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Quotes About Defence

Perhaps reading and writing books is one of the last defences human dignity has left, because in the end they remind us of what God once reminded us before He too evaporated in this age of relentless humiliations—that we are more than ourselves; that we have souls.
~ Richard Flanagan
Untruth being unacceptable to the mind of man, there is no other defence left for absurdity but obscurity.
~ John Locke
Commerce diminishes the spirit, both of patriotism and military defence.
~ Thomas Paine
Carlton, Sydney (1949-), painter and decorator. Those who argue that bestiality should be treated with understanding had a setback in 1998 when Carlton, a married man from Bradford, was sentenced to a year in prison for having intercourse with a Staffordshire bull terrier, named Badger. His defence was that Badger had made the first move. 'I can't help it if the dog took a liking to me,' he told the court. This was not accepted.
~ William Donaldson
this spiritual war of the Christian lies chiefly on the defence, and therefore requires arms most of this kind to wage it.
~ William Gurnall
I suppose every government that has ever gone to war has tried to convince its people of three things: (1) that right is on its side; (2) that it is fighting purely in defence of the nation; (3) that it is sure to win.
~ William L. Shirer
We have the character of an island nation: independent, forthright, passionate in defence of our sovereignty. We can no more change this British sensibility than we can drain the English Channel. And because of this sensibility, we come to the European Union with a frame of mind that is more practical than emotional.
~ David Cameron
The home of everyone is to him his castle and fortress as well for his defence against injury and violence as for his repose.
~ Edward Coke
Hungary is, in a word, in a state of WAR against the Hapsburg dynasty, a war of legitimate defence, by which alone it can ever regain independence and freedom.
~ Lajos Kossuth
It is only because I am tired and have such odious things to think about," she kept repeating; and it seemed an added injustice that petty cares should leave a trace on the beauty which was her only defence against them. But
~ Edith Wharton
and he was struck again by the religious revernce of even the most unworldly American women for the social advantages of dress. 'It's their armour,' he thought, 'their defence against the unknown, and their defiance of it.
~ Edith Wharton
half the opprobrium of such an act lies in the name attached to it. Call it blackmail and it becomes unthinkable; but explain that it injures no one, and that the rights regained by it were unjustly forfeited, and he must be a formalist indeed who can find no plea in its defence.
~ Edith Wharton
He there experienced that the most absolute power is a weak defence against the effects of despair.
~ Edward Gibbon
Baldwin, was awakened by the sound; but the most pressing danger could not prompt him to draw his sword in the defence of a city which he deserted, perhaps, with more pleasure than regret: he fled from the palace to the seashore, where he descried the welcome sails of the fleet returning from the vain and fruitless attempt on Daphnusia.
~ Edward Gibbon
Unsportsmanlike predator-killing is always rationalized as defence of property—usually someone else's property. This excuse is getting too thin to pass muster among thinking conservationists.
~ Aldo Leopold
Pride, where wit fails, steps in to our defence, And fills up all the mighty void of sense! If once right reason drives that cloud away, Truth breaks upon us with resistless day; Trust not yourself; but your defects to know, Make use of ev'ry friend—and ev'ry foe.
~ Alexander Pope
I want to play football, and I want to help the team. It doesn't matter if I play midfield, if I play in defence, if I play as a striker.
~ David Luiz
From the bowler's point of view, if I look at a batsman, I don't see his shots, I see his defence. If a player has a strong defence, he is a very good player.
~ Wasim Akram
So my own suspicion is that the attorney has stopped this prosecution because part of her defence was to question legality and that would have brought his advice into the public domain again and there was something fishy about the way in which he said war was legal.
~ Clare Short
He had again seen it in the insignia of S.H.A.D.O. – the 'Supreme Headquarters, Alien Defence Organisation' from the TV show UFO.
~ Rian Hughes
La defensa de los individuos y de las comunidades, de los árboles y de las semillas, contra el dogmatismo de las ideas; la defensa de los ríos y los bosques contra las arrogancias del mercado mundial.
~ William Ospina
I have this instinct for knowing when a defence is going to relax, or when a defender will make a mistake,' he once said. 'Something inside me says, Gerd, go this way; Gerd, go that. I don't know what it is.' A killer who claimed to hear voices. Serial goalscorer.
~ David Winner
Avarice is disgrace; cowardice is a defect; poverty often disables an intelligent man from arguing his case; a poor man is a stranger in his own town; misfortune and helplessness are calamities; patience is a kind of bravery; to sever attachments with the wicked world is the greatest wealth; piety is the best weapon of defence.
~ Ali bin Abu-Talib
We have not sought this conflict; we have sought too long to avoid it; our forbearance has been construed into weakness, our magnanimity into fear, until the vindication of our manhood, as well as the defence of our rights, is required at our hands.
~ Robert Toombs