Enemy

Enemy

An enemy or foe is a relativist term for an entity, whether an individual or a group, that is seen as forcefully adverse or threatening. The concept of an enemy has been observed to be "basic for both individuals and communities". The term "enemy" serves the social function of designating a particular entity as a threat, thereby invoking an intense emotional response to that entity. The state of being or having an enemy is enmity.

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Famous quotes containing the word enemy:

    “For it was not an enemy that reproached me; then I could have borne it: neither was it he that hated me that did magnify himself against me; then I would have hid myself from him:
    But it was thou, a man mine equal, my guide, and mine acquaintance.
    We took sweet counsel together, and walked unto the house of God in company.”
    —Bible: Hebrew Psalm LV (l. LV, 12–14)

    “Powerful, yes, that is the word that I constantly rolled on my tongue, I dreamed of absolute power, the kind that forces others to kneel, that forces the enemy to capitulate, finally converting him, and the more the enemy is blind, cruel, sure of himself, buried in his conviction, the more his admission proclaims the royalty of he who has brought on his defeat.”
    —Albert Camus (1913–1960)

    “For my enemy is dead, a man divine as myself is dead,
    I look where he lies white-faced and still in the
    coffin—I draw near,
    Bend down and touch lightly with my lips the white face in the
    coffin.”
    —Walt Whitman (1819–1892)