“Happiness is not pleasure — it is victory.”
See You at the Top (2000)
A collection of quotes on the topic of success, victory, war, use.
“Happiness is not pleasure — it is victory.”
See You at the Top (2000)
“I take with me the conscience of defeat as a victory banner.”
Ibid., p. 79
Original: Levo comigo a consciência da derrota como um pendão de vitória.
Source: The Book of Disquiet
“Rub one out like a man, it's the champagne of victory.”
You People Are All the Same (2012)
“A well-fought defeat is worth more than a casual victory.”
Una derrota peleada vale más que una victoria casual.
100 Masones Su Palabra (2010)
“Force is all-conquering, but its victories are short-lived.”
As quoted in Excellent Quotations for Home and School (1888) by Julia B. Hoitt, p. 97; no attribution of this phrase to any existing Lincoln document could be located.
Posthumous attributions
“War is a series of catastrophes that results in a victory.”
Statement to Woodrow Wilson at the Paris Peace Conference (12 January 1919), as quoted in The Macmillan Dictionary of Political Quotations (1993) by Lewis D. Eigen and Jonathan Paul Siegel, p. 689
Prime Minister
“Fire opens the gates of victory.”
From "The Science of Victory," 1796, quoted in Bragin "Field Marshal Kutuzov," 1944.
人皆知我所以勝之形,而莫知吾所以制勝之形。
Source: The Art of War, Chapter VI · Weaknesses and Strengths
“He who knows when he can fight and when he cannot will be victorious.”
Source: The Art of War, Chapter III · Strategic Attack
“Anyone can deal with victory. Only the mighty can bear defeat.”
Speech to the Reichstag, 30 January 1939, as quoted at The History Place http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/timeline/threat.htm.
1930s
“I will not leave this place until I achieve one of the two highest levels; martyrhood or victory.”
As quoted in "A Lesson from our True Leader: Omar Al-Mukhtar, Libya’s Freedom Fighter" at The Libyan Youth Movement : Feb 17th (22 February 2011) http://feb17.info/general/a-lesson-from-our-true-leader-omar-al-mukhtar-libyas-freedom-fighter/.
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
“The greatest victory in life is to rise above the material things that we once valued most.”
Source: The Soul of a Butterfly: Reflections on Life's Journey
Preface to the first edition, written in the summer of 1950.
The Origins of Totalitarianism (1951)
Context: The totalitarian attempt at global conquest and total domination has been the destructive way out of all impasses. Its victory may coincide with the destruction of humanity; wherever it has ruled, it has begun to destroy the essence of man. Yet to turn our backs on the destructive forces of the century is of little avail.
The trouble is that our period has so strangely intertwined the good with the bad that without the imperialists' "expansion for expansion's sake," the world might never have become one; without the bourgeoisie's political device of "power for power's sake," the extent of human strength might never have been discovered; without the fictitious world of totalitarian movements, in which with unparalleled clarity the essential uncertainties of our time have been spelled out, we might have been driven to our doom without ever becoming aware of what has been happening.
And if it is true that in the final stages of totalitarianism an absolute evil appears (absolute because it can no longer be deduced from humanly comprehensible motives), it is also true that without it we might never have known the truly radical nature of Evil.
“The fruits of victory are tumbling into our mouths too quickly.”
To an aide, 29 April 1942, as quoted in Pearl Harbor: From Infamy to Greatness.
Source: On Authority, see https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1872/10/authority.htm
“What is destined to happen will happen. Victory and defeat are like light and darkness.”
His own family toppled him, quoted in Obituary: N. T. Rama Rao, 19 January 1996, 8 January 2014, Independent http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-n-t-rama-rao-1324748.html,
Babur-Nama, translated into English by A.S. Beveridge, pp. 554-5. https://archive.org/stream/baburnama017152mbp#page/n623/mode/2up/search/dashed Also cited in Harsh Narain, The Ayodhya Temple Mosque Dispute: Focus on Muslim Sources
" Exclusive interview with Matthew Mcconaughey http://www.hollywood.com/news/movies/7774937/exclusive-interview-with-matthew-mcconaughey?page=all" on hollywood.com, March 18, 2011: On playing Mick Haller in the The Lincoln Lawyer
Quote from Bevridge translation of the Baburnama https://archive.org/stream/baburnama017152mbp#page/n663/mode/2up
Babur writing about the battle against the Rajput Confederacy led by Maharana Sangram Singh of Mewar. In Babur-Nama, translated into English by A.S. Beveridge, New Delhi reprint, 1979, pp. 547-572.
