FakeNot in the source
High
Checked by the editor · 8 Oct 2026
Attributed to Sun Tzu
Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer.
No. It is not in The Art of War, and the line is best known from The Godfather Part II (1974).
Source line
Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer.
The Godfather Part II (1974), spoken by Michael Corleone; screenplay by Mario Puzo and Francis Ford Coppola
Explanation
No. "Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer" is not in any of the thirteen chapters of The Art of War, in the Chinese or in Lionel Giles's 1910 translation. The same words are also pinned on Machiavelli and on a nameless Chinese proverb. Wikiquote lists the line under Sun Tzu as misattributed. It is best known from the film The Godfather Part II (1974), spoken by Michael Corleone. The screenplay is by Mario Puzo and Francis Ford Coppola.
The nearest real idea in the book is not about closeness. Chapter III, section 18 reads 知彼知己，百战不殆: know the other, know yourself, and a hundred battles hold no danger. Giles puts it that if you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. That is a claim about study. It does not say to keep friends near, or enemies nearer. If you quote the film line, name the film and the year. Do not put Sun Tzu under it.
Share it accurately
Not Sun Tzu. Michael Corleone, The Godfather Part II (1974); screenplay by Mario Puzo and Francis Ford Coppola.
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