In prior blogs, I have often taken well-known idioms or proverbs and discussed them, and while I have not done so in recent years, I thought it would be interesting to post about such things occasionally. Therefore, I have chosen for my first such post to discuss the proverb “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.”

The roots of this saying go back to antiquity, to a Sanskrit treatise on statecraft:

The king who is situated anywhere immediately on the circumference of the conqueror’s territory is termed the enemy.
The king who is likewise situated close to the enemy, but separated from the conqueror only by the enemy, is termed the friend (of the conqueror).

The meaning of this saying is rather obvious: when confronted by an enemy, two opposing factions, while they might not be natural allies, have a common interest and thus, for purposes of such a conflict, may term themselves friends. In ancient Rome they had a similar proverb which stated:

“Amicus meus, inimicus inimici mei” (“my friend, the enemy of my enemy”)

The Roman proverb was well known in Europe by the eighteenth century, though it was not translated into an English version until the late 1800s.

We can see this in various historical settings, in particularly in the Second World War. The Axis powers were largely united by ideology, though perhaps in opposition when considering some of the other reasons they joined together, but the Allies are a distinct example of this. The United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, France, and various other allies had common forms of government and societies, but the Russians were a different story. Ruled with an iron fist by Stalin, the Soviet dominated country was not ideological ally of the democracies of the west. Yet, they were united in purpose, that being the defeat of the Nazis, and both viewed the other as critical to the realization of that goal, enough to cooperate until the end of the war in an uneasy alliance.

We can also see certain ways in which the proverb is still applicable today, not only with the alliances the west has with certain Middle Eastern countries, but in the Ukraine war with Russia to a certain extent. It is certainly not may intent to make a political point here, so your mileage may vary on how much you see this apply to conflicts and political alliances of today. Even in our personal lives we can see it—how many times have you united against another even in your own families, if only in something as simple as friendly teasing?

I  hope you enjoyed this little investigation of a common proverb. I hope to post a few of these every so often.

Incidentally, with respect to the feature image, while you can find proverbs in fortune cookies, we have always noticed in my family that profound sayings in fortune cookies are the exception rather than the norm. As such, we have taken to calling them “advice cookies!” Tell me I’m wrong!