“We improve ourselves by victory over our self. There must be contests, and you must win.”
Edward Gibbon (1737–1794) English historian and Member of Parliament
Instructions Given at the Conference (Fall 1950)
1950's
“We improve ourselves by victory over our self. There must be contests, and you must win.”
Edward Gibbon (1737–1794) English historian and Member of Parliament
Sun Tzu (-543–-495 BC) ancient Chinese military general, strategist and philosopher from the Zhou Dynasty
Variant: Thus it is that in war the victorious strategist only seeks battle after the victory has been won, whereas he who is destined to defeat first fights and afterwards looks for victory.
Source: The Art of War, Chapter IV · Disposition of the Army
Bai Chongxi (1893–1966) Chinese general
As quoted in Image, perception, and the making of U.S.-China relations (1998) http://books.google.com/books?id=gnmxDpX7ZlsC&pg=PA268&dq=Can+we+now+call+these+disguised+warlords+and+new+feudalists+genuine+revolutionaries&hl=en&ei=SjmmTPKiI4Wdlgen2bwY&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CCoQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=We%20must%20take%20advantage%20of%20the%20victory%20in%20the%20anti-Japanese%20War%20to%20win%20our%20war%20against%20the%20Communist%20bandits%2C%20once%20for%20all&f=false by Hongshan Li and Zhaohui Hong, p. 268 ISBN 0761811583
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.
“To win the War, to overcome the enemy upon the fields cannot alone ensure the Victory in Peace.”
Haile Selassie (1892–1975) Emperor of Ethiopia
V. E. Day proclamation (8 May 1945) http://www.jah-rastafari.com/selassie-words/show-jah-word.asp?word_id=declar_ve. <br class="br">Context: May it be taken as Divine significance, that, as We mark the passing of the Nazi Reich, in America at San Francisco, delegates from all United Nations, among whose number Ethiopia stands, are now met together for their long-planned conference to lay foundations for an international pact to banish war and to maintain World Peace. Our Churches pray for the successful triumph of this conference. Without success in this, the Victory, We celebrate today, the suffering that We have all endured will be of no avail.<br>To win the War, to overcome the enemy upon the fields cannot alone ensure the Victory in Peace. The cause of War must be removed. Each Nation's rights must be secure from violation. Above all, from the human mind must be erased all thoughts of War as a solution. Then and then only will War cease.
“In Iraq, there is no peace without victory. We will keep our nerve and we will win that victory.”
George W. Bush (1946) 43rd President of the United States
2000s, 2005, Address to the National Endowment for Democracy (October 2005)
“Be resolute, fear no sacrifice and surmount every difficulty to win victory.”
Mao Zedong (1893–1976) Chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China
Chapter 19 https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/mao/works/red-book/ch19.htm; originally published in The Foolish Old Man Who Removed the Mountains (June 11, 1945), Selected Works, Vol. III, p. 321. <br class="br">Quotations from Chairman Mao Zedong (The Little Red Book)
L. Frank Baum (1856–1919) Children's writer, editor, journalist, screenwriter
Saturday Pioneer (3 January 1891)
The Aberdeen Saturday Pioneer (1890 and 1891)