Our Own Worst Enemy Quotes & Sayings

We seem to be our own worst enemies. We should require critical U.S. infrastructure to remain in U.S. hands. — Duncan Hunter

The worst enemy of life, freedom and the common decencies is total anarchy; their second worst enemy is total efficiency. — Aldous Huxley

You will find that our enemies are our own kin. It is they who betray us. So learn this most important lesson-in the end, our worst enemy is ourselves — F. Sionil Jose

Our own worst enemy cannot harm us as much as our unwise thoughts. No one can help us as much as our own compassionate thoughts. — Gautama Buddha

To flee from the battle is the worst thing that could happen. It is worse than losing the fight, because we can always learn something from defeat; if we flee, all we do is declare that our enemy has won. — Paulo Coelho

Divorce is horrible. I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy. I don't think it's anything that's ever completely resolved. — Andie MacDowell

Harry! Don't you see? Voldemort himself created his worst enemy, just as tyrants everywhere do! Have you any idea how much tyrants fear the people they oppress? All of them realize that, one day, amongst their many victims, there is sure to be one who rises against them and strikes back! Voldemort — J.K. Rowling

The worst weapon of your enemy, rival, competitor, distractor is creating self-doubt in you and/or your team. They cannot win you without first destroying your self-worth. — Assegid Habtewold

When introduced at the wrong time or place, good logic may be the worst enemy of good teaching. — George Polya

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

Unfortunately, oppression does not automatically produce only meaningful struggle. It has the ability to call into being a wide range of responses between partial acceptance and violent rebellion. In between you can have, for instance, a vague, unfocused dissatisfaction; or, worst of all, savage infighting among the oppressed, a fierce love-hate entanglement with one another like crabs inside the fisherman's bucket, which ensures that no crab gets away. This is a serious issue for African-American deliberation.
To answer oppression with appropriate resistance requires knowledge of two kinds: in the first place, self-knowledge by the victim, which means awareness that oppression exists, an awareness that the victim has fallen from a great height of glory or promise into the present depths; secondly, the victim must know who the enemy is. He must know his oppressor's real name, not an alias, a pseudonym, or a nom de plume! — Chinua Achebe

Skulduggery placed both hands on the table and leaned over. "You've heard about me. You've heard about the things I've done."
The smirk faded a little. "So?"
"So the stories you've heard are nothing compared to the truth, and the truth is nothing compared to what I'll do to you if something happens to Valkyrie. I'm the worst enemy you could ever make, Silas. Look at me and answer honestly, do you believe me?"
Nadir swallowed. "Yeah. — Derek Landy

I'm either my best friend or my worst enemy. — Whitney Houston

But the worst enemy you can meet will always be yourself; you lie in wait for yourself in caverns and forests. Lonely one, you are going the way to yourself! And your way goes past yourself, and past your seven devils! You will be a heretic to yourself and witch and soothsayer and fool and doubter and unholy one and villain. You must be ready to burn yourself in your own flame: how could you become new, if you had not first become ashes? — Friedrich Nietzsche

It was my duty to shoot the enemy, and I don't regret it. My regrets are for the people I couldn't save: Marines, soldiers, buddies. I'm not naive, and I don't romanticize war. The worst moments of my life have come as a SEAL. But I can stand before God with a clear conscience about doing my job. — Chris Kyle

I have no ambitions to be a cabinet minister, or prime minister. I wouldn't wish being prime minister on my worst enemy. — Louise Mensch

The worst enemy of truth and freedom in our society is the compact majority. — Henrik Ibsen

I looked right into the face of pure evil. And the worst part is, it wasn't the enemy. — Jana Deleon

Liberal Catholics are the worst enemies of the Church. — Pope Pius IX

There is a lot of negativity and bad habits that just need to be cut out of our lives. Sometimes we hold on tightly to the things that are actually causing us a lot of pain. We are our own worst enemy. We cling to all the wrong things. We subconsciously do things that are very bad for us, the worst being that we tell ourselves every day that "we're not good enough" and "it's our fault". Well cut it out! — S.R. Crawford

