Top 100 Opponent Quotes
#1. Sometimes the only option is to raise the stakes, to throw yourself the other way, to force your opponent further down the path they've chosen, further than they might want to go.
Mark Lawrence
#2. If your opponent has you by fifty pounds, winning a fight against him is a dubious proposition, at best. If your opponent has you by eight thousand and fifty pounds, you've left the realm of combat and enrolled yourself in Road-kill 101. Or possibly in a Tom and Jerry cartoon.
Jim Butcher
#3. I would not want to be a politician ... Let me tell you this: If I was campaigning, and I go against my opponent and he started attacking my character, and I leap over the table and choke him unconscious, would that help my campaign?
Chuck Norris
#4. Golf gives you an insight into human nature, your own as well as your opponent's.
Grantland Rice
#5. Let us always remember that he does not really believe his own opinion, who dares not give free scope to his opponent.
Wendell Phillips
#6. Figure out what your opponent wants you to do and try to do the opposite.
Lou Krieger
#7. Ridicule has always been the enemy of enthusiasm, and the only worthy opponent to ridicule is success.
Oliver Goldsmith
#8. Racing is licking your opponent's plate clean before starting on your own
Tim Krabbe
#9. I learned from Chuck Noll in Pittsburgh that speed and explosiveness on defense is the way to build a team. Both are difficult for your opponent to assimilate in practice and then in games it is even harder to match.
Tony Dungy
#10. In chess, we have styles - like in any other field. There are also fashions in the kinds of systems that people play. So I'm trying to know my opponent as much as possible.
Garry Kasparov
#11. A second basic fact that characterizes nonviolence is that it does not seek to defeat or humiliate the opponent, but to win his friendship and understanding.
Martin Luther King Jr.
#12. 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
#13. To totalitarianism, an opponent is by definition subversive; democracy treats subversives as mere opponents for fear of betraying its principles.
Jean Francois Revel
#14. Life is a game board. Time is your opponent. If you procrastinate, you will lose the game. You must make a move to be victorious.
Napoleon Hill
#15. Whoever sees no other aim in the game than that of giving checkmate to one's opponent will never become a good Chess player.
Max Euwe
#16. I can remember a case where Capablanca worked out an impressive combination, but then chose to make a simple move in answer to which his opponent resigned at once!
Alexander Kotov
#17. Winning is often simply getting up off the ground one more time than your opponent.
Vincent Bugliosi
#18. It is your own bad strategies, not the unfair opponent, that are to blame for your failures. You are responsible for the good and bad in your life.
Robert Greene
#19. What your opponent wants you to think is useful data in figuring out what they think. So get the early draft, okay?
James S.A. Corey
#20. You and your opponent are one. There is a coexisting relationship between you. You coexist with your opponent and become his complement, absorbing his attack and using his force to overcome him.
Bruce Lee
#21. At times one remains faithful to a cause only because its opponents do not cease to be insipid.
Friedrich Nietzsche
#22. The great enemy of knowledge is not error, but inertness. All that we want is discussion; and then we are sure to do well, no matter what our blunders may be. One error conflicts with another, each destroys its opponent, and truth is evolved.
Henry Thomas Buckle
#23. I look coolly in to the blue eyes of the person who is now my greatest opponent, the person who would keep me alive at his own expense. And I promise myself I will defeat his plan.
Suzanne Collins
#24. The real objection to modernism is simply that it is a form of snobbishness. It is an attempt to crush a rational opponent not by reason, but by some mystery of superiority, by hinting that one is specially up to date or particularly in the know.
G.K. Chesterton
#25. Look, there's no rule in soccer against biting your opponent. There's not even a rule against eating your opponent. The only rule in soccer is that you can't use your hands.
Luis Suarez
#26. I never talk about my opponent because I don't think it's my right to judge.
Dan Webster
#27. Everywhere I go, I will make a good payday. But we got to choose the right opponent and the right time and the right venue.
Floyd Mayweather Jr.
#28. The proper method of playing mixed doubles is to swipe the ball accidentally and straight at the woman opponent as hard and as accurately as possible. Male players must not only retain equanimity on their side of the net, but create dissension on the other.
Art Hoppe
#29. Is it [hunting] really a sport if you have all the equipment and your opponent doesn't know a game is going on?
Bill Maher
#30. When arguing with a fool, make sure the opponent isn't doing the exact same thing.
Abraham Lincoln
#31. My opponent asks her supporters to recite a three-word loyalty pledge. It reads, 'I'm With Her.' I choose to recite a different pledge. My pledge reads, 'I'm with you - the American people.'
Donald Trump
#33. Tal's combinations often exert a sort of paralysing influence on the opponent's play. It would seem that the element of surprise plays a big part in this.
Mark Taimanov
#34. It is a matter of perspective, between opponent and partner ... You step to the side and the same person can be either or both or something else entirely.
Erin Morgenstern
#35. The value of time, that is of being a little ahead of your opponent, often provides greater advantage than superior numbers or greater resources.
