StartupThoughts

a quiet place to think about startups

A wise enemy is preferable to a foolish friend.

AND by experience it was known unto me, that a wise enemy is preferable to a foolish friend.

Amir Timur
from Institutes Political and Military (Tuzukat-i Timuri), Book II, p. 327, trans. Major William Davy, ed. Joseph White, Oxford 1783. Timur illustrates it with Ameer Hoossein, whose friendship did him more harm than any enemy could. Traditionally ascribed to Timur; the surviving compilation is generally dated to the seventeenth century. ↗