Underestimate Opponent Quotes

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There is no greater danger than underestimating your opponent.
Lao Tzu
I try not to underestimate my opponents, no matter how ridiculous their beards.
Derek Landy (Death Bringer (Skulduggery Pleasant, #6))
Valkyrie frowned. 'You think this is a trap?' 'I don't know,' he said, 'but I try not to underestimate my opponents, no matter how rediculous their beards.
Darek Landy
I've spent so much time making sure I don't underestimate my opponents that I've forgotten it's just as dangerous to overestimate them as well.
Suzanne Collins (The Hunger Games (The Hunger Games, #1))
Have you ever played chess, Kitty?” I eyed her. What did a board game have to do with this? “Not really.” “You and I should play sometime. I think you would like it,” she said. “It’s a game of strategy, mostly. The strong pieces are in the back row, while the weak pieces—the pawns—are all in the front, ready to take the brunt of the attack. Because of their limited movement and vulnerability, most people underestimate them and only use them to protect the more powerful pieces. But when I play, I protect my pawns.” “Why?” I said, not entirely sure where this conversation was going. “If they’re weak, then what’s the point?” “They may be weak when the game begins, but their potential is remarkable. Most of the time, they’ll be taken by the other side and held captive until the end of the game. But if you’re careful—if you keep your eyes open and pay attention to what your opponent is doing, if you protect your pawns and they reach the other side of the board, do you know what happens then?” I shook my head, and she smiled. “Your pawn becomes a queen.” She touched my cheek, her fingers cold as ice. “Because they kept moving forward and triumphed against impossible odds, they become the most powerful piece in the game. Never forget that, all right? Never forget the potential one solitary pawn has to change the entire game.
Aimee Carter (Pawn (The Blackcoat Rebellion, #1))
Women fascinate me. They are almost always underestimated, which makes them potentially some of the most lethal opponents.
Nikki St. Crowe (Their Vicious Darling (Vicious Lost Boys, #3))
Self-confidence is very important. If you don’t think you can win, you will take cowardly decisions in the crucial moments, out of sheer respect for your opponent. You see the opportunity but also greater limitations than you should. I have always believed in what I do on the chessboard, even when I had no objective reason to. It is better to overestimate your prospects than underestimate them.
Magnus Carlsen
You might not see it now, but you are stronger than you can ever imagine. You cannot become comfortable in your pain. You have to let the pain that you feel turn you into a rose without thorns. There are sixteen pieces on the chess board. The king is the most important piece, but the difference is that the queen is the most powerful piece! You are a queen, you can maneuver around your opponents; they do not have the power over your life, your mind or soul. You might think you’ve been a prisoner, but that is your past’ Look in the now and work your way to how you want your future to be. Exercise your thoughts into a pattern of letting go, and think positively about more of what you want than what you do not want. Queen! You are a queen! As a matter of fact, you are the queen! Act as if you know it! You are powerful, determined, strong, and you can make the biggest and most extravagant move and put it into action. Lights, camera, strike a pose and own it! It is yours to own!
Charlena E. Jackson (A Woman's Love Is Never Good Enough)
Women fascinate me. They are almost always underestimated, which makes them potentially some of the most lethal opponents. Like walking up to a jungle cat thinking you’re going to give its head a gentle little pat and instead it bites off your whole goddamn arm.
Nikki St. Crowe (Their Vicious Darling (Vicious Lost Boys, #3))
More fights are lost by underestimating your opponent than by any other way.
Bryce Courtenay (The Power of One (The Power of One, #1))
The costliest mistake one can make is to underestimate one's opponent through low expectations.
Rebecca Roanhorse (Black Sun (Between Earth and Sky, #1))
You will always be the smaller opponent, and being a woman, you will be underestimated. When you fight, fight with everything you’ve got and let them think you’re crazy. Let them fear the fact that you’re a woman. That you are unpredictable.
