Defeat Quotes - Page 27

• But for that blindness which is inseparable from malice, what terrible powers of evil would it possess! Fortunately for the world, its venom, like that of the rattlesnake, when most poisonous, clouds the eye of the reptile, and defeats its aim.

  William Gilmore Simms

  Eye, Clouds, Evil

  William Gilmore Simms (1853). “Egeria: Or Voices of Thought and Counsel, for the Woods and Wayside”, p.80

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• Victory fades so quickly that it is scarcely apparent and it is always the face of defeat that we are able to see.

  Jane Bowles

  Victory, Able, Faces

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

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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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• Words have their genealogy, their history, their economy, their literature, their art and music, as too they have their weddings and divorces, their successes and defeats, their fevers, their undiagnosable ailments, their sudden deaths. They also have their moral and social distinctions.

  Virgilia Peterson

  Art, Divorce, Fever

  Virgilia Peterson (1961). “A Matter of Life and Death”, Bantam Books

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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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• I don't accept defeat as final. Only death is final - and even then I hope for a reprieve.

  Phil Gramm

  Finals, Accepting, Reprieve

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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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• What can defeat greed, technological superiority, and legal lawlessness ... is discipline, consciousness, and unity.

  Toni Cade Bambara

  Discipline, Greed, Unity

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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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• no truth is strong enough to defeat a well-established legend.

  Winifred Holtby

  Strong, Legends, Truth Is

  Winifred Holtby (1937). “Pavements at Anderby: tales of "South riding" and other regions by Winifred Holtby”

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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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• Your defeat is not only a reality, which has been historically proven time and again. It can also be seen in your helplessness and your inability to suppress the movement, in your desperate conduct when faced with our guerrillas and the vanguard of the people.

  Ashraf Dehghani

  Reality, People, Inability

  "Torture & Resistance in Iran: Memoirs of the Woman Guerrilla Ashraf Dehghani". Book by Ashraf Dihqani, 1978.

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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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• war with poison and chemicals was not so rare in the ancient world ... An astounding panoply of toxic substances, venomous creatures, poison plants, animals and insects, deleterious environments, virulent pathogens, infectious agents, noxious gases, and combustible chemicals were marshalled to defeat foes - and panoply is an apt term here, because it is the ancient Greek word for 'all weapons.

  Adrienne Mayor

  War, Animal, History

  Adrienne Mayor (2009). “Greek Fire, Poison Arrows, and Scorpion Bombs: Biological and Chemical Warfare in the Ancient World”, Duckworth Publishing

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• Being Americans, we prosecute wars to win them, not to have reasonable response, not to have appropriate levels of retaliation. Our theory is you start bombing our cities; we're going to defeat you and make it impossible.

  Newt Gingrich

  War, Winning, Cities

  "Newt Gingrich: This is World War III". "Hannity & Colmes", www.foxnews.com. July 18, 2006.

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• There is only one course of action against terrorists: to defeat them abroad before they attack us at home.

  George W. Bush

  Home, Action, Terrorist

  "Transcript: President Bush‘s Fort Bragg speech". "Hardball with Chris Matthews", www.nbcnews.com. June 30, 2005.

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• I've got a lot of examples about moments where I thought something would work on film and it didn't work, but I never came to that decision with the film half shot, where I was stuck on a runaway train and couldn't jump off. On those occasions where I have admitted defeat, that this is not going to work, I haven't embarked on that project and made that movie.

  Steven Spielberg

  Decision, Half, Example

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