The wars of the past show us that even armies that had won brilliant victories for decades, in some cases were not only defeated but even disintegrated and ceased to exist. Such a fate, for example, befell the army of Napoleon, who for almost two decades kept the whole Europe under its boots. The army needs to instill a spirit of confidence in its power, but not in terms of boasting. Bragging about invincibility brings harm to the army.
Speech to Red Army personnel, 13 May 1940
Source: http://porto-fr.odessa.ua/index.php?art_num=art021&year=2008&nnumb=40
“History shows that there are no invincible armies and that there never have been.”
Radio Address https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/works/1941/07/03.htm (3 July 1941)
Stalin's speeches, writings and authorised interviews
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Joseph Stalin 95
General secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union 1879–1953Related quotes
(zh-CN) 军队须和民众打成一片,使军队在民众眼睛中看成是自己的军队,这个军队便无敌于天下,个把日本帝国主义是不够打的。
1930s, On Protracted Warfare (1938)
Source: The 25-Year War: America's Military Role in Vietnam (1984), p. 209
Political Science for Civil Services Main Examination (2010)
Variant: History shows that where ethics and economics come in conflict, victory is always with economics. Vested interests have never been known to have willingly divested themselves unless there was sufficient force to compel them.
This appears to have been originally written by John Briley in the screenplay http://www.dailyscript.com/scripts/Gandhi.txt for the movie, Gandhi (1982), spoken by Ben Kingsley, playing Gandhi. The earliest [partial] misattribution to Gandhi appears to be by Ronald Reagan in an address http://www.nytimes.com/1984/09/25/world/transcript-of-reagan-s-address-to-the-un-general-assembly.html?pagewanted=all to the United Nations General Assembly on 24 September 1984 (also a misquotation, substituting the word fail for fall). John S. Dunne misattributes the first sentence in The Peace of the Present (1991) on p. 50 https://books.google.com/books?id=NYIJAAAAIAAJ&q=%22when+Gandhi+says%22+%22When+I+despair,+I+remember+that+all+through+history+the+way+of+truth+and+love+has+always+won.%22&dq=%22when+Gandhi+says%22+%22When+I+despair,+I+remember+that+all+through+history+the+way+of+truth+and+love+has+always+won.%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjhufXN09LWAhWG7SYKHbRdCJ0Q6AEIJzAA, just after misattributing the same first two sentences that Reagan did. Dunne also misattributes the final part of the quotation in the same book on p. 34 https://books.google.com/books?id=NYIJAAAAIAAJ&q=%22Think+of+it+%E2%80%94+always%E2%80%A6%22+%22When+you+are+in+doubt+that+that+is+God%27s+way,+the+way+the+world+is+meant+to+be%E2%80%A6+think+of+that.%22&dq=%22Think+of+it+%E2%80%94+always%E2%80%A6%22+%22When+you+are+in+doubt+that+that+is+God%27s+way,+the+way+the+world+is+meant+to+be%E2%80%A6+think+of+that.%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjEw57e1tLWAhUSdiYKHUNiA2kQ6AEIMTAC.
Misattributed
Context: When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time they can seem invincible. But in the end they always fall. Think of it—always… When you are in doubt that that is God's way, the way the world is meant to be… think of that.
Song lyrics, Never for Ever (1980)
Interview: Tyler Perry, movie mogul, 21 August 2010
Opposition leader Lee Kuan Yew, Straits Times, May 5, 1959
1950s