Shannon Mayer (Midlife Fairy Hunter (Forty Proof, #2))
You are nothing. You are less than nothing. You are a child. That is how your opponents must see you. They will underestimate your skills because of your age and size. That is your advantage. But you must never see yourself that way. Draw them to attack. Feign weakness. Feign fear. And strike when they are close.
Chuck Dixon (Robin #14)
I’ve spent so much time making sure I don’t underestimate my opponents that I’ve forgotten it’s just as dangerous to overestimate them as well.
Suzanne Collins (The Hunger Games (The Hunger Games, #1))
Once again, human history proved that the worst mistake possible in politics was underestimating one's opponents. Van
Greg Bear (Eon (The Way, #1))
Again, her father’s voice clanged in her ears. If you underestimate your opponent you overestimate yourself.
Sarah Henning (The Princess Will Save You (Kingdoms of Sand and Sky, #1))
Forecasters who can’t cope with the dissonance risk making the most serious possible forecasting error in a conflict: underestimating your opponent.
Philip E. Tetlock (Superforecasting: The Art and Science of Prediction)
We live in a world in which speed is prized above almost all else, and acting faster than the other side has itself become the primary goal. But most often people are merely in a hurry, acting and reacting frantically to events, all of which makes them prone to error and wasting time in the long run. In order to separate yourself from the pack, to harness a speed that has devastating force, you must be organized and strategic. First, you prepare yourself before any action, scanning your enemy for weaknesses. Then you find a way to get your opponents to underestimate you, to lower their guard. When you strike unexpectedly, they will freeze up. When you hit again, it is from the side and out of nowhere. It is the unanticipated blow that makes the biggest impact.
Robert Greene (The 33 Strategies Of War (The Modern Machiavellian Robert Greene Book 1))
My advice would be to find a good woman and steer well clear of the whole bloody business, and it’s a shame no one told me the same twenty years ago.” He looked sideways at Jezal. “But if, say, you’re stuck out on some great wide plain in the middle of nowhere and can’t avoid it, there’s three rules I’d take to a fight. First, always do your best to look the coward, the weakling, the fool. Silence is a warrior’s best armour, the saying goes. Hard looks and hard words have never won a battle yet, but they’ve lost a few.” “Look the fool, eh? I see.” Jezal had built his whole life around trying to appear the cleverest, the strongest, the most noble. It was an intriguing idea, that a man might choose to look like less than he was. “Second, never take an enemy lightly, however much the dullard he seems. Treat every man like he’s twice as clever, twice as strong, twice as fast as you are, and you’ll only be pleasantly surprised. Respect costs you nothing, and nothing gets a man killed quicker than confidence.” “Never underestimate the foe. A wise precaution.” Jezal was beginning to realise that he had underestimated this Northman. He wasn’t half the idiot he appeared to be. “Third, watch your opponent as close as you can, and listen to opinions if you’re given them, but once you’ve got your plan in mind, you fix on it and let nothing sway you. Time comes to act, you strike with no backwards glances. Delay is the parent of disaster, my father used to tell me, and believe me, I’ve seen some disasters.
Joe Abercrombie (Before They Are Hanged (The First Law, #2))
Even if popular culture has long enjoyed turning him into an object of mockery, we still tend to believe that the Nazi machine was ruthlessly efficient, and that the great dictator spent most of his time...well, dictating things. So it’s worth remembering that Hitler was actually an incompetent, lazy egomaniac and his government was an absolute clown show. In fact, this may even have helped his rise to power, as he was consistently underestimated by the German elite. Before he became chancellor, many of his opponents had dismissed him as a joke for his crude speeches and tacky rallies. He was a “pathetic dunderhead” according to one magazine editor; another wrote that his party was a “society of incompetents” and that people should not “overestimate the fairground party.
