Who really said it

You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life

Q: Did Winston Churchill say "You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life"?

No. There is no record of Winston Churchill saying or writing this — his quotation editor Richard Langworth files it among the "Red Herrings." The earliest close match Quote Investigator found is in Ed Greenwood's 1993 Forgotten Realms novel The Code of the Harpers — "Ye have enemies? Good, good — that means ye've stood up for something" — and Greenwood has said the wording is his, though the sentiment is old. The Churchill credit surfaced only in 2002.

Not Winston Churchill — actually Ed Greenwood Ed Greenwood b. 1959 · Canadian fantasy author, creator of the Forgotten Realms

Disputed In copyright

There is no record of Winston Churchill saying or writing this — his quotation editor Richard Langworth files it among the “Red Herrings.” The earliest close match Quote Investigator found ↗ is in Ed Greenwood’s 1993 Forgotten Realms novel The Code of the Harpers — “Ye have enemies? Good, good — that means ye’ve stood up for something” — and Greenwood has said the wording is his, though the sentiment is old. The Churchill credit surfaced only in 2002.

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

For presentations

Put it on a slide

Disputed credit — copy with the correction

“You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life” Not said by Winston Churchill. The earliest close match is Ed Greenwood, The Code of the Harpers (TSR, 1993); the sentiment echoes Victor Hugo (1845) and Thomas Jefferson (1782). — Quotle.info

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

Can you use it?

Still under copyright (rights held by Ed Greenwood / Wizards of the Coast (formerly TSR)). A short, credited quote is generally fine for talks, teaching, and internal decks; for commercial, published, or large-scale reuse, get permission.

Image direction — grounded in this quote’s real context; paste into your image tool

In context

Evoking the world of Ed Greenwood — Canadian fantasy author, creator of the Forgotten Realms. Theme: "You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life". 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.

Minimalist

Minimalist editorial slide for the quote "You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life". Clean background, a single muted accent color, generous negative space, subtle paper or linen texture, no literal illustration — let the words carry it. Reserve clear space for a serif quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Provenance

Where the line actually comes from

Popularly credited to: Winston Churchill (1874–1965) — no supporting source
Earliest close match: The Code of the Harpers
Written by: Ed Greenwood, 1993 (Forgotten Realms / TSR)
Older ancestor: Victor Hugo, 1845 (same sentiment, different words)

“Ye have enemies? Good, good — that means ye’ve stood up for something, sometime in thy life…” Misattributed

The archaic wording as Ed Greenwood gave it to the wizard Elminster in The Code of the Harpers (1993); the smoothed “You have enemies? Good…” version circulated later and was pinned on Churchill.

Quote Investigator: the full investigation

How we verified this

Quote Investigator ↗ finds no evidence for Churchill and identifies Ed Greenwood’s 1993 The Code of the Harpers as the earliest close match; Greenwood confirmed “that wording is mine.”
The International Churchill Society ↗ lists this line among quotes falsely attributed to Churchill.
PolitiFact ↗ notes the Churchill version is a rough paraphrase of a sentiment expressed by Victor Hugo a century earlier.

In copyright

The closest documented wording originates in Ed Greenwood’s novel The Code of the Harpers, first published by TSR in 1993 and therefore in copyright in the United States. The popular smoothed phrasing has no earlier sourced origin, so no public-domain claim can be made.

Fact-check

How Churchill got the credit

This is a feel-good line pinned on Churchill with no source behind it. The trail runs the other way: a fantasy novel supplied the wording, and older writers supplied the idea.

Winston Churchill No source

Churchill died in 1965; the credit first appears in 2002 (in remarks by U.S. Senator Jim Bunning), and no line resembling this is found anywhere in Churchill’s canon. His quotation editor Richard Langworth files it as a “Red Herring,” per Quote Investigator ↗.

Ed Greenwood Originator

The earliest close match is Greenwood’s 1993 novel The Code of the Harpers; Greenwood publicly confirmed “that wording is mine,” via Quote Investigator ↗.

Victor Hugo (and Thomas Jefferson) Ancestor

Hugo (1845) and Jefferson (1782) both wrote that having enemies is a mark of having achieved or stood for something — the same idea, in their own very different words, per PolitiFact ↗ and Quote Investigator ↗.

The idea is old (Hugo, Jefferson); the exact modern wording is Ed Greenwood’s from a 1993 fantasy novel — and Churchill has nothing to do with either, per the International Churchill Society ↗.

Context

Why this one sticks to Churchill

Churchill is one of the internet’s biggest magnets for orphaned quotations: a punchy, defiant, morale-boosting line simply sounds like him, so it gets his name whether he said it or not. This “enemies” aphorism fits the pattern perfectly — combative, encouraging, and endlessly shareable.

In reality the words were written for a wizard in a Dungeons & Dragons tie-in novel, then smoothed and reassigned. The sentiment behind them is genuinely old, reaching back through Victor Hugo to Thomas Jefferson — which is why it feels timeless even though the phrasing is barely thirty years old.

The idea is centuries old. The wording is from a 1993 fantasy novel. Churchill said neither.

Explore

Filed under

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

Courage Character

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 Origin: You Have Enemies? Good…quoteinvestigator.com

The definitive investigation: Churchill unsupported, earliest match is Greenwood’s 1993 novel.

Quotes Falsely Attributed to Churchillwinstonchurchill.org

International Churchill Society lists this line as falsely attributed.

Quote attributed to Churchill originally came from Victor Hugopolitifact.com

Fact-check tracing the sentiment to Victor Hugo, not Churchill.

Goodreads quote page (misattributed)goodreads.com

Example of the quote circulating under Churchill’s name online.

The real source of the wording

Ed Greenwood

b. 1959 · Canadian fantasy author, creator of the Forgotten Realms

Ed Greenwood (born 1959) is a Canadian fantasy author and game designer best known for creating the Forgotten Realms, the campaign setting used in Dungeons & Dragons. His wizard character Elminster delivers many aphoristic lines across his novels — including, in 1993’s The Code of the Harpers, the earliest close match to this “enemies” quotation. Greenwood has said the sentiment came from his grandfather but the specific wording is his own.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Source

Earliest documented close match: Ed Greenwood, The Code of the Harpers (Lake Geneva, WI: TSR, 1993). See Quote Investigator, “You Have Enemies? Good…,” 24 March 2022.

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life’?” Last verified 8 Jul 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/you-have-enemies-good-that-means-youve-stood-up-for