“The gods are on the side of the stronger.”

Sempre che l'inimico è più possente,
Più chi perde accettabile ha la scusa.
Canto XXIV, stanza 32 (tr. W. S. Rose)
Orlando Furioso (1532)

Source: White Teeth

Playboy interview (May 1995)
Context: The left constantly identifies the pro-life advocates as misogynists and fanatics, but that doesn't represent most of those people. They are deeply religious and they truly believe that taking a life is wrong. If the left were to show respect for that position and acknowledge the moral conundrum of unwanted pregnancy, the opposition to abortion would lessen. We must acknowledge that people should be a little troubled by abortion. Not to acknowledge that this is a difficult decision is wrong. The procedure snuffs out a potential personality. … You have a stronger case if you give due respect to the other side. An abortion should be something that is wrestled with. And herein is the point. Though most people agree that abortion should be an option, there is something attractive about the deeply moral position of those against abortion, particularly when the other side is in a spiritual vacuum. There is nothing in kids' education anymore that tells them to revere anything. Traditional religions, with all their moral codes, are becoming increasingly attractive in light of the alternatives: the Prozac nation, or heroin, which has come back with a vengeance.

94
Table Talk (1569)

Saint Joan : A Chronicle Play In Six Scenes And An Epilogue (1923)
1920s

1850s, Lecture at Brooklyn (1859)

Said to Winston Churchill in Tehran, November 1943, as quoted in Fallen Eagle: The Last Days of the Third Reich (1995) by Robin Cross, p. 21
Contemporary witnesses