The wise learn many things from their enemies.

The saying expresses a pragmatic, almost strategic view of conflict: an intelligent person treats opposition as information. Enemies reveal one’s vulnerabilities, test one’s arguments, and expose blind spots that friends or admirers may overlook. Read this way, the line commends humility and adaptability—wisdom is not merely possessing knowledge, but being able to extract lessons even from hostile encounters. In a broader ethical sense, it also implies emotional discipline: rather than being consumed by resentment, the wise convert adversity into self-improvement. The sentiment is widely echoed in later moral and political writing, even when not traceable to a specific Aristophanic passage.