A long war almost always places nations in this sad alternative: that their defeat delivers them to destruction and their triumph to despotism.
You can't win every battle! You must have the word Defeat in your dictionary; if not, defeat will triumph even more strongly!
A wise man may be duped as well as a fool; but the fool publishes the triumph of his deceiver; the wise man is silent, and denies that triumph to an enemy which he would hardly concede to a friend; a triumph that proclaims his own defeat.
In ourselves are triumph and defeat.
Not in the shouts and plaudits of the throng, but in ourselves, are triumph and defeat.
Triumph often is nearest when defeat seems inescapable.
War is grounded in the notion of triumph and defeat. It is zero-sum.
What is life without its angles of difficulty and defeat, and its tip of triumph and power?
Not in the clamor of the crowded street, not in the shouts and plaudits of the throng, but in ourselves, are triumph and defeat.
For a Hero cannot triumph all the time. Sometimes he will be defeated, and how he faces that defeat is a test of his character.
The world wants the kind of men who do not shrink from temporary defeats in life; but come again and wrestle triumph from defeat.
It is defeat that turns bone to flint; it is defeat that turns gristle to muscle; it is defeat that makes men invincible. Do not then be afraid of defeat. You are never so near to victory as when defeated in a good cause.
We have known the bitterness of defeat and the exultation of triumph, and from both we have learned there can be no turning back. We must go forward to preserve in peace what we won in war.
Life has meaning only in the struggle. Triumph or defeat is in the hands of the Gods. So let us celebrate the struggle!
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.
Short of actual blunders, lack of faith in one's position is the chief cause of defeat. To be sure, it is easy to recommend faith and not so easy to practise it.