We have this idea of perfection that is so unrealistic. We are our own worst enemy. No one is noticing that little scar. — Emmanuelle Chriqui

Freedom that lacks moral truth becomes its own worst enemy. — George Weigel

My friend, I am "jealous" for you to enjoy God. I want God to be the greatest reality in your life. I want you to be more assured of His presence than any other you can see or touch. This can be your reality. This is your right as a child of God. We were destined for this kind of relationship with God, but the enemy tries to convince us that the Christian life is sacrificial at best and artificial at worst. — Beth Moore

Are these soldiers really our enemy, or only the worst reflection of our own selves? ... We made them. We have to unmake them, not just defeat or kill them. — Kate Elliott

The medics generally see the worst of the worst. They see everything. They're working on their friends, and they're working on their enemy. The person that was just firing at them, trying to kill them, five minutes ago, if an Army medic stumbles upon him and he's still alive, he just goes to save his life. — Brendan Fehr

Brianna! I wouldn't feed that nasty sandwich to my WORST ENEMY!" And by worst enemy, I meant people like . . . well, you know . . . MACKENZIE HOLLISTER !! Although, — Rachel Renee Russell

The worst mistake you can make is underrating your enemy. Assuming that they're evil - I think it's a terrible thing to do. — Alan Dershowitz

But only agony, and that has ending;
And the worst friend and enemy is but Death. — Rupert Brooke

You're a worse punishment than even he deserves, lady," she bit off as she turned away from the phone. "I wouldn't wish you on my worst enemy!"
The phone rang again and she picked it up, ready to give Audrey a fierce piece of her mind. But it was a journalist wanting to know if the story in the tabloids was true, about Tate and Cecily being lovers when she was still in school.
"It most certainly is not," she said curtly. "But I'll tell you what is. Tate Winthrop is marrying Washington socialite Miss Audrey Gannon at Christmas. You can print that, with my blessing!" And she hung up again. — Diana Palmer

Get out of your own way. Often, we're our own worst enemy when working towards our goals. — Robert Kiyosaki

Dress like you are going to meet your worst enemy today. — Coco Chanel

We're our own worst enemies a lot of the time, but I still blame men. — Janeane Garofalo

We are our own worst enemy. — Una McCormack

Is it not clear to us that we can be our own worst enemy? But we can also be our own saviors. Through the active expression of our genuine nature, and the steady efforts to master our minds and move our lives forward, we can finally, after all this time, experience the freedom and joy that we deserve in life. — Brendon Burchard

The worst enemy of humanity is U.S. capitalism. That is what provokes uprisings like our own, a rebellion against a system, against a neoliberal model, which is the representation of a savage capitalism. If the entire world doesn't acknowledge this reality, that the national states are not providing even minimally for health, education and nourishment, then each day the most fundamental human rights are being violated. — Evo Morales

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

Self-consciousness is a man's worst enemy. — Nick Hornby

We are partners in our own deception. The lies we tell ourselves. The life we have settled for, when we yearn for the life we wish for. We become our own worst enemy as we yearn for the things we don't have and discredit the gifts we have. — Tony Curl

We're not talking about you. You're Braith of the Darkness. I'm Addolgar the Cheerful. I've earned this name, and you're ruining it by being unreasonable."
"You throw me into a tree - "
"That was for your own good."
" - have me attacked by your kin - "
"You brought that on yourself."
" - and leave me alone with Brigida the Foul, of all She-dragons - "
"She got away from us. Normally none of us would have done that. Not even to our worst enemy."
" - and I'm being unreasonable."
Addolgar nodded. "See? You do understand. — G.A. Aiken

Very often we are our own worst enemy as we foolishly build stumbling blocks on the path that leads to success and happiness. — Og Mandino

