Victory Soap v. 2.0

I've been reading Lord of the Rings. (Side note: I know people who read a book once and never again. Me no understand these people.) Anyway, here's a scene, late in the book, where the Captains of the West are in conference, contemplating a hopeless attack against an enemy much stronger and more numerous than they are. Gandalf gets off a zinger that for some reason I never noticed before:

"[H]e has not built up his power by waiting until his enemies are secure, as we have done."

("He" meaning the Enemy, Sauron. But it could mean any enemy.) Anyway, I thought that was interesting.