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Who really said it

I destroy my enemies when I make them my friends

Not Abraham Lincoln — a floating anecdote (told of Emperor Sigismund a century earlier) Abraham Lincoln 1809–1865 · 16th U.S. president — but almost certainly not the source of this line
Disputed Rights unconfirmed

Widely pinned on Lincoln, but there is no record of him saying or writing it. As Quote Investigator ↗ documents, the anecdote appears in print in 1818 crediting the medieval Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund, and it was not attached to Lincoln until 1940 — 75 years after his death. QI calls the saying apocryphal. The circulating form also drifts from the classic rhetorical question, “Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?”

Last verified 8 Jul 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

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Disputed — copy with the correction

“I destroy my enemies when I make them my friends” Not Abraham Lincoln. This anecdote was first printed in 1818 about Emperor Sigismund (d. 1437); the Lincoln attribution only appears in 1940. Quote Investigator classifies it as apocryphal.

The slide-ready mistake: crediting this to Abraham Lincoln. Use the credit shown above instead.

Can you use it?

We couldn’t verify where this wording comes from, so there’s no rights status to give. Safe to present as an unverified or anonymous line — just don’t assert a specific author or source.

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In context

Evoking the world of Abraham Lincoln — 16th President of the United States. Theme: "I destroy my enemies when I make them my friends". Atmospheric and restrained, cinematic directional light, a muted period-appropriate palette, fine grain and texture. Compose with generous empty space for the quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

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Provenance

An old anecdote that migrated onto Lincoln

Earliest print appearance
Vermont Intelligencer, April 1818 — crediting Emperor Sigismund
First Lincoln attribution
1940 (Ed Sullivan column, quoting actress Loretta Young)
Classic wording
“Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?”
Status
Apocryphal per Quote Investigator

“I destroy my enemies when I make them my friends.” The saying is most often traced to an anecdote about Emperor Sigismund, who — when reproached for rewarding rather than destroying his enemies — is said to have answered, “Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?” No such words are documented from Abraham Lincoln.

The declarative “I destroy my enemies…” form popular online is a modern flattening of the older rhetorical question.

Quote Investigator: full chronology, 1818 to present

How the attribution drifted

  • 1818: The earliest known printing, in the Vermont Intelligencer, credits Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund (d. 1437) — per Quote Investigator ↗.
  • Before 1940: The same tale is variously pinned on Cardinal Richelieu (1858), an anonymous emperor, and others — a hallmark of a free-floating anecdote, as QI ↗ shows.
  • 1940: The first attachment to Abraham Lincoln appears in an Ed Sullivan column quoting actress Loretta Young — 75 years after Lincoln’s death (QI ↗).
  • Today: Quote sites still serve it as Lincoln’s, e.g. Goodreads ↗, cementing the misattribution.

The exact wording cannot be tied to any single, dated work by an identifiable author — it is a centuries-old anecdote of uncertain origin, first printed in 1818 about Emperor Sigismund and only later re-credited. With no verifiable source text, no copyright status can honestly be asserted.

Fact-check

A quote that has belonged to everyone

This is a textbook free-floating anecdote: the same clever reply has been assigned to a string of famous names across two centuries, always long after the supposed speaker died. Per Quote Investigator ↗:

Abraham Lincoln No source

There is no record in Lincoln’s speeches, letters, or contemporaneous accounts. The attribution first appears in 1940, 75 years after his death, via an Ed Sullivan column quoting actress Loretta Young.

Emperor Sigismund Apocryphal

The oldest printing (1818) credits the Holy Roman Emperor, who died in 1437 — a 381-year gap that QI says makes even this original attribution unreliable.

Cardinal Richelieu, Mark Twain, and others Also unsourced

The saying was pinned on Richelieu (1858) and Mark Twain (1957), among others — the promiscuity of attribution is itself evidence no one truly documented said it.

The thought is genuinely old, but it belongs to an anonymous anecdote, not to Lincoln — the earliest source (1818) names Emperor Sigismund, and the Lincoln label was invented in 1940, as Quote Investigator ↗ shows.

Context

Why it sticks to Lincoln

The sentiment — that reconciliation is a more complete victory than revenge — fits the popular image of Lincoln as a magnanimous healer, the man of “with malice toward none.” That resonance is exactly why the line migrated onto him: a memorable moral is more shareable under a beloved name than as an anonymous fable.

But resonance is not evidence. The anecdote was already old and unattached when it reached Lincoln, and its jump to him in 1940 — through a Hollywood gossip column, not a historical source — is the classic signature of a misattribution.

The line fits Lincoln’s myth so well that no one stopped to check whether he said it.

Explore

Filed under

More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.

Kindness Wisdom

Go further

Dig deeper

Trusted places to keep pulling the thread — primary archives, fact-checks, and scholarship. We show how we used each one before you leave.

Quote Investigator — full investigationquoteinvestigator.com

The authoritative chronology, from the 1818 Sigismund anecdote to the 1940 Lincoln attribution; concludes the saying is apocryphal.
Abraham Lincoln — Wikiquoteen.wikiquote.org

Community-sourced list separating Lincoln's documented quotations from misattributed and disputed ones.
Goodreads — the quote as "Lincoln"goodreads.com

Example of the popular (unsourced) attribution to Lincoln that keeps the misquote circulating.
Emperor Sigismund — Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org

The medieval monarch (d. 1437) named in the earliest 1818 printing of the anecdote.
Abraham Lincoln — Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org

Biography of the president to whom the line is now most often credited.

Credited author

Who it is pinned on

Abraham Lincoln

1809–1865 · 16th President of the United States

Abraham Lincoln led the United States through the Civil War and issued the Emancipation Proclamation. His genuine eloquence — the Gettysburg Address, the Second Inaugural — makes him a magnet for inspirational lines he never actually spoke. This conciliatory aphorism is one of them: it predates his fame and was only tied to him decades after his death.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Earliest documented source

Earliest documented in the Vermont Intelligencer (Bellows Falls, VT), April 1818, crediting Emperor Sigismund; first attributed to Abraham Lincoln in 1940. See Garson O'Toole, "I Destroy My Enemies When I Make Them My Friends," Quote Investigator, May 13, 2020.

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘I destroy my enemies when I make them my friends’?” Last verified 8 Jul 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/i-destroy-my-enemies-when-i-make-them-my-friends

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