With friends like that, who needs enemies?

Joey Adams (1911–1999), a New York–based comedian and aphorist known for one-liners and show-business wisecracks, is often credited with popularizing the quip “With friends like that, who needs enemies?” The line fits mid‑20th‑century American nightclub and television humor, where punchy, cynical observations about human relationships were staples. Adams’s public persona leaned on rapid-fire jokes about marriage, friendship, and social hypocrisy, and this saying circulated widely in quotation collections and entertainment columns under his name. However, the sentiment is older in folk usage and appears in similar forms well before Adams, suggesting he may have helped spread a preexisting proverb rather than originating it.

The remark is a sardonic reversal: friendship is supposed to provide loyalty and protection, yet some “friends” cause harm through betrayal, selfishness, or incompetence. By implying that such allies are as damaging as adversaries, the speaker exposes the gap between the ideal of friendship and its reality in certain social settings. The line functions both as a personal complaint (about a specific act of disloyalty) and as a general warning about misplaced trust. Its durability comes from its compact structure and its moral clarity: the real danger may come not from open enemies, but from those close enough to wound you while claiming goodwill.

1) “With friends like these, who needs enemies?”
2) “With friends like that, you don’t need enemies.”
3) “With friends like this, who needs enemies?”