Tom Phillips (Humans: A Brief History of How We F*cked It All Up)
yet that person will often emerge victorious thanks to sheer tenacity and lack of scruples, by dint of stratagems and spleen and concentration, because his sole objective in life is to harm his enemy, to bleed him dry and undermine him and then finish him off, woe betide anyone who acquires an enemy with those characteristics, however weak and needy he may seem; if you don’t have the time or the will to direct the same passionate loathing at him and to respond with equal intensity, you will end up succumbing, because you can’t afford to be distracted when fighting a war, regardless of whether that war is open or hidden or secret, nor to underestimate your stubborn opponent, even if you believe him to be innocuous and incapable of harming you or inflicting so much as a scratch: the reality is that anyone can destroy us, just as anyone can conquer us, and that is our essential fragility.
Javier Marías (The Infatuations (Vintage International))
Two years after the accident, the USSR acknowledged that the Chernobyl disaster had so far cost them 11 billion Roubles (at a time when a Rouble wasn’t far off the value of a Dollar), while Gorbachev himself admitted a figure of 18 billion in 2006. That does not include a lot of secondary expenses, and even then it appears to be a significant under-estimation, based on a report released by the Belarus Foreign Ministry in 2009. It revealed that the Government there still spends roughly $1 million daily on the accident, and, “damage caused by the Chernobyl disaster is estimated at some $235 billion. However, the overall amount of money that Belarus and the international community invested into the recovery amounts to just 8 per cent of the total damage.275” The cost was catastrophic for the Soviet economy, as were its cascading effects on the coal and hydro energy industries. Soon after this, the oil price crashed to around half of its previous value, damaging the economy still further. The accident gave Gorbachev the excuse he needed to remove many high-ranking military and political opponents to his more transparent vision for the Communist Party, helping to further usher in the era of ‘glasnost’ - transparency. The USSR never recovered; Chernobyl is seen as one of the primary catalysts behind its collapse.
Andrew Leatherbarrow (Chernobyl 01:23:40: The Incredible True Story of the World's Worst Nuclear Disaster)
Still, she eyed the pair. She knew better than to underestimate an opponent. Defeat lay along that path. There could be strengths to this pair that bore watching.
James Rollins (Sandstorm (Sigma Force, #1))
And finally, eight. The most important of all. Caution. The surest way to get yourself killed is to rush into it. Think, assess, and then act. Never underestimate your opponent.
Terry Cloutier (The Nine (The Wolf of Corwick Castle #1))
It was unwise to underestimate a weak opponent. Even a weak man could find someone strong to fight his battles for him. Even weak people sometimes had charming tongues and even the strong sometimes had listening ears.
Samantha Kolesnik (True Crime)
into her ravioli. “You know we’ll help you in any way we can, right?” “Thanks. I appreciate it.” “Do you think you’ll get the votes to win?” Rylee asked. “Sure, she will,” Jazmyn replied. “Nobody wants that fake, lying, witch to be president. Can you imagine?” Rylee shrugged. “I know, but Montana has a way of always getting what she wants and she’s going to use all her daddy’s resources to win people over.” “Not to worry,” Abby said. “We’re not underestimating our opponent but we’re going to make sure Montana doesn’t even stand a chance. I’d wouldn’t be surprised if we can even get the rest of the Shinies to vote for Ava.” Jaz took a sip of her iced tea. “I’m glad you’re her campaign manager.” She raised her glass to me. “Abby Kline will get it done.” Abby grinned, then her smile fell a little. “Yeah, that’s if Hannah Grace doesn’t get in my way.” “What does she have to do with anything?” Camilla asked. Abby stabbed her ravioli with a fork. “Oh, she’s just Ava’s other campaign manager. It’s going to be a pain to work with her, but I keep telling myself that it’s only two weeks.
Tiffany Nicole Smith (Queen of the Sophomores: The Ava G Chronicles Book Four)
That is the mind of the Communist bureaucrat. It is a kind of mind that, even as a Communist, I found alien to me. But it is a mind that I think I understand, and that I think most of its opponents do not understand, for they suppose that it is greedy only for power, and not the revolutionary ends which that power has in view. In that lies the danger of underestimating the force of faith that moves the enemy, and a failure also to grasp to what a degree the revolution has grown up and history has transformed the techniques of struggle. There are no more barricades. Communist power today rides in tank armies and conspires in black ties to overthrow its enemies. But the Stalinist has changed only his tie, not his mind.
