A Quote by Paulo Coelho

Forgive your enemy, but do not mistake him for a friend.

Paulo Coelho

Quote Topics

Enemy Forgive Friend Him Mistake Your

Quote Author

Paulo Coelho
Brazilian - Novelist
Born: August 24, 1947

General Napoleon says that 'Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.' Well, I suggest doing the opposite: Interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake. Don't be opportunist; don't benefit from the weakness of your enemy! Be just even to your enemy! Try to find a way to defeat him without harming him; prove to be as intelligent as to find such a way! Only then, your victory will be meaningful and honourable!

Mehmet Murat Ildan

The glory of Christianity is to conquer by forgiveness. It is easier to forgive an enemy than to forgive a friend.

Henry Ward Beecher

Friend, my enemy, I call you out. You, you, you there with a bad thorn in your side. You there, my friend, with a winning air. Who pawned the lie on me when he looked brassly at my shyest secret. With my whole heart under your hammer. That though I loved him for his faults as much as for his good. My friend were an enemy upon stilts with his head in a cunning cloud. -Dylan Thomas

Dylan Thomas

It is easier to forgive an enemy than to forgive a friend.

William Blake

To forgive is not to forget. The merit lies in loving in spite of the vivid knowledge that one that must be loved is not a friend. There is not merit in loving an enemy when you forget him for a friend.

Mahatma Gandhi

Do good to your friend to keep him, and to your enemy to make him your friend.

E. W. Scripps

And if your friend does evil to you, say to him, ''I forgive you for what you did to me, but how can I forgive you for what you did to yourself?

Friedrich Nietzsche

An enemy, Ender Wiggin," whispered the old man. "I am your enemy, the first one you've ever had who was smarter than you. There is no teacher but the enemy. No one but the enemy will tell you what the enemy is going to do. No one but the enemy will ever teach you how to destroy and conquer. Only the enemy shows you where you are weak. Only the enemy tells you where he is strong. And the rules of the game are what you can do to him and what you can stop him from doing to you. I am your enemy from now on. From now on I am your teacher.

Orson Scott Card

Forgive a wife-slammer if you can. But you don't have to live with him. Forgive a husband who is abusing your children if you can. But only after you kick him out of the house. And if you can't get him out, get help. It's available. In the meantime, don't let him near the kids, and don't let anyone tell you that if you forgive him it means you have to stay with him. [There's an important difference between forgiving a person and tolerating their bad behavior.]

Lewis B. Smedes

What you lend is lost; when you ask for it back, you may find a friend made an enemy by your kindness. If you begin to press him further, you have the choice of two things - either to lose your loan or lose your friend.

Plautus

Love thy neighbor as thyself: Do not do to others what thou wouldst not wish be done to thyself: Forgive injuries. Forgive thy enemy, be reconciled to him, give him assistance, invoke God in his behalf.

Confucius

Reveal not every secret you have to a friend, for how can you tell but that friend may hereafter become and enemy. And bring not all mischief you are able to upon an enemy, for he may one day become your friend.

Saadi

Your enemy is never a villain in his own eyes. Keep this in mind; it may offer a way to make him your friend. If not, you can kill him without hate — and quickly.