Defeat Quotes - Page 32

• The scars left from the child's defeat in the fight against irrational authority are to be found at the bottom of every neurosis.

  Erich Fromm

  Children, Fighting, Neurosis

  Erich Fromm (1947). “Man for Himself”

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• If I believe in something, I will fight for it with all I have. But I do not demand all or nothing. I would rather get something than nothing. Professional liberals want the fiery debate. They glory in defeat. The hardest job for a politician today is to have the courage to be a moderate. It's easy to take an extreme position.

  Hubert H. Humphrey

  Jobs, Believe, Fighting

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• To say that we have a clear conscience is to utter a solecism; had we never sinned we should have had no conscience. Were defeat unknown, neither would victory be celebrated by songs of triumph.

  Thomas Carlyle

  Song, Should Have, Victory

  Thomas Carlyle (1872). “Works”, p.7

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• There is something in me-I just can't stand to admit defeat.

  Beverly Sills

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• The art of victory is learned in defeat.

  Simon Bolivar

  Art, Victory

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• My mother had demonstrated that the best way to defeat the numbing ambivalence of middle age is to surprise yourself - by pulling off some cartwheel of thought or action never even imagined at a younger age.

  Gail Sheehy

  Mother, Age, Way

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• Trees and flowers were often more meaningful to me than people. They always helped me, consoled me, giving the soul a chance to believe once more than the world was beautiful and sensible, that the mad absurdities and cruelties of men were against the laws of Nature and the Universal Mind; that sooner or later violence would suffer utter defeat on this Earth. No words collected in books were more effectively convincing to me than foliage, clouds, rippling waters, rain.

  Svetlana Alliluyeva

  Beautiful, Meaningful, Nature

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• War is the admission of defeat in the face of conflicting interests: by war the issue is left to chance, and the tacit assumption that the best man will win is not at all justified. It might equally be argued that the worst, the most unscrupulous man will win, although history will continue the absurd game by finding him after all the best man.

  Germaine Greer

  War, Winning, Men

  Germaine Greer (1972). “The female eunuch”

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• To be a good sportsman, one must be a stoic and never show rancor in defeat, or triumph in victory, or irritation, no matter what annoyance is encountered. One who can not help sulking, or explaining, or protesting when the loser, or exulting when the winner, has no right to take part in games or contests.

  Emily Post

  Sports, Games, Irritation

  Emily Post (2007). “Etiquette: In Society, in Business, in Politics and at Home”, p.529, Cosimo, Inc.

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• One of the common traits of outstanding performers-coaches, athletes, managers, sales representatives, executives, and others who face a daily up/down, win/lose accounting system-is that a rejection, that is, defeat, is quickly forgotten, replaced eagerly by pursuit of a new order, client, or opponent.

  Bill Walsh

  Athlete, Winning, Order

  Bill Walsh, Steve Jamison, Craig Walsh (2009). “The Score Takes Care of Itself: My Philosophy of Leadership”, p.256, Penguin

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• The camembert with its venison scent defeats the Marolles and Limbourg dull smells; It spreads its exhalation, smothering the other scents under its surprising breath abundance.

  Emile Zola

  Food, Smell, Cooking

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• the face of victory often resembles the face of defeat.

  Jane Bowles

  Victory, Faces, Success And Failure

  Jane Bowles (2014). “My Sister's Hand in Mine: The Collected Works of Jane Bowles”, p.186, Macmillan

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• To cease to love -- that is defeat.

  Susan Glaspell

  Cease

  Susan Glaspell (1940). “The Morning is Near Us: A Novel”

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• Without Virginia, as we must all acknowledge--without her Patrick Henry among the people, her Lees and Jefferson in the forum, and her Washington in the field--I will not say that the cause of American liberty and American independence must have been ultimately defeated--no, no, there was no ultimate defeat for that cause in the decrees of the Most High; but it must have been delayed, postponed, perplexed, and to many eyes and hearts rendered seemingly hopeless.

  Robert Charles Winthrop

  Heart, Eye, Virginia

  Robert Charles Winthrop (1876). “Oration on the Centennial Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence: Delivered in the Music Hall, at the Request of the City Government, Boston, 4 July, 1876”, p.22

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• What is important is not that you have a defeat but how you react to it. There is always the possibility to transform a defeat into something else, something new, something strong. All the good stories, all the people we remember are the ones who do this, who make victories out of their failures. Because the victories teach nothing. The victories are not useful. They are often dangerous.

  Lina Wertmuller

  Strong, People, Victory

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• Life is atrocious, we know. But precisely because I expect little of the human condition, man's periods of felicity, his partial progress, his efforts to begin over again and continue, all seem to me like so many prodigies which nearly compensate for the monstrous mass of ills and defeats, of indifference and error. Catastrophe and ruin will come; disorder will triumph, but order will too, from time to time.

  Marguerite Yourcenar

  Loss, Men, Order

  Marguerite Yourcenar (1954). “Memoirs of Hadrian”

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• Learning is not virtue but the means to bring us an acquaintance with it. Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful. Let these be your motives to action through life, the relief of the distressed, the detection of frauds, the defeat of oppression, and diffusion of happiness.

  Nathanael Greene

  Integrity, Mean, Relief

  Nathanael Greene, Richard K. Showman, Rhode Island Historical Society (2005). “The papers of General Nathanael Greene”

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• I believe only in money, not in love or tenderness. Love and tenderness meant only pain and suffering and defeat. I would not let it ruin me as it ruined others! I would speak only with money, hard money.

  Agnes Smedley

  Money, Pain, Believe

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• It has been said that genius is only the power of making continuous effort. The line between failure and success is so fine that we scarcely know when we pass it. We are told that there is no failure, except in no longer trying - no defeat, except from within, no really insurmountable barrier save our own weakness of purpose.

  Kate Smith

  Effort, Trying, Lines

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• Nature, left to itself, defeats nature.

  Georgia Harkness

  Nature, Left

  Georgia Elma Harkness (1937). “The Recovery of Ideals”

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• The guiding principle of my life, 'the means are the ends,' has taught me that our participation in a corrupt system facilitates it and corrupts and therefore defeats us.

  Sonia Johnson

  Mean, Guiding Principles, Taught

  Sonia Johnson (1989). “Wildfire: Igniting the She/Volution”, Wildfire Books

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• Other wars end eventually in victory, defeat or exhaustion, but the war between men and women goes on forever.

  Alison Lurie

  War, Men, Forever

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• Calamitous collapse is better than mediocre defeat!

  Martin Firrell

  Mediocre, Collapse

  The London Evening Standard, August 09, 2001.

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• Learn from each one of your defeats; your losses must be as close to you as your victories.

  Ashot Nadanian

  Loss, Victory, Your Loss

  S'pore Chess News, November 15, 2010.

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• History more often records the brilliant successes and spectacular defeats of contending forces than the effect of war on the common people.

  Mildred Cable

  War, People, Records

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