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„Why, madam,“ Lincoln replied, „do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?“
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Abraham Lincoln in response to an elderly lady who had chastised him for not calling Southerners, who he had referred to as fellow human beings who were in error, irreconcilable enemies who must be destroyed. See Robert Greene, Jost Elfers, The 48 Laws of Power (London, Great Britain: PROFILE BOOKS LTD, 2000), p. 12. Google Books link.
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Abraham Lincoln may have paraphrased the above quoted question from Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund. The Family Magazine Volume IV. from 1837 contains the following story: Some courtiers reproached the Emperor Sigismond that, instead of destroying his conquered foes, he admitted them to favour. “Do I not,” replied the illustrious monarch, “effectually destroy my enemies, when I make them my friends?” Source: The Reverend Joseph Belcher, Jost Elfers, THE FAMILY MAGAZINE VOl. IV (London, Great Britain: Thomas Ward and Co., 1837), p. 123. Google Books link.

 

Abraham Lincoln

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I destroy my enemies when I make them my friends.

 

Abraham Lincoln

 

When he was asked by an impious man what piety was, he made no reply; and when his questioner demanded the reason of his silence, he said, "I am silent because you are putting questions about things with which you have no concern." Being asked what was pleasant to men, he replied, "Hope." It was a saying of his that it was more agreeable to decide between enemies than between friends; for that of friends, one was sure to become an enemy to him; but that of enemies, one was sure to become a friend.

 

Bias of Priene

 

We ought so to behave to one another as to avoid making enemies of our friends, and at the same time to make friends of our enemies.

 

Pythagoras

 

You dislike the emancipation proclamation; and, perhaps, would have it retracted. You say it is unconstitutional---I think differently. I think the constitution invests its commander-in-chief, with the law of war, in time of war. The most that can be said, if so much, is, that slaves are property. Is there---has there ever been---any question that by the law of war, property, both of enemies and friends, may be taken when needed? And is it not needed whenever taking it, helps us, or hurts the enemy? Armies, the world over, destroy enemies' property when they can not use it; and even destroy their own to keep it from the enemy. Civilized belligerents do all in their power to help themselves, or hurt the enemy, except a few things regarded as barbarous or cruel. Among the exceptions are the massacre of vanquished foes, and non-combatants, male and female.

 

Abraham Lincoln

 

Lincoln had an ally then of a kind that Obama could use now. Lincoln's old rival from Illinois, Stephen Douglas, whose party had been split by the fire-eaters and whom Lincoln defeated at the polls, became a wise and vital friend. In the months between the inauguration and Douglas’s early death in June 1861, the “little giant,” as he was known, spent many long hours talking to Lincoln about how best to preserve the Union—and compromise wasn’t part of the picture. … “You do not know the dishonest purposes of those men as I do,” he told Lincoln.
What both of those great politicians understood by then was that there may be better angels in the nature of some people, but there are others who are willing to weaken, even destroy a nation to serve their own self-righteous self-interest, and they will do it in the name of the Constitution. If Obama hasn’t learned that yet, perhaps it’s time he did.

 

Barack Obama