"Time should make enemies and Life should make friends"
About this Quote
A line like this only sounds like a fortune cookie until you remember who’s saying it: Henry R. Luce, the editor who helped teach 20th-century America how to see itself. “Time should make enemies and Life should make friends” is less self-help than newsroom doctrine: a prescription for how to metabolize conflict without letting it harden into personal rot.
The sly pivot is in the verbs. Time doesn’t merely reveal enemies; it should make them. Luce implies that antagonism is not a failure of civility but an outcome of duration and clarity. Give any era long enough and the stakes sharpen, camps form, interests collide. In a Luce-style worldview, that’s productive. Enemies are how you map the moral and political terrain; they’re proof you’ve taken a position strong enough to attract resistance.
“Life should make friends” counters the chill with something warmer but equally strategic. Life, the daily grind of shared work and proximity, should generate alliances that outlast a single controversy. For an editor who built institutions (Time, Life, Fortune) and influenced presidents, friendship isn’t just intimacy; it’s infrastructure. You need enemies to keep your arguments honest and your mission defined. You need friends to keep the machine running and your humanity intact.
The subtext: don’t confuse disagreement with betrayal, and don’t demand that history be kind. Luce is carving a hard, modern ethic for public life: expect friction over time; insist on fellowship in living.
The sly pivot is in the verbs. Time doesn’t merely reveal enemies; it should make them. Luce implies that antagonism is not a failure of civility but an outcome of duration and clarity. Give any era long enough and the stakes sharpen, camps form, interests collide. In a Luce-style worldview, that’s productive. Enemies are how you map the moral and political terrain; they’re proof you’ve taken a position strong enough to attract resistance.
“Life should make friends” counters the chill with something warmer but equally strategic. Life, the daily grind of shared work and proximity, should generate alliances that outlast a single controversy. For an editor who built institutions (Time, Life, Fortune) and influenced presidents, friendship isn’t just intimacy; it’s infrastructure. You need enemies to keep your arguments honest and your mission defined. You need friends to keep the machine running and your humanity intact.
The subtext: don’t confuse disagreement with betrayal, and don’t demand that history be kind. Luce is carving a hard, modern ethic for public life: expect friction over time; insist on fellowship in living.
Quote Details
| Topic | Friendship |
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