Opponents famous quotes
05-22-2025
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Because Mr. Mandelas early opponents invested so many resources into distorting the true nature of his advocacy, the singular historic moment millions now celebrate could have been tragically lost to guerrilla decontextualization.
-- Aberjhani -
If you pour oil and vinegar into the same vessel, you would call them not friends but opponents.
-- Aeschylus -
Who is your opponent tonight, tonight I am playing against the Black pieces
-- Akiba Rubinstein -
You must not let your opponent know how you feel.
-- Alexander Kotov -
Like mortars in old war films, they are often ready to destroy the opponent's unsupported defences.
-- Alexey Suetin -
I'd take precision any day over power; as far as being tactical you know you have to see what's going on in there and also understand that for every punch that you or your opponent throws there's always a counter shot or two which you have to be ready to fire or defend.
-- Alexis Arguello -
In the investigation of a neurotic style of life, we must always suspect an opponent, and note who suffers most because of the patient's condition. Usually this is a member of the family.
-- Alfred Adler -
When dealing with Canadians, it is advantageous to seem to be negotiating from a position of weakness, for when faced with an abject opponent, they become concession-happy and will accede to almost anything.
-- Alleyne FitzHerbert, 1st Baron St Helens -
Opponents of globalisation may see it as a new folly, but it is neither particularly new, nor, in general, a folly.
-- Amartya Sen -
Just make the right estimation of your own strengths and weaknesses, and also that of your opponent.
-- Anatoly Karpov -
But how difficult it can be to gain the desired full point against an opponent of inferior strength, when this is demanded by the tournament position!
-- Anatoly Karpov -
I feel old when I see mousse in my opponent's hair.
-- Andre Agassi -
In tennis, it is not the opponent you fear, it is the failure itself, knowing how near you were but just out of reach.
-- Andy Murray -
Contempt is the emotion we feel for an opponent whose arguments are too formidable to refute.
-- Ann Coulter -
I never rooted against an opponent, but I never rooted for him either.
-- Arnold Palmer -
The game has such a hold on golfers because they compete not only against an opponent, but also against the course, against par, and most surely- against themselves.
-- Arnold Palmer -
You really are never playing an opponent. You are playing yourself.
-- Arthur Ashe -
Chess is not Mathematics, where ten is always more than one; in chess the King with a pawn can beat opponent's King with all pieces if they are placed badly.
-- Ashot Nadanian -
Direct pressure always tends to harden and consolidate the resistance of an opponent.
-- B. H. Liddell Hart -
Don't take the wrong side of an argument just because your opponent has taken the right side.
-- Baltasar Gracian -
The best humor is offered up by the stupidity of your opponents.
-- Barney Frank -
A sophistical rhetorician, inebriated with the exuberance of his own verbosity, and gifted with an egotistical imagination that can at all times command an interminable and inconsistent series of arguments to malign an opponent and to glorify himself.
-- Benjamin Disraeli -
I do not pretend that birth control is the only way in which population can be kept from increasing. There are others, which, one must suppose, opponents of birth control would prefer.
-- Bertrand Russell -
He [Jimmy Connors] has one weakness. He can never say his opponent played well. That's why it feels good to beat him and that's why other players would rather beat him than any other player.
-- Bjorn Borg -
My opponents make good moves too. Sometimes I don't take these things into consideration
-- Bobby Fischer -
Its just you and your opponent at the board and you're trying to prove something
-- Bobby Fischer -
Concentrate on material gains. Whatever your opponent gives you take, unless you see a good reason not to.
-- Bobby Fischer -
Your biggest opponent isn't the other guy. It's human nature.
-- Bobby Knight -
Your biggest hurdle isn't your opponent, it is yourself.
-- Brandon Todd -
They are a very tough opponent, and they took us the first game. So we want our revenge, and we are going to go right back after them hard. We are really looking forward to getting after them.
-- Brian Jeroloman -
You must have complete determination. The worst opponent you can come across is one whose aim has become an obsession.
-- Bruce Lee -
Never take your eyes off your opponent... even when you bow...
-- Bruce Lee -
Fear comes from uncertainty; we can eliminate the fear within us when we know ourselves better. As the great Sun Tzu said: “When you know yourself and your opponent, you will win every time. When you know yourself but not your opponent, you will win one and lose one. However, when you do not know yourself or your opponent, you will be imperiled every time.
-- Bruce Lee -
Fischer was a master of clarity and a king of artful positioning. His opponents would see where he was going but were powerless to stop him
-- Bruce Pandolfini -
I definitely miss the rush from wiping out an opponent.
