Defeat Quotes - Page 30

• For ever so our thoughtful hearts repeatOn fields of triumph dirges of defeat;And still we turn on gala-days to treadAmong the rustling memories of the dead.

  Henry Van Dyke

  Memories, Heart, Thoughtful

  Henry Van Dyke (1920). “The Poems of Henry Van Dyke”

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• War is a culture, bellicosity is addictive, defeat for a community that imagines itself to be history's eternal victim can be as intoxicating as victory. How long will it take for the Serbs to realize that the Milosevic years have been an unmitigated disaster for Serbia, the net result of Milosevic's policies being the economic and cultural ruin of the entire region, including Serbia, for several generations? Alas, one thing we can be sure of, that will not happen soon.

  Susan Sontag

  War, Years, Long

  "Why Are We in Kosovo?" by Susan Sontag, www.nytimes.com. May 2, 1999.

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Liberty knows nothing but victories. Soldiers call Bunker Hill a defeat; but liberty dates from it though Warren lay dead on the field.

  Wendell Phillips

  Soldier, Victory, Liberty

  Wendell Phillips (1864). “Speeches, Lectures, and Letters”, p.274

  18 Copy quote

  Show source

• In the long term, to defeat this ideology [terrorism] - and they [terrorists] are bound by an ideology - you defeat it with a more hopeful ideology called freedom.

  George W. Bush

  Long, Hopeful, Terrorism

  Source: www.washingtonpost.com

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• The fullness of life is in the hazards of life. And, at the worst, there is that in us which can turn defeat into victory.

  Edith Hamilton

  Fullness Of Life, Victory, Hazards

  Edith Hamilton (1987). “The Greek way ; The Roman way”, Random House Value Pub

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• It is the moment when our resolution seems about to become irrevocable--when the fatal iron gates are about to close upon us--that tests our strength. Then, after hours of clear reasoning and firm conviction, we snatch at any sophistry that will nullify our long struggles, and bring us the defeat that we love better than victory.

  George Eliot

  Struggle, Love Is, Iron

  George Eliot (2005). “Four Novels of George Eliot”, p.1166, Wordsworth Editions

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Defeats and failures are great developers of character. They have made the giants of our race by giving Titanic muscles, brawny sinews, and far-reaching intellects.

  Orison Swett Marden

  Failure, Character, Race

  Orison Swett Marden (2006). “Rising in the World, Or Architects of Fate”, p.428, Cosimo, Inc.

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Don't beat yourself. That's the worst kind of defeat you'll ever suffer.

  John Wooden

  Suffering, Kind, Beats

  Interview on "Charlie Rose Show", archive.org. June 14, 2000.

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• You don't defeat a terrorist network that operates in eighty countries by occupying Iraq.

  Barack Obama

  Country, Iraq, Terrorist

  Barack Obama (2008). “Yes, We Can”, p.78, BoD – Books on Demand

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• In the long term, we've got to defeat an ideology of hate with an ideology of hope. There' a reason why people like [Al-Qaida leader Osama] bin Laden are able to recruit suiciders, because if you don't have hope, you're attracted to an ideology which says, it's OK to kill people and kill yourself.

  George W. Bush

  Hate, Long, People

  "Marking Fifth Anniversary of Terror Attacks, Bush Tours 9/11 Sites". www.haaretz.com. September 11, 2006.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• What is to be done? We who are still half alive, living in the often fibrillating heartland of a senescent capitalism -- can we do more than reflect the decay around and within us? Can we do more than sing our sad and bitter songs of disillusion and defeat?

  R. D. Laing

  Song, Decay, Done

  R. D. Laing (1990). “The Politics of Experience and The Bird of Paradise”, p.9, Penguin UK

  11 Copy quote

  Show source

• Time, space, and natural law hold for me suggestions of intolerable bondage, and I can form no picture of emotional satisfaction which does not involve their defeat - especially the defeat of time, so that one may merge oneself with the whole historic stream and be wholly emancipated from the transient and the ephemeral.

  H. P. Lovecraft

  Emotional, Law, Space

  Letter to August Derleth (21 November 1930), in "Selected Letters III, 1929-1931" edited by August Derleth and Donald Wandrei, (p. 220), 1971.

  13 Copy quote

  Show source

• The anchor of meaning resides in an abyss, deeper than the reach of despair. Yet the abyss is not not infinite; its bottom may suddenly be discovered within the confines of a human heart or under the debris of might doubts. This may be the vocation of man: to say "Amen" to being and to the Author of being; to live in defiance of absurdity, notwithstanding futility and defeat; to attain faith in God even in spite of God.

