to show my emotions at the board, not because they might give something away to an opponent, but because that's my style: I like to keep it to myself. — Vladimir Kramnik

It is a gross overstatement, but in chess, it can be said I play against my opponent over the board and against myself on the clock. — Viktor Korchnoi

I prefer being able to see my opponent. It is just different for me; I didn't grow up with the internet age really. — Daniel Negreanu

Everything about Washington is inconsistent, because they say one thing and do another, which is what my opponent, Claire McCaskill, is very, very good at. — Sarah Steelman

Church and State, will, of course, go on for ever, in spite of the fact that it is impossible for them to mingle, and that the confusion of these elements cannot lead to any consistent or even normal results, for there is falsity at the very foundation of it. Compromise between the Church and State in such questions as, for instance, jurisdiction, is, to my thinking, impossible in any real sense. My clerical opponent maintains that the Church holds a precise and defined position in the State. I maintain, on the contrary, that the Church ought to include the whole State, and not simply to occupy a corner in it, and, if this is, for some reason, impossible at present, then it ought, in reality, to be set up as the direct and chief aim of the future development of Christian society! — Anton Chekhov

My opponent is my teacher, my ego is my enemy. — Renzo Gracie

A lot of people, because of my contempt for the false consolations of religion, think of me as a symbolic public opponent of that in extremis. And sometimes that makes me feel a bit alarmed, to be the repository of other people's hope. — Christopher Hitchens

I think that always myself is my worst opponent. I always playing against myself first and then to the other one. So I'm playing against two guys during the match ... It's like mentally I don't know what is gonna happen in the next ten minutes. Maybe I get depressed in ten minutes. I don't know myself too much ... Yeah, I was working with a psychology, and I still. — Gaston Gaudio

I wonder since when, I started yawning as I left my home for a match. I wonder since when I stopped feeling anything even when we won. The person who can win against me is me alone. But all I wanted was an opponent that I could go all out against. I've always wished for a tight game in which you couldn't tell if you'd win or lose...I am grateful to you Tetsu." ~ Daiki Aomine — Tadatoshi Fujimaki

The bigger my chest is, the more it gets in the way. It just creates space. It makes me much more efficient if I don't have so much in the way between me and my opponent. — Ronda Rousey

And it sends an important message to me, because I am sick to death to hear my opponent saying Republicans don't trust me. They do trust me, in landslide proportions, and they're proving it tonight. We're going to bury that for good. — Ben Nighthorse Campbell

Sure, I'm pissed off. But my actions are not entirely without thought. I might regularly open my mouth without thinking, but I never start a fight without consulting my brain. For this one, I figured I'd won as soon as I made the first move. Intimidation tactics like his are common among bullies. The smaller, weaker opponent is supposed to cringe and back off. — Susan Ee

My opponent Senator Menendez and his colleagues are pursuing what I consider a Jon Corzine economic policy. Higher taxes, more spending, more debt. — Joseph M. Kyrillos

Foreboding, and an all too familiar lack of control, roiled in my gut. My opponent might be hungry for a win, but I was famished. Something in my life would be a victory.
Sorry Shark, I wasn't going down tonight. No chance. - Jason Ayers — Lisa Kessler

I can't say that I was my happiest on court, but I felt completely free. Free from family obligations, free from my own torment. In a real sense I was a different person. It was a place where I could not tolerate the idea of being beaten. I psyched myself up into a state where I felt something close to hatred towards my opponent, a state where I detested the idea of someone making his name at the expense of Jimmy Connors. I was in my element on court, measuring myself against someone else. I was not competitive for show. It came from deep within. — Jimmy Connors

Never do I argue with a man with a desire to hear him say what is wrong, or to expose him and win victory over him. Whenever I face an opponent in debate I silently pray - O Lord, help him so that truth may flow from his heart and on his tongue, and so that if truth is on my side, he may follow me; and if truth be on his side, I may follow him. — Al-Shafi'i

