“First gain the victory and then make the best use of it you can.”
Before the battle of the Nile (1 August 1797) [citation needed]
1790s
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Horatio Nelson 38
Royal Navy Admiral 1758–1805Related quotes

“Having, First, gained all you can, and, Secondly saved all you can, Then give all you can.”
Sermon 50 "The Use of Money" in The Works of the Reverend John Wesley, A.M. (1840) edited by John Emory, Vol. I, p. 446
Popularly paraphrased as:
Make all you can,
Save all you can,
Give all you can.
General sources

Excerpt from a sermon on Easter delivered by Mendel, found in Folia Mendeliana (1966), Volume 1-6, Moravian Museum in Brünn.
Sermon on Easter
Original: Der Sieg Christi hat uns das Reich der Gnade gewonnen, das Himmelreich. Osterfahne wird zur Himmelsfahne, zur Flagge der Ewigkeit, die siegreich weht über den Toren der Heiligen Stadt Jerusalem

Shaking the Tree
Song lyrics, Shaking the Tree (1990)

Many Mansions Chapter 20 - A Philosophy of Vocational Choice
Cayce answered this in reply to a gifted 13 year old boy's question Which of my aptitudes should I follow for the greatest success in adult life, financially?
On Vocational Choices

“He … got the better of himself, and that's the best kind of victory one can wish for.”
Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part II (1615), Book IV, Ch. 72.

“Hannibal was victorious, but he did not know later how to make good use of his victorious fortune.”
Vinse Hanibàl, et non seppe usar poi
ben la vittoriosa sua ventura.
Canzone 103, lines 1–2
Il Canzoniere (c. 1351–1353), To Laura in Life

The Best Of What's Around
Under the Table and Dreaming (1994)

In Search of a Better World (1984)
Context: Why do I think that we, the intellectuals, are able to help? Simply because we, the intellectuals, have done the most terrible harm for thousands of years. Mass murder in the name of an idea, a doctrine, a theory, a religion — that is all our doing, our invention: the invention of the intellectuals. If only we would stop setting man against man — often with the best intentions — much would be gained. Nobody can say that it is impossible for us to stop doing this.