“It might be that to surrender to happiness was to accept defeat, but it was a defeat better than many victories.”

Source: Of Human Bondage (1915), Ch. 122

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "It might be that to surrender to happiness was to accept defeat, but it was a defeat better than many victories." by W. Somerset Maugham?
W. Somerset Maugham photo
W. Somerset Maugham 158
British playwright, novelist, short story writer 1874–1965

Related quotes

Millard Fillmore photo

“An honorable defeat is better than a dishonorable victory.”

Millard Fillmore (1800–1874) American politician, 13th President of the United States (in office from 1850 to 1853)

Speech http://books.google.com/books?id=Ihs8AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA407&dq=honorable+defeat (13 September 1844), Buffalo, New York, quoted in the Buffalo Commercial Advertiser (14 September 1844). Fillmore had lost the Whig nomination for governor of New York. The newspaper summary was: "He entreated them to enter the contest with zeal and enthusiasm; but as they valued the sacredness of their cause, and the stability of their principles, to resort to no unfair means: that an honorable defeat was better than a dishonorable victory."
1840s

Józef Piłsudski photo

“To be defeated and not submit, is victory; to be victorious and rest on one's laurels, is defeat.”

Józef Piłsudski (1867–1935) Polish politician and Prime Minister

(Late 1920s or the 1930s) Zbigniew Brzezinski in his introduction to Wacław Jędrzejewicz’s Piłsudski: A Life For Poland. Quoted from this website http://members.lycos.co.uk/jozefpilsudski/index2.html
Attributed

Michel De Montaigne photo

“There are some defeats more triumphant than victories.”

Book I, Ch. 30. Of Cannibals
Essais (1595), Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

Tsunetomo Yamamoto photo

“If one thinks only of winning, a sordid victory will be worse than a defeat. For the most part, it becomes a squalid defeat.”

Hagakure (c. 1716)
Context: People with intelligence will use it to fashion things both true and false and will try to push through whatever they want with their clever reasoning. This is injury from intelligence. Nothing you do will have effect if you do not use truth.
In affairs like law suits or even in arguments, by losing quickly one will lose in fine fashion. It is like sumo. If one thinks only of winning, a sordid victory will be worse than a defeat. For the most part, it becomes a squalid defeat.

José de San Martín photo

“A well-fought defeat is worth more than a casual victory.”

José de San Martín (1778–1850) Argentine general and independence leader

Una derrota peleada vale más que una victoria casual.
100 Masones Su Palabra (2010)

John Steinbeck photo
Winston S. Churchill photo

“The problems of victory are more agreeable than those of defeat, but they are no less difficult.”

Speech in the House of Commons, November 11, 1942 Debate on the address http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1942/nov/11/debate-on-the-address#column_39.
The Second World War (1939–1945)

Dejan Stojanovic photo

“Courage is more important than to be deceived by shallow victory waiting for a delayed defeat.”

Dejan Stojanovic (1959) poet, writer, and businessman

Reality http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/reality-168/
From the poems written in English

Martin Firrell photo

“Calamitous collapse is better than mediocre defeat!”

Martin Firrell (1963) British artist and activist

Quoted in The London Evening Standard (9 August 2001).

Al Gore photo

“No matter how hard the loss, defeat might serve as well as victory to shake the soul and let the glory out.”

Al Gore (1948) 45th Vice President of the United States

Quotes, Concession speech (2000)
Context: I've seen America in this campaign, and I like what I see. It's worth fighting for and that's a fight I'll never stop. As for the battle that ends tonight, I do believe, as my father once said, that "No matter how hard the loss, defeat might serve as well as victory to shape the soul and let the glory out."

Related topics