proverb · Words worth keeping
Choose your friends with care; your enemies will pick you.
Choose your friends with care; your enemies will pick you.
Historical period not yet established
Understand the thought
Meaning in plain English
Friends chosen with care and enemies choosing oneself contrast some control over relationships with unwanted hostility. The saying values consideration where a choice is available.
What the words are saying
A responsible reading does not assume all friendships or conflicts are freely chosen. A person can set boundaries, seek help or disengage without accepting another’s hostile role as inevitable. The image gives no procedure for identifying enemies or judging someone from a group label.
Everyday example
Someone develops a friendship thoughtfully while declining to be drawn into an unnecessary antagonism.
When to use it
Use it to discuss relationship choices with boundaries and constraints retained.
What it does not mean
No inevitable enemies or full individual control over relationships is established.
Agent-assisted editorial interpretation. This explains the words; it does not by itself verify their author or earliest origin.
Attribution & collection notes
- Author or tradition
- Traditional
Attribution: traditional - Country attributed
Mongolia
A country attribution does not establish the earliest origin.- Historical period
- Historical period not yet established
No sufficiently supported historical placement has been established. Import and download dates are not treated as composition dates. - Recorded source
- Contributor-provided wisdom reference (2014 AD)
Supplied reference B; unit 420; PDF page 40; collection label: Mongolia
A collection's publication date can be later than the words it records.
- Culture
- Mongolia