Do not be afraid of defeat. you are never so near victory as when defeated in a good cause
Henry Ward1 Beecher (1813 - 1887)
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
Victory attained4 by violence is tantamount to a defeat, for it is momentary5.
Mahatma Gandhi (1869 - 1948), 'Satyagraha Leaflet No. 13,' May 3, 1919
There are some defeats more triumphant6 than victories.
Michel de Montaigne (1533 - 1592)
You can take from every experience what it has to offer you. And you cannot be defeated if you just keep taking one breath followed by another.
Oprah Winfrey (1954 - ), O Magazine, What I Know For Sure, January 2004
When defeat is inevitable7, it is wisest to yield.
Quintilian
Be careful that victories do not carry the seed of future defeats.
Ralph W. Sockman
A good man would prefer to be defeated than to defeat injustice8 by evil means.
Sallust (86 BC - 34 BC), 'Jugurthine War,' 41 B.C.
Victorious9 warriors10 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 Assessments11
Far better it is to dare mighty12 things, to win glorious triumphs even though checkered13 by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much because they live in the gray twilight14 that knows neither victory nor defeat.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858 - 1919)
What is defeat? Nothing but education; nothing but the first step to something better.
Wendell Phillips (1811 - 1884)
