Keep your friends close and your enemies closer?

[Surely]

Have you ever heard this saying?
What do you think it means? Has it been applied in this century? If so. By whom.
Do you practice it?

[nolabels]

This saying is similar to "Know Thine Enemy".
It simply means being cognizant of the activities of those who may do you harm, as doing so can be more critical to one's life than enjoying the closeness of friends.

I think that everyone should apply this saying to their lives.
Many do.

I'm one of them.

[OlderAndWiser]

It is sometimes attributed to Sun Tzu, and sometimes to Machiavelli. It means that your biggest devotion should be to tracking your enemy and knowing him (or her) so that you can best anticipate their moves and plan accordingly.

[OlderAndWiser]

Thanks for MHO!

[jshm2]

It's fucking retarded, and among the worst reasons the West is so fucked up. It basically translates to "always be suspicious and conniving, as the other guy probably is too".

Then people bitch about there being no "honesty and integrity any more!". Like, you tried to steal and hustle me, but are complaining you got caught, and are now asking me to trust you again?"

It's better to go with a different saying "Always try for better relationships, avoid bad ones as they will burn all in them, and spread"

[SweetPi]

office workers working with terrible women bosses who scream use and abuse other girls and boys.

You play nice record all the stuff save the emails and you give it all to HR and pray her sugar daddy boss above her does not want to save her that day!