Common Enemy Quotes

• A common danger unites even the bitterest enemies.

  Aristotle

  Enemy, Common, Danger

  Aristotle, (2014). “Complete Works of Aristotle, Volume 2: The Revised Oxford Translation”, p.2071, Princeton University Press

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• Give people a common enemy, and you will give them a common identity. Deprive them of an enemy and you will deprive them of the crutch by which they know who they are.

  James Alison

  People, Giving, Enemy

  James Alison (2010). “Broken Hearts and New Creations: Intimations of a Great Reversal”, Bloomsbury Academic

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• Nothing brings you together like a common enemy.

  David Foster Wallace

  Enemy, Together, Common

  David Foster Wallace (2011). “Infinite Jest”, p.87, Hachette UK

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• Naturally, the common people don't want war ... but after all it is the leaders of a country who determine the policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in every country.

  Hermann Goring

  Country, Peace, Military

  Interview in Göring's jail cell, April 18, 1946. "Nuremberg Diary". Book by Gustave Gilbert, 1947.

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• Nothing binds a people to their leader like a common enemy. Voters don’t change governments during war.

  Harvey Fierstein

  War, Government, People

  "Let the Witch Hunt Begin" by Harvey Fierstein, www.huffingtonpost.com. September 10, 2013.

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• We need a common enemy to unite us.

  Condoleezza Rice

  Historical, Enemy, Needs

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• Now the trumpet summons us again - not as a call to bear arms, though arms we need; not as a call to battle, though embattled we are; but a call to bear the burden of a long twilight struggle, year in and year out, 'rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation', a struggle against the common enemies of man: tyranny, poverty, disease and war itself.

  John F. Kennedy

  War, Struggle, Twilight

  Inaugural Address, 20 Jan. 1961. The words in quotation marks are from the Bible, Romans 12:12.

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• We share a common enemy, but does that make us friends?

  Veronica Roth

  Enemy, Doe, Common

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• Nobody can deny but religion is a comfort to the distressed, a cordial to the sick, and sometimes a restraint on the wicked.

  Mary Wortley Montagu

  Sick, Wicked, Comfort

  Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, James Dallaway (1817). “The Works: I. Letters, during her residence abroad, 1746-1756”, p.151

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• The common enemy of humanity is man. In searching for a new enemy to unite us, we came up with the idea that pollution, the threat of global warming, water shortages, famine and the like would fit the bill. ...The real enemy then is humanity itself.

  Aurelio Peccei

  Real, Men, Kyoto Protocol

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• The reason grandparents and grandchildren get along so well is that they have a common enemy.

  Sam Levenson

  Inspirational, Family, Children

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• And as every spy knows, common enemies are how allies always begin.

  Ally Carter

  Enemy, Spy, Allies

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• Peace is not just the absence of war. True peace depends upon creating the opportunity that makes life worth living. And to do that, we must confront the common enemies of human beings: nuclear weapons and poverty; ignorance and disease.

  Barack Obama

  War, Ignorance, Opportunity

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• A general dissolution of principles and manners will more surely overthrow the liberties of America than the whole force of the common enemy.

  Samuel Adams

  America, Enemy, Liberty

  Samuel Adams (1968). “The Writings of Samuel Adams: 1778-1802”

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• The state remains, as it was in the beginning, the common enemy of all well-disposed, industrious and decent men.

  H. L. Mencken

  Men, Enemy, Politics

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• Oppression does not know the meaning of provincial boundaries. Aren't our energies better spent fighting the common enemy instead of each other?

  Benazir Bhutto

  War, Fighting, Enemy

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• Christians are supposed to love each other. Communists are supposed to share bonds with all proletarians and other communists. Every ideological group proclaims universality, and all of them bicker internally, never displaying unity except in the face of a common enemy. Humanism today is the common enemy of Christians.

  Gary North

  Christian, Unity, Enemy

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• A general dissolution of principles and manners will more surely overthrow the liberties of America than the whole force of the common enemy. While the people are virtuous they cannot be subdued; but when once they lose their virtue then will be ready to surrender their liberties to the first external or internal invader.

  Samuel Adams

  Patriotic, America, People

  Samuel Adams (1968). “The Writings of Samuel Adams: 1778-1802”

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• A man that should call everything by its right name would hardly pass the streets without being knocked down as a common enemy.

  E. F. L. Wood, 1st Earl of Halifax

  Men, Names, Enemy

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• We have common enemies today. It's called childhood poverty. It's called cancer. It's called AIDS. It's called Parkinson's. It's called Muscular Dystrophy.

  Jerry Doyle

  Cancer, Childhood, Enemy

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• I think that all countries of the region should join their efforts in the fight against a common threat - terrorism in general and ISIS in particular. It concerns Iran as well, it concerns Saudi Arabia (although the two countries do not get along very well, ISIS threatens both of them), it concerns Jordan, it concerns Turkey (in spite of certain problems regarding the Kurdish issue), and, in my opinion, everybody is interested in resolving the situation. Our task is to join these efforts to fight against a common enemy.

  Vladimir Putin

  Country, Fighting, Thinking

  Source: www.russianembassy.org

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• The common enemy is the white man.

  Malcolm X

  Men, White Man, Enemy

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• Nuclear war is such an emotional subject that many people see the weapons themselves as the common enemy of humanity.

  Herman Kahn

  War, Emotional, People

  Herman Kahn (1985). “Thinking Unth 80SP”, p.31, Simon and Schuster

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• Arms cannot be regarded as merchandise in our world. They should be delivered to the peoples asking for them for use against the common enemy without any charge at all, and in quantities determined by the need and their availability.

  Che Guevara

  Our World, Availability, Enemy

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• It [the State] has taken on a vast mass of new duties and responsibilities; it has spread out its powers until they penetrate to every act of the citizen, however secret; it has begun to throw around its operations the high dignity and impeccability of a State religion; its agents become a separate and superior caste, with authority to bind and loose, and their thumbs in every pot. But it still remains, as it was in the beginning, the common enemy of all well-disposed, industrious and decent men.

  H. L. Mencken

  Taken, Responsibility, Men

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