“A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself.”
“There exists a law, not written down anywhere but inborn in our hearts; a law which comes to us not by training or custom or reading but by derivation and absorption and adoption from nature itself; a law which has come to us not from theory but from practice, not by instruction but by natural intuition. I refer to the law which lays it down that, if our lives are endangered by plots or violence or armed robbers or enemies, any and every method of protecting ourselves is morally right.”
“The enemy is within the gates; it is with our own luxury, our own folly, our own criminality that we have to contend.”
“Let us not listen to those who think we ought to be angry with our enemies, and who believe this to be great and manly. Nothing is so praiseworthy, nothing so clearly shows a great and noble soul, as clemency and readiness to forgive.”
“If our lives are endangered by plots or violence or armed robbers or enemies, any and every method of protecting ourselves is morally right.”
“After victory, you have more enemies.”
“Man is his own worst enemy.”
“Let our friends perish, provided that our enemies fall at the same time.”
“Your enemies can kill you, but only your friends can hurt you.”
“Wars, therefore, are to be undertaken for this end, that we may live in peace, without being injured; but when we obtain the victory, we must preserve those enemies who behaved without cruelty or inhumanity during the war.”
“A man has no enemy worse than himself.”
“A man has no worse enemy than himself.”
“Man is his own worst enemy. [Lat., Nihil inimicius quam sibi ipse.]”
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