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Home  »  Familiar Quotations  »  9192 Ali Ben Abi Taleb John Bartlett

John Bartlett (1820–1905). Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. 1919.

9192 Ali Ben Abi Taleb John Bartlett

 
NUMBER:9192
AUTHOR:Ali Ben Abi Taleb
QUOTATION:Believe me, a thousand friends suffice thee not;
In a single enemy thou hast more than enough. 1
 
Note 1.
Translated by Ralph Waldo Emerson, and wrongly called by him a translation from Omar Khayyám.

Found in Dr. Hermann Tolowiez’s “Polyglotte der Orientalischen Poesie.”

Translated by James Russell Lowell thus:—
He who has a thousand friends has not a friend to spare,
And he who has one enemy will meet him everywhere. [back]