-- Bruce Pandolfini -
If you're up against a smart opponent, make him think himself to death.
-- C. J. Cherryh -
War therefore is an act of violence to compel our opponent to fulfill our will.
-- Carl von Clausewitz -
There are so many tough opponents out there and tough competitors so I've never liked to look ahead.
-- Caroline Wozniacki -
Always choose the hardest way, on it you will not find opponents
-- Charles de Gaulle -
I wouldn't like to make anybody cry, I don't dislike anybody. It doesn't even matter - the opponent is always faceless.
-- Chris Bosh -
Ellen could have killed me," Jack said quietly, "but she didn't. She saved my life." "How come?" Fitch demanded. "After all this?" Ellen turned scarlet and stared at the ground. "Maybe none of my opponents ever gave me flowers before," she mumbled.
-- Cinda Williams Chima -
If you face just one opponent, and you doubt yourself, you're out-numbered
-- Dan Millman -
I want to coach a team that opponents don't look forward to playing.
-- Danny Ford -
You never lose a game if the opponent doesn't score.
-- Darrell Royal -
When you play against an experienced opponent who exploits all the defensive resources at his command you sometimes have to walk time and again, along the narrow path of 'the only move'.
-- David Bronstein -
When everything on the board is clear it can be so difficult to conceal your thoughts from your opponent.
-- David Bronstein -
Nobody ever won an election by spitting at his political opponents.
-- David Frum -
When your opponent's sittin' there holdin' all the aces, there's only one thing to do: kick over the table.
-- Dean Martin -
Every dictator is an enemy of freedom, an opponent of law.
-- Demosthenes -
Please understand what the IRS scandal is about: Using the government to shut down opponents
-- Dennis Prager -
I try not to underestimate my opponents, no matter how ridiculous their beards.
-- Derek Landy -
While the coach is entitled to celebrate the team's victories, there is a manner and a way of doing so without aggravating the opponent
-- Diego Maradona -
We should all strive to be extraordinary, and that starts with a focus on our own capabilities instead of those of our opponents.
-- Don Yaeger -
A campaign is about defining who you are - your vision and your opponent's vision.
-- Donna Brazile -
If you're not out front defining your vision, your opponent will spend gobs of money to define it for you.
-- Donna Brazile -
Man, anytime the ball goes through the basket. It doesn't matter if it's a jumper or a drive. Any time the ball goes through the basket, and it's going through consistently, it's demoralizing for any opponent.
-- Dwyane Wade -
The true opponent in a debate on emptiness is your own ego.
-- Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche -
Would you kick an opponent when he was down? Yes, if I thought he might get up.
-- Edmund Rouse -
There is a serious and resolute egotism that makes a man interesting to his friends and formidable to his opponents.
-- Edwin Percy Whipple -
If the rest of his foursome are bunched directly behind his ball, or assume the foetal position with their backs to the tee, the golfer is reminded that his drive tends to be erratic. More cruel yet is for his opponent to stand directly in the projected line of flight, as the safest place to be.
-- Eric Nicol -
The deeper you get into the playoffs, obviously the better the opponent is. Which means they'll be better defensively, they'll rebound better, they don't turn the ball over.
-- Eric Snow -
Poincaré was a vigorous opponent of the theory that all mathematics can be rewritten in terms of the most elementary notions of classical logic; something more than logic, he believed, makes mathematics what it is.
-- Eric Temple Bell -
It is a matter of perspective, the difference between opponent and partner," Tsukiko says. "You step to the side and the same person can be either or both or something else entirely. It is difficult to know which face is true.
-- Erin Morgenstern -
Their fiery advance and great tenacity were well recognized by their opponents.
-- Ernst Otto Fischer -
You can always tell the golfer who's winning: he's the one who keeps telling his opponent that it's only a game.
-- Evan Esar -
Competition was as much as respecting your opponent's work as introspecting on your own.
-- Faraaz Kazi -
I've never pumped myself up or made myself angry as some sportsmen do. I think that one should treat his opponent with great respect.
-- Fedor Emelianenko -
Economic controversy is generally a thankless task. You cannot hope to make any impression on your opponent. Yet he is the only reader on whose interest you can count.
-- Francis Ysidro Edgeworth -
Possession means nothing when the opponent takes its chances
-- Franz Beckenbauer -
It feels much nobler to feel guilty than resentful, and it takes more courage to express resentment than guilt. With expressing guilt you expect to pacify your opponent; with expressing resentment you might stir up hostility in him.