Whittaker Chambers (Witness (Cold War Classics))
Curiosity bombarded him. “How did you know he wasn’t alone?” “Who?” “Maarev. How did you know he wasn’t alone in the training room?” She winked up at him. “I’ll tell you after I spar with some of your men. I love it when opponents underestimate me.” He smiled. “I imagine many underestimate you. Despite the confidence with which you comport yourself, you appear very fragile.” “But I kick a lot of ass,” she boasted with a grin. He laughed. “I’m sure you do.” And he looked forward to watching her do it.
Dianne Duvall (The Segonian (Aldebarian Alliance, #2))
After about fifteen minutes he walked over to me. “Randori?” he asked, in a tone that was more a challenge than an invitation. I nodded, averting my eyes from his hard stare. In my mind, our contest was already underway, and I prefer my opponents to underestimate me.
Barry Eisler (A Lonely Resurrection (John Rain #2))
Never underestimate your opponent based on size.
T.J. Muir (On Borrowed Luck (The Chanmyr Chronicles #1))
It is to our advantage to hate our opponent, but to our disadvantage to underestimate our opponent.
Mokokoma Mokhonoana
Hating our opponent benefits us. Underestimating them benefits them.
Mokokoma Mokhonoana
An idea has more potential than any theory, plan or quantity of knowledge. You should never underestimate your dreams and the ideas that form around them. But more importantly, you shouldn't waste any time making them a reality. Others may not agree with your ideas, they may not trust your ideas, and they may even think that it is foolish to follow your dreams, but they don't have to trust something they can't see. Each person is gifted with the dreams that match the soul attracting them and according to the nature of the spiritual path in which one is found, therefore any dream you have is within your reach, and may never be within the reach of the beliefs of others, not even when you fulfill them. When people don't trust your capacities to achieve something, they will also rationalize reasons and excuses after you demonstrate your intent and potential. If you are poor, they may say you can't be rich, and once you are rich, they will try to dissuade you from what you do, with insinuations, insults, and threats. The most common question a rich person is asked, is if he is paying taxes. It is foolish to try to explain anything to those people. I've seen it my entire life, because I have succeeded in many areas where everyone told me I would never succeed. Once you win, they downgrade your achievements with ridiculous theories, or they will simply call you lucky. You can't win in an argument with a fool, because fools are very creative in their own art of denying the being of others. They see the world as they see themselves, as just objects, empty vessels, reflections of the illusions on the outside world. In martial arts, if you beat taller and stronger opponents, they don't say you are a better fighter. They will select one of your movements or techniques as the cause, and then dissociate you from the movement or technique, and say that you win because you cheat in the fighting rules. In music, if you succeed against the best in the world, people won't say you are better than them, but dissociate you from your music and say that you got awarded because you are different in a strange way, or because you competed in a special moment. If you succeed as a writer, people won't say you are a good writer, but instead dissociate you from your books, and say that you invent things and have a big imagination, which is a covert way of calling you a "good liar", thus insulting you under the pretense of giving compliments, or they will say that you stole the knowledge from others, in order to morally place themselves above you and your work, and they may even say that you have a special trick, like taking knowledge from the air, from some imaginary records in the ether, or from demonic spirits. People say different things when dissociating you from your potential, work and achievements, all of which are simply various forms of disrespecting someone. They deny you of your potential to be yourself. And among the various forms of disrespect, making one feel guilty for being himself is probably the worse, reason why you'll find the most disgusting people of them all inside religious organizations. "God won't like it", "You have a problem with your ego", and "The devil is tempting you", are among the most common and imbecile things you will ever hear as an artist, as a person who loves to read and acquire knowledge, and above anything, as a true spiritual being thriving in self-development and a natural curiosity for life. For all these reasons, the requirements and the real theories for success will never be found in any popular book. Nobody wants to know that you only win when you stop burning yourself to make others warm. And when you understand this, people will dissociate you from your focus and discipline, and call you selfish, and they will call the person who guided you in this path of real success evil. They will then do their best to destroy the reputation of both of your to deny their own fault , ignorance and lies.
