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Wisdom Quote by Mary Richards

"Who are enemies? Those who oppose each others will"

About this Quote

"Who are enemies?" lands like a philosophical setup, but the answer snaps into something harsher: "Those who oppose each others will". It reduces enmity to friction, not morality. No talk of evil, betrayal, ideology, or history - just will versus will. That spareness is the point. By stripping away the usual justifications we attach to conflict, the line implies that the word "enemy" is often a convenient label we slap onto whoever blocks our desire.

The subtext is unsettlingly intimate. An "enemy" here isn't necessarily a stranger across a border; it could be a spouse in a deadlocked argument, a coworker who won't budge, a neighbor at a zoning meeting. The definition treats conflict as a geometry problem: two vectors colliding. That framing quietly indicts the ego. If enmity is created by "opposing will", then the boundary between principled resistance and personal obstruction gets blurry fast. It suggests that plenty of our so-called enemies are manufactured the moment we decide our will should be sovereign.

Contextually, the quote feels like it comes from a setting where power and consent are in constant negotiation - politics, family, workplaces, any space where competing priorities get personalized. There's also an unintentional tell in the grammar ("each others"), which makes it feel less like a polished maxim and more like a raw note: someone trying to name a pattern they've lived through.

It works because it refuses comfort. It doesn't let you outsource hatred to villains; it makes enmity a byproduct of ordinary human insistence.

Quote Details

TopicWisdom
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Citation Formats

APA Style (7th ed.)
Richards, Mary. (2026, January 16). Who are enemies? Those who oppose each others will. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/who-are-enemies-those-who-oppose-each-others-will-84867/

Chicago Style
Richards, Mary. "Who are enemies? Those who oppose each others will." FixQuotes. January 16, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/who-are-enemies-those-who-oppose-each-others-will-84867/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"Who are enemies? Those who oppose each others will." FixQuotes, 16 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/who-are-enemies-those-who-oppose-each-others-will-84867/. Accessed 13 Feb. 2026.

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Who are enemies? Oppose each others will - Mary Richards
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Mary Richards is a notable figure.

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