Meaning
Strategic counsel to stay in close contact with adversaries as well as allies, since rivals are the ones most likely to harm you and most in need of watching. It implies that keeping an enemy near, perhaps under a friendly guise, gives you information and control that distance would not. Wry, strategic register, often invoked half-jokingly in office politics and commentary on rivalry. Regional use: General English.
Origin
No ancient source is verified for this saying. It is popularly attributed to the Chinese general Sun Tzu, but it appears nowhere in The Art of War; that attribution is disputed and unsupported by textual evidence, and occasional attributions to Machiavelli are likewise spurious. The documented populariser is The Godfather Part II, which premiered in New York on 12 December 1974, with a screenplay by Francis Ford Coppola and Mario Puzo: Michael Corleone recalls that his father taught him to keep your friends close but your enemies closer. The line ranked number 58 on the American Film Institute's 2005 list of greatest movie quotes. No reliably documented earlier use of the wording has been traced, so any pre-1974 derivation should be treated as unproven.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- always keep your enemies close
- hold your friends close and your enemies closer
- keep your enemies close and your friends closer
- keep your friends close, but your enemies closer
Usage Examples
- She accepted the rival firm's invitation to their conference, on the principle that you keep your friends close and your enemies closer.
- Keep your enemies closer, the old manager liked to say, which is why he always lunched with the auditors.
- Rather than shunning the office gossip, Priya befriended her so she would hear the rumours first, keeping her enemies closer.