“A man is not finished when he's defeated. He's finished when he quits.”
Richard Nixon (1913–1994) 37th President of the United States of America
1969 note to self, as quoted in Nixon (1987) by Stephen E. Ambrose, p. 284
1960s
Variant: A man is not finished when he is defeated. He is finished when he quits.
“No one's reputation is quite what he himself perceives it ought to be.”
Christopher Vokes (1904–1985) Canadian general
Northwest Europe, p. 188
Vokes - My Story (1985)
E.M. Forster book Aspects of the Novel
Source: Aspects of the Novel (1927), Chapter Five: The Plot
Context: A man does not talk to himself quite truly — not even to himself: the happiness or misery that he secretly feels proceeds from causes that he cannot quite explain, because as soon as he raises them to the level of the explicable they lose their native quality. The novelist has a real pull here. He can show the subconscious short-circuiting straight into action (the dramatist can do this too); he can also show it in its relation to soliloquy. He commands all the secret life, and he must not be robbed of this privilege. "How did the writer know that?" it is sometimes said. "What's his standpoint? He is not being consistent, he's shifting his point of view from the limited to the omniscient, and now he's edging back again." Questions like this have too much the atmosphere of the law courts about them.
African Spir (1837–1890) Russian philosopher
Source: Words of a Sage : Selected thoughts of African Spir (1937), p. 49.
Wilhelm Reich book Listen, Little Man!
Listen, Little Man! (1948)
Context: My intellect tells me: "Tell the truth at any cost." The Little Man in me says: "It is stupid to expose oneself to the little man, to put oneself at his mercy. The Little Man does not want to hear the truth about himself. He does not want the great responsibility which is his. He wants to remain a Little Man. He wants to remain a Little Man, or wants to become a little great man. He wants to become rich, or a party leader, or commander of a legion, or secretary of the society for the abolition of vice. But he does not want to assume responsibility for his work..."
Alexander Graham Bell (1847–1922) scientist and inventor known for his work on the telephone
Bell Telephone Talk (1901)
“He can be a charming man, but he can be quite nasty too. Because this is what he does.”
Louis van Gaal (1951) Dutch footballer and manager
About Marco van Basten after the fall-out with Mark van Bommel
