“In reading the lives of great men, I found that the first victory they won was over themselves… self-discipline with all of them came first.”

— Harry Truman

Last update June 3, 2021. History

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Harry Truman 119

American politician, 33rd president of the United States (i… 1884–1972

Allan Bloom (1930–1992) American philosopher, classicist, and academician

“Commerce and Culture,” p. 285.
Giants and Dwarfs (1990)

“I found a new me. When I first came over to America, it was like, 'How can I be rich? How can I build my movie career? How can I become the most muscular man?' It was all about me, and then there was this turn, and I found it was really great to do this.”

Arnold Schwarzenegger (1947) actor, businessman and politician of Austrian-American heritage

From Cowboys & Indians, the "magazine of the west" (September 2004).
Recalling a speech in which his father-in-law, creator of the Peace Corps, urged listeners to "Break that mirror in front of you -- that mirror that only lets you look at yourself."
2000s

“On the palace of the Prince, there was a slogan: ‘Long live feudalism – the bright future of the whole humanity!’ The slogan on the first sanctuary read: ‘Forward to the victory of serfdom!”

Aleksandr Zinovyev (1922–2006) Russian writer

Katastroika (1988)

“I loved the material when I first read it, and the experience of making the film (The Matrix) was a great one. So when we came around to complete the trilogy, I just signed on board without even reading the scripts because the experience of the first film was so good.”

Keanu Reeves (1964) Canadian actor, director, producer and musician

“Any man who sees Europe now must realize that victory in a great war is not something you win once and for all, like victory in a ball game. Victory in a great war is something that must be won and kept won.”

Harry Truman (1884–1972) American politician, 33rd president of the United States (in office from 1945 to 1953)

Report on the Potsdam Conference (1945)
Context: Any man who sees Europe now must realize that victory in a great war is not something you win once and for all, like victory in a ball game. Victory in a great war is something that must be won and kept won. It can be lost after you have won it — if you are careless or negligent or indifferent.
Europe today is hungry. I am not talking about Germans. I am talking about the people of the countries which were overrun and devastated by the Germans, and particularly about the people of Western Europe. Many of them lack clothes and fuel and tools and shelter and raw materials. They lack the means to restore their cities and their factories.
As the winter comes on, the distress will increase. Unless we do what we can to help, we may lose next winter what we won at such terrible cost last spring. Desperate men are liable to destroy the structure of their society to find in the wreckage some substitute for hope. If we let Europe go cold and hungry, we may lose some of the foundations of order on which the hope for worldwide peace must rest.
We must help to the limits of our strength. And we will.