Dan Desmarques
She winked up at him. “I love it when opponents underestimate me.” He smiled. “I imagine MANY underestimate you. Despite the confidence with which you comport yourself, you appear very fragile.” “But I kick a LOT of ass,” she boasted with a grin. He laughed. “I’m sure you do.” And he looked forward to watching her kick it.
Dianne Duvall (The Segonian (Aldebarian Alliance, #2))
Tactical combat actions should be thought out and organized. To build a battle plan is easy only in this case, if the opponent is known in advance, if the boxer knows his way of fighting, his favorite technical means and his personal qualities. But if the boxer does not know the opponent completely, then in the fight with him always have to pose the task of conducting a thorough, preliminary diagnosis. Every fight with any opponent always requires reasonable precautions. In practice, there were quite a few cases that the boxer lost the fight only because he started decisive actions, without first noticing the characteristics and character of the opponent's actions. When planning a fight, the relationship of strength must always be judged soberly; you can neither underestimate nor overestimate your opponent's strength. To fight against a known enemy, prepare yourself to use your abilities with the greatest success. The boxer, depending on how the opponent can act, what his blows are the most dangerous, what technical measures he uses most in combat, should think about the system of defense activities. Knowing what types of defense the opponent uses most effectively, the boxer should avoid using blows that the opponent can easily paralyze. If, finally, the opponent used to fight for a certain distance, the boxer should impose a fight at a distance to which he was not used, and put him in the least favorable conditions.
Michael Wenz (BOXING: COMBAT SPORT: RULES, TECHNIQUES, POSITIONS, DISTANCE, MOVEMENT. BECOME A SPORT LEGEND. (TRAINING))
Valkyrie frowned. “You think this is a trap?” “I don’t know,” he said, “but I try not to underestimate my opponents, no matter how ridiculous their beards.
Derek Landy (Death Bringer (Skulduggery Pleasant, #6))
An idea has more potential than any theory, plan or quantity of knowledge. You should never underestimate your dreams and the ideas that form around them. But more importantly, you shouldn't waste any time making them a reality. Others may not agree with your ideas, they may not trust your ideas, and they may even think that it is foolish to follow your dreams, but they don't have to trust something they can't see. Each person is gifted with the dreams that match the soul attracting them and according to the nature of the spiritual path in which one is found, therefore any dream you have is within your reach, and may never be within the reach or the beliefs of others, not even when you fulfill them. When people don't trust your capacities to achieve something, they will also rationalize reasons and excuses after you demonstrate your intent and potential. If you are poor, they may say you can't be rich, and once you are rich, they will try to dissuade you from what you do, with insinuations, insults, and threats. The most common question a rich person is asked, is if he is paying taxes. It is foolish to try to explain anything to those people. I've seen it my entire life, because I have succeeded in many areas where everyone told me I would never succeed. Once you win, they downgrade your achievements with ridiculous theories, or they will simply call you lucky. You can't win in an argument with a fool, because fools are very creative in their own art of denying the being of others. They see the world as they see themselves, as just objects, empty vessels, reflections of the illusions of the outside world. In martial arts, if you beat taller and stronger opponents, they don't say you are a better fighter. They will select one of your movements or techniques as the cause, and then dissociate you from the movement or technique, and say that you won because you cheat in the fighting rules. In music, if you succeed against the best in the world, people won't say you are better than them, but dissociate you from your music and say that you got awarded because you are different in a strange way, or because you competed in a special moment. If you succeed as a writer, people won't say you are a good writer, but instead dissociate you from your books, and say that you invent things and have a big imagination, which is a covert way of calling you a "good liar", thus insulting you under the pretense of giving compliments, or they will say that you stole the knowledge from others, in order to morally place themselves above you and your work, and they may even say that you have a special trick, like taking knowledge from the air, from some imaginary records in the ether, or from demonic spirits. People say different things when dissociating you from your potential, work and achievements, all of which are simply various forms of disrespecting someone. They deny you of your potential to be yourself. And among the various forms of disrespect, making one feel guilty for being himself is probably the worse, reason why you'll find the most disgusting people of them all inside religious organizations. "God won't like it", "You have a problem with your ego", and "The devil is tempting you", are among the most common and imbecile things you will ever hear as an artist, as a person who loves to read and acquire knowledge, and above anything, as a true spiritual being thriving in self-development and a natural curiosity for life. For all these reasons, the requirements and the real theories for success will never be found in any popular book. Nobody wants to know that you only win when you stop burning yourself to make others warm. And when you understand this, people will dissociate you from your focus and discipline, and call you selfish, and they will call the person who guided you in this path of real success evil. They will then do their best to destroy the reputation of both of you to deny their own fault , ignorance and lies.