We compete, not so much against an opponent, but against ourselves. The real test is this: Did I make my best effort on every play? — Bud Wilkinson

army. I am only sixteen. I never dreamed of this life. I wanted to go to university, to become a lawyer, to help women, who are doubly oppressed, firstly by the Turkish government because they are Kurds and secondly by the males in their families because they are women. I could not follow my path in a civilised way because I am facing an uncivilised opponent. I must resort to the gun, and if necessary, will die by it. — Kae Bahar

Lincoln found himself in a stifling courtroom one hot summer day, pleading his client's case. The opposing lawyer, in a concession to the oppressive heat, took off his coat and vest as the debate went on. The man's shirt had its buttons in the back, a style which was unusual even then. Lincoln looked at his opponent and sized up the man's apparel. Knowing that the rural jury disliked pretension of any kind, or any attempt to show superior social rank, he said: "Gentlemen of the jury, having justice on my side, I don't think you will be at all influenced by the gentleman's pretended knowledge of the law, when you see he does not even know which side of his shirt should be in front." The jury burst into laughter, and Lincoln won the case. — Rriiver Nyile

My opponent is Peter. — Veronica Roth

My opponent called me a cream puff. Well, I rushed out and got the baker's union to endorse me. — Claiborne Pell

When an opponent predicted Wilkes would die from either hanging or the pox, Wilkes fired back, "That depends, my Lord, on whether I embrace your lordship's principles or your mistress. — Mike Lee

We make my opponent out as a monster. We focus on his strengths because that's what we need to negate. — Joe Lauzon

Most of the arguments to which I am party fall somewhat short of being impressive, owing to the fact that neither I nor my opponent knows what we are talking about. — Robert Benchley

People often say, 'Ah, ultimate fighting is so violent,' but it's rooted in martial arts. Martial arts incarnate respect. You can't walk into a dojo and say to your sensei, 'Hey, salut tabarnac!' After every one of my fights I go and shake the hand of my opponent. I don't need to hate the other fighter to fight him well. It's a sport. — Georges St-Pierre

Quiet pragmatism, of course, lacks the romance of vocal militancy. But I felt myself more a mediator than a crusader. My strengths were reasoning, crafting compromises, finding the good and the good faith on both sides of an argument, and using that to build a bridge. Always, my first question was, what's the goal? And then, who must be persuaded if it is to be accomplished? A respectful dialogue with one's opponent almost invariably goes further than a harangue outside his or her window. If you want to change someone's mind, you must understand what need shapes his or her opinion. To prevail, you must first listen. — Sonia Sotomayor

I prepare for my fights to well that I don't wanna give a chance to my opponent to crash my 'glass chin' as they say, so I'm knocking them in the way that I like. — Wladimir Klitschko

My martial arts came a lot from my uncle, who actually taught martial arts through the military. He was a black belt in tae kwon do, but also, he used a lot of military-style fighting where it's not the high kicks or anything like that. It's basically defeat your opponent as fast as possible. — Brian Tee

Make no mistake, I always want to win, but I never fight with an opponent. My fight is within me it is the struggle to be the best I can be at whatever I do. — John Wooden

The nicer the point, the more
the better I feel, the more excited I get. But I never play that my opponent looks stupid. I think that is wrong. I have too much respect for every opponent I play. — Roger Federer

I never lose in any argument, because I always make sure that my opponent wins. — Debasish Mridha

I incorporate different styles that work for me. I could easily change my style depends on my opponent. — Tomoki Kameda

What a dolt my father sends me for weaponry," Paul intoned. "This doltish Gurney Halleck has forgotten the first lesson for a fighting man armed and shielded." Paul snapped the force button at his waist, felt the crinkled-skin tingling of the defensive field at his forehead and down his back, heard external sounds take on characteristic shield-filtered flatness. "In shield fighting, one moves fast on defense, slow on attack," Paul said. "Attack has the sole purpose of tricking the opponent into a misstep, setting him up for the attack sinister. The shield turns the fast blow, admits the slow kindjal!" Paul snapped up the rapier, feinted fast and whipped it back for a slow thrust timed to enter a shield's mindless defenses. — Frank Herbert

