Antagonist Quotes

• Faith and doubt both are needed - not as antagonists, but working side by side to take us around the unknown curve.

  Lillian Smith

  Faith, Second Chance, Curves

  Lillian Eugenia Smith (1954). “The journey”, World Publishing Company

  86 Copy quote

  Show source

• He that struggles with us strengthens our nerves, and sharpens our skill. Our antagonist is our helper.

  Edmund Burke

  Inspirational, Life, Education

  Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790)

  72 Copy quote

  Show source

• It is difficulties that show what men are. For the future, in case of any difficulty, remember that God, like a gymnastic trainer, has pitted you against a rough antagonist. For what end? That you may be an Olympic conqueror; and this cannot be without toil.

  Epictetus

  Inspirational, Men, Religion

  "Epictetus: Discourses and Enchiridion".

  72 Copy quote

  Show source

• This is the heart of my argument: We can put more pressure on the antagonist for whom we show human concern.

  Barbara Deming

  Heart, Pressure, Argument

  Barbara Deming (1984). “We Are All Part of One Another: A Barbara Deming Reader”

  28 Copy quote

  Show source

• Truth is the proper and sufficient antagonist to error, and has nothing to fear from the conflict, unless, by human interposition, disarmed of her natural weapons, free argument and debate; errors ceasing to be dangerous when it is permitted freely to contradict them.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Errors, Politics, Weapons

  "A Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom" (1779)

  24 Copy quote

  Show source

• From the true antagonist illimitable courage is transmitted to you.

  Franz Kafka

  Courage

  Franz Kafka (1991). “The Blue Octavo Notebooks”

  22 Copy quote

  Show source

• No wise combatant underestimates their antagonist.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Wise, Competition, Underestimate

  22 Copy quote

• The most noble criticism is that in which the critic is not the antagonist so much as the rival of the author.

  Isaac D'Israeli

  Criticism, Noble, Rivals

  "Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations" by Jehiel Keeler Hoyt, p. 149-52, Curiosities of Literature, Literary Journals, 1922.

  23 Copy quote

  Show source

• Adversity is a severe instructor, set over us by one who knows us better than we do ourselves, as he loves us better too. He that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves and sharpens our skill. Our antagonist is our helper. This conflict with difficulty makes us acquainted with our object, and compels us to consider it in all its relations. It will not suffer us to be superficial.

  Edmund Burke

  Adversity, Skills, Challenges

  20 Copy quote

• Martyrs do not underrate the body, they allow it to be elevated on the cross. In this they are at one with their antagonists.

  Franz Kafka

  Literature, Body, Crosses

  Franz Kafka (1991). “The Blue Octavo Notebooks”

  25 Copy quote

  Show source

• I just want to be a part of great stories, whether I'm part of an amazing ensemble cast or I'm leading it or the antagonist or whatever.

  Zoe Saldana

  Ensemble, Stories, Want

  "Colombiana: Zoe Saldana Speaks!". "Movie Fanatic" Interview, www.moviefanatic.com. August 25, 2011.

  22 Copy quote

  Show source

• No prudent antagonist thinks light of his adversaries.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Thinking, Light, Enemy

  18 Copy quote

• A stage play is basically a form of uber-schizophrenia. You split yourself into two minds - one being the protagonist and the other being the antagonist. The playwright also splits himself into two other minds: the mind of the writer and the mind of the audience.

  David Mamet

  Play, Two, Uber

  19 Copy quote

• There are few situations in life that cannot be resolved promptly, and to the satisfaction of all concerned, by either suicide, a bag of gold, or thrusting a despised antagonist over a precipice on a dark night

  Ernest Bramah

  Suicide, Dark, Night

  17 Copy quote

• A man who is furnished with arguments from the mint will convince his antagonist much sooner than one who draws them from reason and philosophy.

  Joseph Addison

  Money, Philosophy, Men

  Joseph Addison (1839). “Essays, Moral and Humorous: Also Essays on Imagination and Taste”, p.80

  16 Copy quote

  Show source

• It is the privilege of posterity to set matters right between those antagonists who, by their rivalry for greatness, divided a whole age.

  Joseph Addison

  Greatness, Age, Matter

  Joseph Addison, Richard Hurd, Henry George Bohn (1873). “The Works of the Right Honourable Joseph Addison”, p.425

  16 Copy quote

  Show source

• I don't judge in my books. I don't have to have the antagonist get shot or the protagonist win. It's just how it comes out. I'm just telling a story.

  Elmore Leonard

  Book, Writing, Winning

  8 Copy quote

• Johnny Ringo to me was just the best antagonist that I've ever played, because I played him as a guy who has a death wish and had done everything that he wanted in life. As far as he was concerned, a gun fight was about as exciting as it was going to get.

  Michael Biehn

  Fighting, Gun, Guy

  16 Copy quote

• We need to learn how to handle critique and how to address an antagonist.

  Ravi Zacharias

  Needs, Addresses, Critique

  Source: verticallivingministries.com

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• I think, at the end of the day, the real antagonist is the brokenness of humanity.

  LeCrae

  Real, Thinking, Humanity

  Source: www.wbur.org

  12 Copy quote

  Show source

• It's one thing to not want an evil-sorcerer type villain in your story, but it's another thing to avoid having any sort of antagonist at all. A story without an antagonist gets weird pretty quick.

  Patrick Rothfuss

  Evil, Stories, Want

  5 Copy quote

• So my antagonist said, "Is it impossible that there are flying saucers? Can you prove that it's impossible?" "No," I said, "I can't prove it's impossible. It's just very unlikely." At that he said, "You are very unscientific. If you can't prove it impossible then how can you say that it's unlikely?" But that is the way that is scientific. It is scientific only to say what is more likely and what less likely, and not to be proving all the time the possible and impossible.

  Richard P. Feynman

  Possible And Impossible, Flying, Way

  "The Character of Physical Law". Book by Richard P. Feynman, 1965.

  16 Copy quote

  Show source

• The fact, however, to which I want to call attention is that the master of Judo never relies upon his own strength. He scarcely uses his own strength in the greatest emergency. Then what does he use? Simply the strength of his antagonist. The force of the enemy is the only means by which that enemy is overcome.

  Lafcadio Hearn

  Mean, Rely Upon, Enemy

  11 Copy quote

• All roads lead to Rome, but our antagonists think we should choose different paths.

  Jean de La Fontaine

  Thinking, Rome, Different

  10 Copy quote

• From the true antagonist illimitable courage is transmitted to you.
  To what indifference people may come, to what profound conviction of having lost the right track forever.

  Franz Kafka

  Courage, Adversity, People

  13 Copy quote