Sun Tzu
#36. A good seat on a horse steals away your opponent's courage and your onlooker's heart-what reason is there to attack? Sit like one who has conquered?
Friedrich Nietzsche
#37. Sometimes players need to gain time on the clock by repeating the position, but most often its purpose is to wear down the opponent psychologically.
Pal Benko
#38. Being a great fighter is having a perfect balance of having that toughness, skill, as well as that mental capability to be able to out-think you opponent.
Rashad Evans
#39. Dick Durbin's a worthy opponent on any debate. He's very intelligent, quick. Knows his facts and puts them forward well.
Sam Brownback
#40. I feel as if I were a piece in a game of chess, when my opponent says of it: That piece cannot be moved.
Soren Kierkegaard
#41. Assertion is not argument; to contradict the statement of an opponent is not proof that you are correct.
Samuel Johnson
#42. One of these modest little moves may be more embarrassing to your opponent than the biggest threat
Siegbert Tarrasch
#43. If your opponent is better armed and has longer reach, then surprise is your only ally. And then you'd better hope he's half asleep.
Sherwood Smith
#44. Clearly there was no headway to be made in an argument when one's opponent was insane.
Lisa Kleypas
#46. Only play into a variation in which your opponent is strong if you have your own personal novelty ready!
Edmar Mednis
#47. He was watching my eyes. A man who uses a sword with lethal skill always matches his opponent's eyes.
Bernard Cornwell
#48. You run the football for toughness. You run the ball to tell your opponent that you're as tough as they are. But you throw the ball to ring the bell.
Jerry Glanville
#49. The height of strategy, is to attack your opponent's strategy.
Sun Tzu
#50. One thing that makes aikido is so powerful,
it utilizes power of opponents to win the fight.
Toba Beta
#51. Applied to an opponent, it is abuse, applied to someone you agree with, it is praise.
George Orwell
#52. Proved right should be capable of being vindicated by right means as against the rude i.e. sanguinary means. Man may and should shed his own blood for establishing what he considers to be his right. He may not shed the blood of his opponent who disputes his 'right'.
Mahatma Gandhi
#53. The non-violent resistor not only avoids external, physical violence, but he avoids internal violence of spirit. He not only refuses to shoot his opponent, but he refuses to hate him. And he stands with understanding, goodwill at all times.
Martin Luther King Jr.
#54. When I'd get tired and want to stop, I'd wonder what my next opponent was doing. I'd wonder if he was still working out. I'd tried to visualize him. When I could see him working, I'd start pushing myself. When I could see him in the shower, I'd push myself harder.
Dan Gable
#55. Chemotherapy is an opponent in itself - simultaneously curing you and hurting you.
Jenna Morasca
#56. When our brain feels too weak to deal with our opponent's objections, our heart answers by casting suspicion on their underlying motives.
Friedrich Nietzsche
#57. Cause your opponent to repent, then let him fall
Kyuzo Mifune
#58. 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
#59. PITIFUL, adj. The state of an enemy or opponent after an imaginary encounter with oneself.
Ambrose Bierce
#60. When my opponent's clock is going I discuss general considerations in an internal dialogue with myself. When my own clock is going I analyse conctrete variations.
Mikhail Botvinnik
#61. I tell this joke about Barack Obama is the best communicator of our generation: The guy reads a teleprompter better than any Hollywood actor. John McCain, his opponent - Stevie Wonder reads a teleprompter better than John McCain.
Frank Luntz
#62. If you are strong and fighting the weak, then if you kill your opponent then you are a scoundrel ... if you let him kill you, then you are an idiot.
Martin Van Creveld
#63. When your opponent gives you an opening, be swift as a hare.
Sun Tzu
#64. Who is your opponent tonight, tonight I am playing against the Black pieces
Akiba Rubinstein
#65. You don't want to be down 2-0 in a series. It's always important to try and get one on the opponent's home court. It makes your job at home easier.
Doug Collins
#66. If you decide to challenge your destiny, your opponent would not be some judgemental Lord Almighty who is seeking to punish you; your opponent would only be the limitations of your own mind. This will empower you to fight your fate.
Amish Tripathi
#67. Anyone who is serious about jiu-jitsu should know that the ability to defeat an opponent is nothing more than a metaphor for the ultimate combat, for the most significant victories are the ones we accomplish within ourselves
Rorion Gracie
#68. I definitely want to show how beautiful the marathon can be. I am the opponent of all those who find the marathon bad: the psychologists, the physiologists, the doubters. I make the marathon beautiful for myself and for others. That's why I'm here.
Uta Pippig
#70. I love controlling a race, chewing up an opponent. Let's get down and dirty. Let's fight it out. It's raw, animalistic, with no one to rely on but yourself. There's no better feeling than that.
Adam Goucher
#71. My favourite victory is when it is not even clear where my opponent made a mistake.