I look coolly in to the blue eyes of the person who is now my greatest opponent, the person who would keep me alive at his own expense. And I promise myself I will defeat his plan. — Suzanne Collins

I always try to attack. While I'm on the offensive, my opponent can think of nothing but defending. — Marcelo Garcia

My toughest opponent? Scholes of Manchester. He is the complete midfielder. — Zinedine Zidane

If you could do what I do then you wouldn't be a hater/writer critiquing me, you would be my opponent facing me on the court. — Behdad Sami

I play chess on my iPhone, and indulge in a fond fantasy that my opponent isn't a mind of digital code but Dad: It's Dad's attacks I repel; Dad's defenses I dismantle; Dad's king scurrying around the board to prolong the inevitable. — David Mitchell

When you saw me in the boxing ring fighting, it wasn't just so I could beat my opponent. My fighting had a purpose. I had to be successful in order to get people to listen to the things I had to say. — Muhammad Ali

I don't worry about what my opponent is doing. — Maria Sharapova

I watch the ball fiercely to see its height and speed off my opponent's racket so I can decide how I want to hit it. — Sloane Stephens

Why should I ? I don't need to run down my opponent through filthy language in order to win. The voters don't expect this from their representatives. — Preneet Kaur

May I gain no victory that harms me or my opponent. May I reconcile friends who are mad at each other. May I, insofar as I can, give all necessary help to my friends and to all who are in need. May I never fail a friend in trouble.
Prayer on the Golden Rule (abridged) — Eusebius

When I first ran for Congress in the 1990s, my background as an openly gay Asian was one of the focal points of the campaign, and, in fact, my opponent attacked me for it. — Mark Takano

I never fear my opponent, for me he only represents a new challenge to conquer. — Lyoto Machida

From the beginning it was drilled into me that a golf course was a place where character fully reveals itself
both its strengths and its flaws. As a result, I learned early not only to fix my ball marks but also to congratulate an opponent on a good shot, avoid walking ahead of a player preparing to shoot, remain perfectly still when someone else was playing, and a score of other small courtesies that revealed, in my father's mind, one's abiding respect for the game. — Arnold Palmer

Don King is my promoter, and I want to fight for him. I want to fight in the big fights, and hopefully he can see by me promoting my own show, beating a quality opponent, and bringing a crowd in, that he needs to use me again. The end goal is I want to be thrown in the deep end by Don King. If I'm not good enough, let's find out. — Mark De Mori

Consider the problem, "How can I win the game of tick-tack-toe?" It is well known that I cannot, if I assume (in keeping with the conventions of game theory) that my opponent understands the game perfectly. Put another way, there is no "technical solution" to the problem. I can win only by giving a radical meaning to the word "win." I can hit my opponent over the head; or I can drug him; or I can falsify the records. Every way in which I "win" involves, in some sense, an abandonment of the game, as we intuitively understand it. (I can also, of course, openly abandon the game--refuse to play it. This is what most adults do.) — Garrett Hardin

My toughest opponent has always been me. — Muhammad Ali

The only explanation on what's happened today is my opponent was better than me. — Jo-Wilfried Tsonga

My evanescent anarchistic tendencies are purely classical. I use the word anarchist in the sense in which it was understood by the ancient Greeks. They, of course, accepted the anarchist as a fairly respectable--if somewhat vehement--opponent of government encroachment on the individual's rights to think and act freely. It is in this sense that I glimpse myself as an anarchist--regretting the growth of government and the ever-increasing trend toward regulation and, worst of all, standardization of human activity. — J. Paul Getty

Well, I was a very strong opponent of the war, in fact, one of those who went door to door to my colleagues and thus achieved 60 percent of the Democrats voting no against this war. — Jan Schakowsky

Because of the level of my chess game, I was able - even against a weak opponent, such as my younger brothers or the dog - to get myself checkmated in under three minutes. I challenge any computer to do it faster. — Dave Barry

