We had been friends. We could not become strangers. It left only one thing: we must be enemies.

About This Quote

In the late 1940s, the future Charles de Gaulle led a charge against the occupying Nazis. In his memoirs, he wrote about how one of his men was killed as he tried to fight back. The man—a friend—died because of his refusal to be a bystander. He could not allow his friend to die in vain, and he could not allow himself to become a bystander. Decades later, this same kind of courage is what separated Sergeant Vasquez from the rest of his platoon as they lay dying on a beach in Normandy in 1944.

Source: The Prince In Waiting

Some Similar Quotes

1. In advising the heads of state to learn from tragedy rather than perpetuate its existence Robert Kennedy excalimed, "Tragedy is a tool for the living to gain wisdom, not a guide by which to live." We have a tendency to dwell on tragedy and use... - Megan Karasch

---

2. To wisely live your life, you don't need to know much Just remember two main rules for the beginning: You better starve, than eat whatever And better be alone, than with whoever. - Anonymous

---

3. Never play cards with a man called Doc. Never eat at a place called Mom's. Never sleep with a woman whose troubles are worse than your own. - Nelson Algren

---

4. I don't know what to say to fill the silence. I don't know how to fix this. It seems wrong to leave him, but I have to. There's no compromise, no alternative. Things just weren't meant to be, which seems like a pansy-ass thing to... - H.M. Ward

---

5. The seeking of a mate shall be undertaken with due preparation and care. A life-bond should never be contemplated as a light thing--unlike a legal union or sanctified joining, the sealing of souls CANNOT be severed. When a mate is SOULBOUND to another-- L I... - Deidre Knight

---

More Quotes By John Christopher

1. Truth does not surround itself with lies.

---

2. Before you have faith you must believe, and before you believe there must be evidence of some sort to persuade the mind. Faith is remembering that evidence and holding to it against all that seems to challenge or contradict it.

---

3. He said, speaking more to himself than to me: 'It was knowledge I sought. Knowledge which is clean and pure, far above the cheating and deceiving in which most men spend their lives.' And do you not find it, ' I asked, 'this knowledge which...

---

4. We had been friends. We could not become strangers. It left only one thing: we must be enemies.

---

5. Some people are oil and water.

---