Peter Leko
#72. Listen, Al Gore is a very tough opponent. He is the incumbent. He represents the incumbency. And a challenger is somebody who generally comes from the pack and wins, if you're going to win. And that's where I'm coming from.
George W. Bush
#73. You must have complete determination. The worst opponent you can come across is one whose aim has become an obsession.
Bruce Lee
#74. The young woman quoted Turgenev, "If you want to annoy an opponent thoroughly or even harm him, you reproach him with every defect or vice you are conscious of in yourself.
Jack Vance
#75. Patience will benefit you in every hour, every time and every opportunity. It helps you to overcome your opponent, howsoever strong he may be. It will help you in times of distress and hardships, in battles and in war and peace.
Abd Al-Karim Qasim
#76. So it is that good warriors take their stance on ground where they cannot lose, and do not overlook conditions that make an opponent prone to defeat.
Sun Tzu
#77. the faithholder is his faith. He and it make, not two, but a single thing. Since he and it are one, there's no way to take it from him. That makes him a very powerful opponent. In fact, it makes him an unconquerable opponent; since even death can't touch him in his most important part.
Gordon R. Dickson
#78. Life is a sparring partner;
adversity is its gloves.
Life is an opponent;
adversity is its blows.
Matshona Dhliwayo
#79. A retaliator behaves like a hawk when he is attacked by a hawk, and like a dove when he meets a dove. When he meets another retaliator he plays like a dove. A retaliator is a conditional strategist. His behaviour depends on the behaviour of his opponent.
Richard Dawkins
#80. As long as my opponent has not yet castled, on each move I seek a pretext for an offensive. Even when I realize that the king is not in danger.
Mikhail Tal
#81. President Obama has been attacking relentlessly. In 2008 he said that if you're out of fresh ideas you use stale tactics against your opponent - you try and make your opponent unacceptable and that's what he is trying to do.
Rob Portman
#82. I would argue that the next President, either Bush or Gore, should strike a 'national' posture, exhibiting generosity toward the defeated opponent, but proceeding with determination to implement an agenda.
Richard V. Allen
#83. I actually think of myself as quite a shy person, although I know I give the impression of someone much more confident. I think what I do have is a capacity to listen to the other, even if the other is an opponent. That leads, in all senses of the word, to an engagement.
John Berger
#84. May I gain no victory that harms me or my opponent. May I reconcile friends who are mad at each other. May I, insofar as I can, give all necessary help to my friends and to all who are in need. May I never fail a friend in trouble.
Prayer on the Golden Rule (abridged)
Eusebius
#85. My opponent Senator Menendez and his colleagues are pursuing what I consider a Jon Corzine economic policy. Higher taxes, more spending, more debt.
Joseph M. Kyrillos
#86. A man can learn all of an opponent's weaknesses on that board,' said Gilt.
'Really?' said Vetinari, raising his eyebrows. 'Should not he be trying to learn his own?
Terry Pratchett
#87. I prepare for my fights to well that I don't wanna give a chance to my opponent to crash my 'glass chin' as they say, so I'm knocking them in the way that I like.
Wladimir Klitschko
#88. Begin by seizing something which your opponent holds dear; then he will be amenable to your will.
Sun Tzu
#89. The hero and the coward both feel the same thing, but the hero uses his fear, projects it onto his opponent, while the coward runs. It's the same thing, fear, but it's what you do with it that matters. - Cus D'Amato
Cus D'Amato
#90. I won't hold my opponent's youth and inexperience against him.
Ronald Reagan
#91. If you have a problem and you can't find a solution, you meet again tomorrow and you keep talking until you find a solution. You can disagree with behavior or a particular position, but you do not resort to calling an opponent worthless.
Kofi Annan
#92. I can hardly think of an occasion when I've got into a stand-up fight with any political opponent. I've got my views, people know what they are, they can agree or they can choose to disagree. I'm not going to waste time just rubbishing everybody else.
Charles Kennedy
#93. Cassian had been teaching me these weeks about how to feel out an opponent - what were her words but the opening movements in another sort of battle?
Sarah J. Maas
#94. It's all very simple: if you score one more than your opponent, you win.
Johan Cruijff
#95. I incorporate different styles that work for me. I could easily change my style depends on my opponent.
Tomoki Kameda
#96. Tal accepted absolutely all the world champion's conditions with a smile, taking away a very important psychological trump card from him - the harsh, prickly relations with his opponent that were characteristic of all Botvinnik's matches.
Gennadi Sosonko
#97. You must take your opponent into a deep dark forest where 2+2=5, and the path leading out is only wide enough for one
Mikhail Tal
#98. Lea, you know you should never have a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent.
Christine Zolendz
#99. We have all been guilty of bending over backwards to be nice to an unworthy but powerful opponent,
Richard Dawkins
#100. I would love to see Wladimir Klitschko fight Antonio Tarver for many reasons. One is Tarver talks a lot; he would build up a big fight. And Tarver is coming off of a great victory. So I think he would be a good opponent.
Emanuel Steward
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