Hoyt & Roberts, comps. Hoyt’s New Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations. 1922.
Enemy
Nos amis, les ennemis.
Our friends, the enemy.
Beranger—L’Opinion de ces Demoiselles. “Nos amis, nos ennemis.”[Our friends, our enemies.] Expression used by the French during the truce after the capture of Sebastopol, referring to the Russians. Recorded in the London Times of that date.
His father was no man’s friend but his owne, and he (saith the prouerbe) is no man’s foe else.
Thomas Adams—Diseases of the Soul. (1616). P. 53.
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.
Bias.
We love him for the enemies he has made.
Gen. Bragg—Nominating Speech for Cleveland at the Convention of 1884.
Every man is his own greatest enemy, and as it were his own executioner.
Sir Thomas Browne—Religio Medici. Same idea in Clarke—Parœmiologia. (1639).
Whatever the number of a man’s friends, there will be times in his life when he has one too few; but if he has only one enemy, he is lucky indeed if he has not one too many.
Bulwer-Lytton—What Will He Do With It? Bk. IX. Ch. III. Introduction.
A weak Invention of the Enemy.
Colley Cibber—Richard III. (Altered). Act V. Sc. 3.
Nihil inimicius quam sibi ipse.
Man is his own worst enemy.
Cicero—Epistolæ ad Atticum. X. 12a. Sec. III.
Pereant amici, dum una inimici intercidant.
Let our friends perish, provided that our enemies fall at the same time.
Cicero—Oratio Pro Rege Deitaro. IX.
He who has a thousand friends has not a friend to spare,
And he who has one enemy will meet him everywhere.
Emerson—Translations. From Omar Khayyam. Attributed to Ali Ben Abu Taleb.
Our enemies will tell the rest with pleasure.
Bishop Fleetwood—Preface to Sermons. Ordered burned by House of Commons, May, 1712.
You and I were long friends; you are now my enemy, and I am yours.
Benj. Franklin—Letter to William Strahan (July 5, 1775).
He has no enemy, you say;
My friend your boast is poor,
He who hath mingled in the fray
Of duty that the brave endure
Must have made foes. If he has none
Small is the work that he has done.
He has hit no traitor on the hip;
Has cast no cup from perjured lip;
Has never turned the wrong to right;
Has been a coward in the fight.
Anastasius Grün. (Free Translation.)
Wee commonly say of a prodigall man that hee is no man’s foe but his owne.
Bishop John King—Lecture on Jonas, delivered 1594. (Ed. 1618). P. 502.
Rien n’est si dangereux qu’un ignorant ami;
Mieux vaudrait un sage ennemi.
Nothing is so dangerous as an ignorant friend. Better is it to have a wise enemy.
La Fontaine—Fables. 8, 10.
None but yourself who are your greatest foe.
Longfellow—Michael Angelo. Pt. II. 3.
My nearest
And dearest enemy.
Thomas Middleton—Anything for a Quiet Life. Act V. Sc. 1.
What boots it at one gate to make defence,
And at another to let in the foe?
Milton—Samson Agonistes. L. 560.
The world is large when its weary leagues two loving hearts divide;
But the world is small when your enemy is loose on the other side.
John Boyle O’Reilly—Distance.
His enemies shall lick the dust.
Psalms. LXXII. 9.
Inventé par le caloumnateur ennemy.
Invented by the calumniating enemy.
Rabelais—Pantagruel. Bk. III. 11.
Pour tromper un rival l’artifice est permis;
On peut tout employer contre ses ennemis.
Artifice is allowable in deceiving a rival, we may employ everything against our enemies.
Richelieu—Les Tuileries.
If thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head.
Romans. XII. 20.
In cases of defence ’tis best to weigh
The enemy more mighty than he seems;
So the proportions of defence are fill’d;
Which of a weak and niggardly projection
Doth, like a miser, spoil his coat with scanting
A little cloth.
Henry V. Act II. Sc. 4. L. 43.
Be advis’d;
Heat not a furnace for your foe so hot
That it do singe yourself: we may outrun,
By violent swiftness, that which we run at,
And lose by over-running.
Henry VIII. Act I. Sc. 1. L. 139.
I do believe,
Induced by potent circumstances, that
You are mine enemy; and make my challenge
You shall not be my judge.
Henry VIII. Act II. Sc. 4. L. 76.
That you have many enemies, that know not
Why they are so, but, like to village-curs,
Bark when their fellows do.
Henry VIII. Act II. Sc. 4. L. 158.
O cunning enemy, that, to catch a saint,
With saints dost bait thy hook!
Measure for Measure. Act II. Sc. 2. L. 180.
I do defy him, and I spit at him;
Call him a slanderous coward and a villain:
Which to maintain I would allow him odds,
And meet him, were I tied to run afoot
Even to the frozen ridges of the Alps.
Richard II. Act I. Sc. 1. L. 60.
A thing devised by the enemy.
Richard III. Act V. Sc. 3. L. 306.
It will let in and out the enemy
With bag and baggage.
Winter’s Tale. Act I. Sc. 2. L. 205.
Earth could not hold us both, nor can one heaven
Contain my deadliest enemy and me.
Southey—Roderick, the Last of the Goths. Bk. XXI.
One enemy can do more hurt than ten friends can do good.
Swift—Quoted in Letter. (May 30, 1710.)
Le corps d’un ennemi mort sent toujours bon.
The body of a dead enemy always smells sweet.
Attributed to Vespasian and Charles IX. of France.
Je vais, combattre les ennemis de votre majeste, et je vous laisse au milieu des miens.
I have fought your Majesty’s enemies, and I now leave you in the midst of my own.
Marechal de Villars to Louis XIV, before starting for the Rhine Army. The French Ana. Attributed to Voltaire by Duvemet—Vie de Voltaire.
Les dons d’un ennemi leur semblainte trop à craindre.
To them it seemed that the gifts of an enemy were to be dreaded.
Voltaire—Henriade. Ch. II.