Cassandra (1860)
Context: Give us back our suffering, we cry to Heaven in our hearts — suffering rather than indifferentism; for out of nothing comes nothing. But out of suffering may come the cure. Better have pain than paralysis! A hundred struggle and drown in the breakers. One discovers the new world. But rather, ten times rather, die in the surf, heralding the way to that new world, than stand idly on the shore!
“The maxim ‘Nothing avails but perfection’ may be spelt shorter: ‘Paralysis.”
Minute [brief note] to General Ismay, December 6, 1942, on proposed improvements to landing-craft.
In The Second World War, Volume IV : The Hinge of Fate (1951), Appendix C.
The Second World War (1939–1945)
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Winston S. Churchill 601
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom 1874–1965Related quotes
“Nothing is so useless as a general maxim.”
On Machiavelli (1827)
“Nothing so comforts the military mind as the maxim of a great but dead general.”
Source: The Guns of August
Source: 1970s-1980s, The Economics of Information (1984), p. 55 as cited in: Demetri Kantarelis (2008) " Book Review: Title: Theories Of The Firm 2nd Edition http://www.inderscience.com/books/TOF_american_econ_review.pdf". In: The American economist. Vol 52, Nr 1. p. 117
“If God only used perfect people, nohting would get done. God will use anybody if you're available.”
“Finality is death. Perfection is finality. Nothing is perfect. There are lumps in it.”
The Crock of Gold (Charleston: BiblioBazaar, [1912] 2006) p. 27.