Dan Desmarques
They've beaten us once and tied us once. The look on their faces is pure confidence, like they've already won. Rookie mistake. Never underestimate your opponent. They don't know what's coming.
Amy Makechnie (Ten Thousand Tries)
Women fascinate me. They are almost always underestimated, which makes them potentially some of the most lethal opponents
Nikki St. Crowe (Their Vicious Darling (Vicious Lost Boys, #3))
Many people think of MMA as a bunch of caveman crap, but I recognize the art of it. It isn’t just about brute strength. It’s about stamina, control, coordination, and learning to trust your instincts. Moving fluidly and confidently. Never doubting yourself or letting your opponent see your weakness. In my case, looks can be deceiving, and people have always underestimated
A. Zavarelli (Crow (Boston Underworld, #1))
Never underestimate anyone on account of appearance , and certainly not on account of gender, young warrior. A true warrior is tested not by the might of arms but by his unwillingness to underestimate his, or her, opponents.
Theophilus Monroe (Gates of Eden: The Druid Legacy 1-4)
There is a war raging between good and evil in our world, and though we might prefer the conflict to be fought somewhere else, we don’t get to pick the times in which we live. The front lines today are battles over sex, gender, and identity. We must be ready for a fight in precisely these places. Don’t underestimate the power of your opponent. The devil wants us to join him in his rebellion against God. He wants to make us cowards and traitors. He wants us to believe the myth of our own autonomy. He wants us to raise the white flag and side with the enemy—the enemy without or the enemy within, it doesn’t matter to him.
Rosaria Champagne Butterfield (Five Lies of Our Anti-Christian Age)
The cleverest man underestimates his own abilities and overestimates his opponent's.
Amélie Wen Zhao (Song of Silver, Flame Like Night (Song of the Last Kingdom, #1))
He's following us at a distance," she said, annoyed. "Like a guardian angel," Helen said. Dr. Gibson snorted. "Did you see the way he felled that thing? His fists were as quick as thought. Like a professional fighter. One has to question how such a man appeared out of nowhere at just the right moment." "I think he did far less damage to his opponent than you did to yours," Helen said admiringly. "The way you took that ruffian down with your cane- I've never seen anything like it." "My aim was a bit off," Dr. Gibson said. "I didn't connect squarely with the ulnar nerve in his wrist. I shall have to consult with my fencing-master about my technique." "It was still very impressive," Helen assured her. "I pity anyone who makes the mistake of underestimating you, Dr. Gibson." "My lady, the sentiment is returned in full.
Lisa Kleypas (Marrying Winterborne (The Ravenels, #2))
Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the shah of Iran from 1941 to 1979, changed his country’s direction until his inability to handle too much power led to the fall of an empire. He’s a reminder to never get so confident as to underestimate an opponent such as Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who led the revolt that exiled him.
Patrick Bet-David (Your Next Five Moves: Master the Art of Business Strategy)