Force is all-conquering, but its victories are short-lived.
Abraham Lincoln (1809 - 1865)
A mind troubled by doubt cannot focus on the course to victory.
Arthur Golden, Memoirs1 of a Geisha
We improve ourselves by victories over ourself. There must be contests, and you must win.
Edward Gibbon (1737 - 1794)
Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity.
Horace Mann (1796 - 1859), address at Antioch College, 1859
One of the greatest victories you can gain over someone is to beat him at politeness.
Josh Billings (1818 - 1885)
Exile, for no other motive2 than ease, would be the last defeat, with no seed of future victory in it.
Lois McMaster Bujold, "Shards3 of Honor", 1986
There are always survivors4 at a massacre5. Among the victors, if nowhere else.
Lois McMaster Bujold, Ethan of Athos, 1986
Victory attained6 by violence is tantamount to a defeat, for it is momentary7.
Mahatma Gandhi (1869 - 1948), 'Satyagraha Leaflet No. 13,' May 3, 1919
The moment of victory is much too short to live for that and nothing else.
Martina Navratilova (1956 - )
Victory belongs to the most persevering8.
Napoleon Bonaparte (1769 - 1821)
Those who know how to win are much more numerous than those who know how to make proper use of their victories.
Polybius (205 BC - 118 BC), History
Another such victory over the Romans, and we are undone9.
Pyrrhus (319 BC - 272 BC), from Plutarch, Lives
Be careful that victories do not carry the seed of future defeats.
Ralph W. Sockman
The best victory is when the opponent surrenders of its own accord before there are any actual hostilities10...It is best to win without fighting.
Sun-tzu (~400 BC), The Art of War. Planning a Siege
Victorious11 warriors12 win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win.
Sun-tzu (~400 BC), The Art of War. Strategic Assessments13
Far better it is to dare mighty14 things, to win glorious triumphs even though checkered15 by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much because they live in the gray twilight16 that knows neither victory nor defeat.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858 - 1919)
