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Quotes

Perish the universe, provided I have my revenge.

—Savinien Cyrano de Bergerac, 1654

We often give our enemies the means for our own destruction.

—Aesop, c. 600 BC

We die of comfort and by conflict live.

—May Sarton, 1953

For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbors, and laugh at them in our turn?

—Jane Austen, 1813

The hatred of relatives is the bitterest.

—Tacitus, 117

How can we bear misfortune most easily? If we see our enemies faring worse.

—Thales of Miletus, c. 585 BC

Rivalry adds so much to the charms of one’s conquests.

—Louisa May Alcott, 1866

No one wins a quarrel by quarreling.

—German proverb

Many need no other provocation to enmity than that they find themselves excelled.

—Samuel Johnson, 1751

Envy and hatred are apt to blind the eyes and render them unable to behold things as they are.

—Margaret of Valois, c. 1600

Quarrels would not last long if the fault was only on one side.

—La Rochefoucauld, 1665

Don’t hit a man at all if you can avoid it, but if you have to hit him, knock him out.

—Theodore Roosevelt, 1916

Opposition may become sweet to a man when he has christened it persecution.

—George Eliot, 1857