I think that we're our own worst enemies in a lot of ways, especially when it comes to doing work where you're criticized a lot or doing work where there's a lot of hater directed at you; and to not constantly second-guess yourself. — Jessica Valenti

Any man who tries to excite class hatred, sectional hate, hate of creeds, any kind of hatred in our community, though he may affect to do it in the interest of the class he is addressing, is in the long run with absolute certainly that class's own worst enemy. — Theodore Roosevelt

3. Thus the highest form of generalship is to balk the enemy's plans; [Perhaps the word "balk" falls short of expressing the full force of the Chinese word, which implies not an attitude of defense, whereby one might be content to foil the enemy's stratagems one after another, but an active policy of counter-attack. Ho Shih puts this very clearly in his note: "When the enemy has made a plan of attack against us, we must anticipate him by delivering our own attack first."] the next best is to prevent the junction of the enemy's forces; [Isolating him from his allies. We must not forget that Sun Tzu, in speaking of hostilities, always has in mind the numerous states or principalities into which the China of his day was split up.] the next in order is to attack the enemy's army in the field; [When he is already at full strength.] and the worst policy of all is to besiege walled cities. 4. The rule is, not to besiege walled cities if it can possibly be avoided. — Sun Tzu

Many of us are slaves to our minds. Our own mind is our worst enemy. We try to focus, and our mind wanders off. We try to keep stress at bay, but anxiety keeps us awake at night. We try to be good to the people we love, but then we forget them and put ourselves first. And when we want to change our life, we dive into spiritual practice and expect quick results, only to lose focus after the honeymoon has worn off. We return to our state of bewilderment. We're left feeling helpless and discouraged. It seems we all agree that training the body through exercise, diet, and relaxation is a good idea, but why don't we think about training our minds? — Sakyong Mipham

We're our own worst enemy. You doubt yourself more than anybody else ever will. If you can get past that, you can be successful. — Michael Strahan

Before making peace, war is necessary, and that war must be made with our self. Our worst enemy is our self: our faults, our weaknesses, our limitations. And our mind is such a traitor! What does it? It covers our faults even from our own eyes, and points out to us the reason for all our difficulties: others! So it constantly deludes us, keeping us unaware of the real enemy, and pushes us towards those others to fight them, showing them to us as our enemies. — Hazrat Inayat Khan

Do the things you think you cannot do. Do all the good you can, by all the means available, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, all the times you can, for as long as ever you can. Our own feelings of helplessness are our own worst enemy. — Mia Farrow

Most of us are at war with ourselves, are our own worst enemies. We expect a great deal of ourselves, yet we do not put ourselves in a condition to achieve great things. We are either too indulgent to our bodies, or we are not indulgent enough. — Orison Swett Marden

The chief cause for the impending collapse of the world - the cause sufficient in and by itself - is the enormous growth of the human population: the human flood. The worst enemy of life is too much life: the excess of human life. — Pentti Linkola

Let the enemy rage at the gate; let him knock, pound, scream, howl; let him do his worst. We know for certain that he cannot enter our soul except by the door of our consent. — Saint Francis De Sales

When I was younger and inexperienced, I was a very animated pitcher. I pitched with a lot of adrenaline. I was my own worst enemy when things weren't gong well. — Randy Johnson

In this country intellectual cowardice is the worst enemy a writer or journalist has to face, and that fact does not seem to me to have had the discussion it deserves. — George Orwell

Intensity is both the communicator's best friend and worst enemy. To really hold an audience, they must sense that what you are saying is important, at least to you. — Calvin Miller

If you have done something meritorious, you experience pleasure and happiness; if wrong things, suffering. A happy or unhappy life is your own creation. Nobody else is responsible. If you remember this, you won't find fault with anybody. You are your own best friend as well as your worst enemy. (99) — Swami Satchidananda