-- Frederick Salomon Perls -
We do not place especial value on the possession of a virtue until we notice its total absence in our opponent.
-- Friedrich Nietzsche -
Even the sadistic misogyny of Buddha and Christ was nothing but an attempt to gain the better of a vastly superior opponent.
-- Fumiko Enchi -
One does not succeed by sticking to convention. When your opponent can easily anticipate every move you make, your strategy deteriorates and becomes commoditized.
-- Garry Kasparov -
After you work out, you have your dog with you. There's no better companion. You've got to have a friend. I didn't like opponents who had dogs with them. Because you know they had a little edge. They have a friend
-- George Foreman -
The result of this is that so-called peace propaganda is just as dishonest and intellectually disgusting as war propaganda. Like war propaganda, it concentrates on putting forward a ‘case’, obscuring the opponent’s point of view and avoiding awkward questions.
-- George Orwell -
Every one of my opponents, every one of my critics, will tell you that I am a generalist spread far too thin in an age when this is not done anymore, when responsible knowledge is specialized knowledge.
-- George Steiner -
I readily admit I was not an expert on foreign policy but I was knowledgeable and I didn't need a man who was the Vice President of the United States and my opponent turning around and putting me down.
-- Geraldine Ferraro -
The case may very well be that Congress is willing to restrict campaign contributions because it has these privileges. It is true that incumbents normally get larger contributions than their challengers. The opponents at least get some money, but they do not have access to the perquisites of the incumbent.
-- Gordon Tullock -
Golf gives you an insight into human nature, your own as well as your opponent's.
-- Grantland Rice -
Never quit politicking and never underestimate your opponent.
-- Gus Franklin Mutscher -
I never underestimate my opponent, but I never underestimate my talents.
-- Hale Irwin -
I'm not comparing myself to Bobby Kennedy by any stretch, but he was opposed by the liberal establishment, too. Eleanor Roosevelt was the biggest opponent to him running.
-- Harold Ford, Jr. -
If your opponent is playing several shots in vain attempts to extricate himself from a bunker, do not stand near him and audibly count his strokes. It would be justifiable homicide if he wound up his pitiable exhibition by applying his niblick to your head.
-- Harry Vardon -
Sometimes, quite out of the blue, sport will throw up a tender moment, when hostility ceases and an opponent is acknowledged.
-- Harsha Bhogle -
It is a violation which has obsessed the tyrants of the twentieth century. They do not want simply to kill their opponents, but to liquidate them, to deny that they have ever existed.
-- Helen Dunmore -
I don't defeat my opponents, they defeat themselves.
-- Helio Gracie -
And the rigidity of the material with which we have to compose, is a more formidable opponent than Lasker or Capablanca. Because these lifeless opponents do not have any moments of human weakness!
-- Henri Weenink -
The adoption by Jefferson and the Republicans of the political structure of their opponents is of an importance hardly inferior to that of the adoption of the Constitution by the states.
-- Herbert Croly -
In golf, as in no other sport, your principal opponent is youself.
-- Herbert Wind -
According to the Captain of The Honorable Company of Edinburgh Golfers, striking your opponent or caddie at St Andrews, Hoylake or Westward Ho! meant that you lost the hole, except on medal days when it counted as a rub of the green.
-- Herbert Wind -
Politics is like boxing — you try to knock out your opponents.
-- Idi Amin -
True strength isn’t in killing—or ignoring—your opponent, it’s in having the will to shield those who need your protection.
-- Ilona Andrews -
Our opponent [Cory Aquino] does not put on any make up. She does not have her fingernails manicured. You know gays. They are for beauty. Filipinos who like beauty, love and God are for Marcos.
-- Imelda Marcos -
The most critical thing in a negotiation is to get inside your opponent's head and figure out what he really wants.
-- Jacob Lew -
In disputes upon moral or scientific points, ever let your aim be to come at truth, not to conquer your opponent. So you never shall be at a loss in losing the argument, and gaining a new discovery.
-- James Burgh -
Never let us do wrong, because our opponents did so. Let us, rather, by doing right, show them what they ought to have done, and establish a rule the dictates of reason and conscience, rather than of the angry passions.
-- James Joyce -
Never ascribe to an opponent motives meaner than your own.
-- James M. Barrie -
A man is not defeated by his opponents but by himself
-- Jan Smuts -
Mercy is the mark of a great man! (stabs defeated opponent) I guess I'm just a good man. (stabs opponent again) Well ... I'm alright.
-- Jane Espenson -
It is impossible to win a contest with a helpless opponent since if you win you have won nothing.
-- Jay Haley
