Worst Enemy Quotes (5 quotes)
Are the worst enemies of society those who attack it or those who do not even give themselves the trouble of defending it?
From original French, “Les pires ennemis de la société sont-ils ceux qui l'attaquent ou ceux qui ne se donnent même pas la peine de la défendre?” in Psychologie du Socialisme (1898), 61. English in The Psychology of Socialism (1899), 52.
If you are your own worst enemy, don’t do yourself any favors.
Given, without source, as an example of 'Witty Saying', witticism or aphorism, in The Well-Spoken Thesaurus (2011), 370.
It would be our worst enemy who would wish us to live only on the glories of the past and die off from the face of the earth in sheer passivity. By continuous achievement alone we can justify our great ancestry. We do not honour our ancestors by the false claim that they are omniscient and had nothing more to learn.
From 'Sir J.C. Bose’s Address', Benares Hindu University 1905-1935 (1936), 423. Collected in J. Lourdusamy, Science and National Consciousness in Bengal: 1870-1930 (2004), 106.
The trees are man’s best friends; but man has treated them as his worst enemies. The history of our race may be said to be the history of warfare upon the tree world. But while man has seemed to be the victor, his victories have brought upon him inevitable disasters.
'What We Owe to the Trees', Harper's New Monthly Magazine (Apr 1882), 46, No. 383, 675.
When introduced at the wrong time or place, good logic may be the worst enemy of good teaching.
Quoted, without citation, in The American Mathematical Monthly (Mar 1993), 100 No. 3, 286.
In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion.
(1987) -- 