Your worst enemy is your best teacher. — Gautama Buddha

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

The worst your enemy can do is kill you. The worst your enemy can do is betray you. Fear only the indifferent because at their silent consent treachery and death flourish. — Eric Van Lustbader

Sometimes our brains are our own worst enemy because grace isn't logical. — Judah Smith

The worst tyrants are those which establish themselves in our own breasts. — William Ellery Channing

A dead man is the worst enemy alive, I thought. You can't alter his power over you. You can't alter what you love or owe. And it's too late to ask him for his absolution. He has beaten you all ways. — John Le Carre

We are our own worst enemy and make no mistake we are destroying ourselves. — Bryant McGill

In money, and in life, you are very often your own worst enemy. You promise yourself you're going to diet, then eat not one or two French fries but a whole plate. You decide to really commit to saving for retirement, only to wind up with a new pair of shoes in your closet. — Jean Chatzky

Your worst enemy, he reflected, was your own nervous system. — Anonymous

Mediocrity is the worst enemy of prosperity. — Henry Ford

Your attitude is either your best friend or your worst enemy, your greatest asset or your greatest liability — John C. Maxwell

Whatever your deepest fears are right now, bring every one of them to God. Thank Him that He is greater than any of them. Thank Him that in His presence all fear is gone. Blessed is the man who fears the LORD, who finds great delight in his commands ... He will have no fear of bad news; his heart is steadfast, trusting in the LORD (Psalm 112:1,7). God's love can take away your fear. His love gives the power to stand against the enemy of your soul when he wants fear to overwhelm you. And even if your worst fears do come upon you, God's love assures you that He will walk with you every step of the way toward restoration. — Stormie O'martian

He created his worst enemy, just as tyrants everywhere do! — J.K. Rowling

Fate didn't stand in the way. Rather, they themselves were their own worst enemies. — Michael R. Fletcher

Actors are their own worst enemies. They quite often will get in their own way, and I have to be encouraged, endlessly, not to get in my own way. — James Purefoy

Your worst enemy cannot harm you as much as your own unguarded thoughts. Develop the mind of equilibrium. You will always be getting praise and blame, but do not let either affect the poise of the mind: follow the calmness, the absence of pride. — Gautama Buddha

For the sorry truth is that in this most pragmatic land, the purist is generally his own worst enemy. — Harry Stein

You have to reach out to your inner-abuser and make peace. You can't live your life as your own worst enemy! — Bryant McGill

But the worst enemy thou canst meet, wilt thou thyself always be; thou waylayest thyself in caverns and forests. Thou lonesome one, thou goest the way to thyself! And past thyself and thy seven devils leadeth thy way! A heretic wilt thou be to thyself, and a wizard and a sooth-sayer, and a fool, and a doubter, and a reprobate, and a villain. Ready must thou be to burn thyself in thine own flame; how couldst thou become new if thou have not first become ashes! Thou — Friedrich Nietzsche

Park your ego and listen to your readers. They can be your best friend or your worst enemy. But chances are you'll learn something from them. — Eliza Green

Our worst enemies here are not the ignorant and simple, however cruel; our worst enemies are the intelligent and corrupt — Graham Greene

Be indifferent if you lose your short term clients, remember they are your own worst enemy — Seth Klarman

Music is playing. We will, we will rock you. But no one will be rocked here. There will be no revolution. People are too comfortable, and comfort is the revolutionaries' worst enemy. — Eric Weiner

A foolish faith in authority is the worst enemy of truth.46 — Walter Isaacson

Knowledge is Wisdom's Worst Enemy — Ajay Chaturvedi

A man who tries to make the workmen believe that their employers are their natural enemies is indeed the worst enemy of workmen. For the employees of yesterday are the employers of today, and the employees of today can and will partly be the employers of tomorrow. — William J.H. Boetcker

The most disagreeable thing that your worst enemy says to your face does not approach what your best friends say behind your back. — Alfred De Musset

The investor's chief problem - and even his worst enemy - is likely to be himself. — Benjamin Graham