Piper was maybe the most impressive. She fenced with the giantess Periboia, sword against sword. Despite the fact that her opponent was five times larger, Piper seemed to be holding her own. The goddess Aphrodite floated around them on a small white cloud, strewing rose petals in the giantess's eyes and calling encouragement to Piper. 'Lovely, my dear. Yes, good. Hit her again! — Rick Riordan

All of my life had been spent in the shadow of apartheid. And when South Africa went through its extraordinary change in 1994, it was like having spent a lifetime in a boxing ring with an opponent and suddenly finding yourself in that boxing ring with nobody else and realising you've to take the gloves off and get out, and reinvent yourself. — Athol Fugard

I am saddened by the release by a national media outlet of my opponent's involvement in pornography. I strongly condemn the release of this information. Our campaign was aware of this information several months ago, and made a very determined decision to not use or disperse this information in any way, shape,or form. — Matt Shea

Some spiritual people say there's no such thing as coincidence. And I guess I can't know if it's the chicken or the egg for my lack of spirituality. But I do believe in coincidence. I believe in it very much. I see it everywhere. I have to. Otherwise I'd start to believe the universe if adversarial, and I don't need another opponent right now. — Jamie Mason

I dont think about what my opponent will do in the fight and especially what he has to say about me - doesn't matter to me at all. — Gunnar Nelson

By patriotism I mean the welfare of the whole people, if I secure it at the hands of my opponent, I should bow down my head to him. — Mahatma Gandhi

Boxing is a sport. We allow each other to hit each other, but I'm not treating my opponent like my enemy. We're doing a job to entertain people. — Manny Pacquiao

I have the basic skills already, my basic weapons if we put it that way. From there I can add more the necessary skills I need for a particular opponent. I have to study all the aspects of my opponent, so when I am in the ring, everything will be automatic. — Tomoki Kameda

Listen to me. I did not wish to be summoned by your Princess. Summoned, I did not wish to come. But having been summoned, and having come, I mean to give a good account of myself. That's how I was taught by my father, and the men of his age who slew Kings and swept away not merely Governments but whole Systems of Thought, like Khans of the Mind. I would have my son in Boston know of my doings, and be proud of them, and carry my ways forward to another generation on another continent. Any opponent who does not know this about me, stands at a grave disadvantage; a disadvantage I am not above profiting from. — Neal Stephenson

I think what's dangerous about being an actor who does action movies is you think, 'Well, I can totally handle myself now.' But if my opponent didn't know the other half of the routine, I don't know how well I'd do. — Kate Beckinsale

My finest opponent, the Mantle accepts all who live fiercely, who defend their young, who build and struggle and grow, and even those who dominate - as humans have dominated, cruelly and without wisdom. — Greg Bear

I lost my balance, making my body unstable and falling on top of my opponent. At that moment I hit my face against the player leaving a small bruise on my cheek and a strong pain in my teeth. — Luis Suarez

I have finally mastered what to do with the second tennis ball. Having small hands, I was becoming terribly self-conscious about keeping it in a can in the car while I served the first one. I noted some women tucked the second ball just inside the elastic leg of their tennis panties. I tried, but found the space already occupied by a leg. Now, I simply drop the second ball down my cleavage, giving me a chest that often stuns my opponent throughout an entire set. — Erma Bombeck

Mosley is bigger than me. He's fast and his hand speed is still there. He's faster than most of my opponents. He's also preparing hard and he's also good, so we never underestimate our opponent. — Manny Pacquiao

I know that [Mike] Tyson talked about wanting to eat his opponent's children, but I don't think he ever had the balls to do it. I'm different - when I kidnapped Bill Lawrence's daughter, I cut off all of her fingers before sending my demands so that I wouldn't have to sit there and wait for him to ignore them. We worked things about about nine hours in, which is good because I ate her thumb as a midnight snack. — Zach Braff

I am fully and entirely concentrated on the board. I never even consider my opponent's personality. So far as I am concerned, my opponent might as well be an abstraction or an automaton. — Wilhelm Steinitz