Quotes About Defeat

Though Mr. Crawley was now but a broken reed, and was beneath his feet, yet Mr. Thumble acknowledged to himself that he could not hold his own in debate with this broken reed

But to go back in such circumstances is a terrible disaster. It amounts to complete defeat; and is tantamount to a confession that you must go home, because you are unable to ride to hounds. A man, when he is compelled to do this, is almost driven to resolve at the spur of the moment that he will give up hunting for the rest of his life.

The double pleasure of pulling down an opponent, and of raising oneself, is the charm of a politician's life. And by practice this becomes extended to so many branches, that the delights, — and also the disappointments, — are very widespread

Since defeat in the Struggle must always be envisaged, the preparation of one's own successors is as important as what one does for victory.

Paulus guessed immediately that he had been presented with a cup of hemlock. He exclaimed to General Pfeffer at his last generals' conference: 'I have no intention of shooting myself for this Bohemian corporal

Many historians, with an 'if only' approach to the British defeat, have focused so much on different aspects of Operation Market Garden which went wrong that they have tended to overlook the central element. It was quite simply a very bad plan right from the start and right from the top. Every other problem stemmed from that.

Alliances are complicated enough in victory, but in defeat they are bound to produce the worst recriminations imaginable.

Nevertheless, Rhetoric is useful, because the true and the just are naturally superior to their opposites, so that, if decisions are improperly made, they must owe their defeat to their own advocates; which is reprehensible.

Tom hated to admit defeat, even in matters far less important than this. He believed that all problems could be solved if they were tackled in the right way, with the right equipment. This was a challenge to his scientific ingenuity; the fact that there were many lives involved was immaterial. Dr. Tom Lawson had no great use for human beings, but he did respect the Universe. This was a private fight between him and It.

In Brohier's eyes, violence was not merely the last refuge of the incompetent. It was the gloating revenge of the sore loser.

The billion-year battle against the force of gravity was over.

And for a brief moment I envisioned myself snarling Yes, ha ha! And I minced fifty more like him, so you'd better run!

Dragons and all other creatures that serve the Devil only seem big as long as we harbor fear within ourselves. But if a person seeks God with such earnestness and desire that he enters into His power, then the power of the Devil at once suffers such a great defeat that his instruments become small and impotent. Dragons and evil spirits shrink until they are no bigger than goblins and cats and crows.

Pyrrhus invaded Italy at the start of the campaigning season in 280 BC. In two brutal and bloody battles he successfully defeated the Romans. The Greek king, though, having seen so many of his soldiers slaughtered in achieving this success, was said to have remarked, 'With another victory like this, we will be finished!' (Hence our modern phrase 'pyrrhic victory'.)

Surely, he thought, next to a battle lost there is nothing so dreadful as a battle won.

You can't win because of the guns, said Adam with a sigh. Machine guns, mortars, field guns, howitzers: it doesn't matter how much courage soldiers have, how much will; flesh and blood can't pass through bullets and shells, or at least not in sufficient numbers to have any effect. The guns win in the end and they always will. Not us, not the Germans - the guns.

all success cloaks a surrender

Between women love is contemplation; caresses are meant less to appropriate the other than to recreate oneself slowly through her; separation is eliminated, there is neither fight nor victory nor defeat; each one is both subject and object

Dac? tr?ieÅŸti destul de mult, vei vedea c? fiecare victorie se transform? într-o înfrângere.

Je ne peux pas m'approprier le champ de neige sur lequel je glisse: il demeure étranger, interdit; mais je me complais dans cet effort meme vers un possession impossible: je l'éprouve comme un triomphe, non comme une défait

If the error is thrust deeply enough into the soul, man cannot but succumb to it.

There was nothing to say to tragedy that had outlived hope.

The weak can defeat the strong in a case as just as mine.

A victor only breeds hatred, while a defeated man lives in misery, but a man at peace within lives happily, abandoning up ideas of victory and defeat.