  Abraham Joshua Heschel

  Heart, Men, Anchors

  Abraham Joshua Heschel (1965). “Who is Man?”, p.80, Stanford University Press

  11 Copy quote

  Show source

• Human nature is the same everywhere; it deifies success, it has nothing but scorn for defeat.

  Mark Twain

  Human Nature, Scorn, Humans

  1897 Joan of Arc, bk.1, ch.8.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• I refer to the misunderstanding of Soviet Russia as an aggressive power, militaristically and ideologically bent upon world domination 'seeing', to quote a recent speech of the British Prime Minister, 'the rest of the world as its rightful fiefdom.' How any rational person, viewing objectively the history of the last thirty-five years, could entertain this 'international misunderstanding' challenges, if it does not defeat, comprehension. The notion has no basis in fact... If Russia is bent on world conquest, she has been remarkably slothful and remarkably unsuccessful.

  Enoch Powell

  Years, Russia, Challenges

  53 Copy quote

• To live one's love and hatred, to live that which one is means defeat, resignation, and death. The crimes of society, the hell that man has made or man become unconquerable cosmic forces.

  Herbert Marcuse

  Mean, Men, Hatred

  Herbert Marcuse (2012). “One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the Ideology of Advanced Industrial Society”, p.61, Beacon Press

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• The apparatus defeats its own purpose if its purpose is to create a humane existence on the basis of a humanized nature.

  Herbert Marcuse

  Purpose, Existence, Bases

  Herbert Marcuse (2013). “One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the Ideology of Advanced Industrial Society”, p.149, Routledge

  14 Copy quote

  Show source

• It is quite clear from what has been said and written that, time after time after time, there has been a conspiracy between the Conservative Front Bench in this House and the inbuilt Conservative majority in the House of Lords to defeat legislation that has passed through the House of Commons... I warn the House of Lords of the consequences... it is our strong view that the House of Lords should recall that its role is not that of a wrecking chamber, but of a revising chamber. In recent weeks, it has been wrecking legislation passed by this House.

  James Callaghan

  Strong, Views, House

  James Callaghan's speech on economic policy in the House of Commons, api.parliament.uk. November 9, 1976.

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• All our efforts to defeat poverty and pursue sustainable development will be in vain if environmental degradation and natural resource depletion continue unabated.

  Kofi Annan

  Effort, Environmental, Degradation

  "In larger freedom: towards development, security and human rights for all". Report for the United Nations sixtieth anniversary summit, 2005.

  11 Copy quote

  Show source

• To fight an enemy properly, you have to know what they are. Ignorance is defeat.

  Greg Bear

  Ignorance, Fighting, Enemy

  Greg Bear (2014). “The Venging: Stories”, p.189, Open Road Media

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Over the years, I have seen too many politicians ruin their careers because they could not accept defeat graciously.

  Jean Chretien

  Years, Careers, Ruins

  Jean Chretien (2010). “My Years as Prime Minister”, p.150, Vintage Canada

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• Both a priori reasoning and experience teach us that as as these funds grow larger the geometrical rate of growth by compound interest ultimately defeats itself.

  Benjamin Graham

  Growth, Teach, Interest

  "Storage and Stability". Book by Benjamin Graham. Part II, Chapter VIII,Ultimate Uses of the Stored Units, p. 103, 1937.

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• I can't imagine where I'd be without the opportunities provided to me in sports. Sports taught me that gender isn't an issue; in fact, when people talk about me being the first female governor, I'm a little absent from that discussion, because I've never thought of gender as an issue. In sports, you learn self-discipline, healthy competition, to be gracious in victory and defeat, and the importance of being part of a team and understanding what part you play on that team. You all work together to reach a goal, and I think all of those factors come into play in my role as governor.

  Sarah Palin

  Sports, Team, Opportunity

  5 Copy quote

• Like so many empires before it, the Soviet Union eventually imploded and fragmented, falling victim not so much to a direct military defeat as to disintegration accelerated by economic and social strains.

  Zbigniew Brzezinski

  Military, Fall, Empires

  Zbigniew Brzezinski (1998). “The Grand Chessboard: American Primacy And Its Geostrategic Imperatives”, p.9, Basic Books

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Don't let your present problems defeat you. The Chinese have a saying that if you live with a disaster for three years it will turn into a blessing. Look back in your own life at what appeared to be a devastating situation five or ten years ago. Many of those situations were the turning point that caused a number of great things to happen in your future. Regardless of what happens today, realize it is the beginning of something good.

  Bob Proctor

  Blessing, Years, Numbers

  FaceBook post by Bob Proctor from Aug 19, 2015

  45 Copy quote

  Show source