The Declaration of Independence on the night of 26th March, 1971. The declaration was made minutes before his arrest by the Pakistan Army. http://www.albd.org/autoalbd/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=111&Itemid=44 http://www.thedailystar.net/story.php?nid=93650 http://web.archive.org/web/20110719125113/http://www.albd.org/autoalbd/images/stories/compile/2006/dia/dia_letter.jpg
Quote, Other
"Como se gobiernan las Filipinas" (How one governs in the Philippines), published in La Solidaridad (15 December 1890)
“He who is prudent and lies in wait for an enemy who is not, will be victorious.”
Source: The Art of War, Chapter III · Strategic Attack
“What is essential in war is victory, not prolonged operations.”
Source: The Art of War, Chapter II · Waging War
Probably apocryphal. This quotation does not appear in any print translation of Sun Tzu. The first citation in Google Books is from 2002; no citation in Google Books occurs in a translation of Sun Tzu.
Misattributed
Variant translations
Hence to fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting.
The best victory is when the opponent surrenders of its own accord before there are any actual hostilities... It is best to win without fighting.
Source: The Art of War, Chapter III · Strategic Attack
Lionel Giles translation
Source: The Art of War, Chapter VI · Weaknesses and Strengths
“This is going to be a very expensive war, and Victory is not guaranteed — for anyone”
"When War Drums Roll" (17 September 2001)
2000s
Context: This is going to be a very expensive war, and Victory is not guaranteed — for anyone, and certainly not for anyone as baffled as George W. Bush. All he knows is that his father started the war a long time ago, and that he, the goofy child-President, has been chosen by Fate and the global Oil industry to finish it. Now.
“To see victory only when it is within the ken of the common herd is not the acme of excellence.”
Source: The Art of War, Chapter IV · Disposition of the Army
“The more difficult the victory, the greater the happiness in winning.”
“Victory is reserved for those who are willing to pay its price.”
Attributed to Sun Tzu in multiple books and internet sites, but this text does not appear in The Art of War and seems to be a more recent creation.
Disputed
Jaya Bharata Jananiya Tanujate (1930)
“If you live long enough, you'll see that every victory turns into a defeat.”
All Men are Mortal (1946)
“Max, for some people there are no victories, just alternate forms of losing.”
from "The Social-Democratic View of the National Question", 1904 (aged 26) http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/works/1904/09/01.htm
Stalin's speeches, writings and authorised interviews
Marginal note written in early 1918 before the Spring Offensive, quoted in Fritz Fischer, Germany's Aims in the First World War (New York: W. W. Norton & Co, 1967), p. 610
1910s
Lecture on Srimad Bhagavatam, Canto 6, Chapter 1, verse 6; Sydney; February 17, 1973
Quotes from other Sources, Quotes from other Sources: False Prophecies
“Be resolute, fear no sacrifice and surmount every difficulty to win victory.”
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.
Quotations from Chairman Mao Zedong (The Little Red Book)
Essays on Catholicism, Liberalism, and Socialism (1879)
Michael Moore declares these lines in his film Fahrenheit 9/11 as something "Orwell once wrote". They are nearly identical to a block of voiceover in the 1984 Richard Burton/John Hurt movie version of 1984 when Winston (Hurt) is silently reading Goldstein's book. All of the lines are excerpts from various parts of Goldstein's book in part 2, chapter 9 of the novel with some paraphrasing. Note that the fourth sentence begins with "This new version". In Moore's speech there is no antecedent for this phrase; consequently, the sentence makes no sense there. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1SVrM2Ef81C7EUSTm4zsgjQk9mgMSeFUnlEvtleR2V1w/edit?usp=sharing http://metabunk.org/threads/debunked-war-is-not-meant-to-be-won-it-is-meant-to-be-continuous.1259/
Misattributed
“To be defeated and not submit, is victory; to be victorious and rest on one's laurels, is defeat.”
(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
From 1985 interview with Swiss Journalist Jean-Philippe Rapp, translated from Sankara: Un nouveau pouvoir africain by Jean Ziegler. Lausanne, Switzerland: Editions Pierre-Marcel Favre, 1986. In Thomas Sankara Speaks: The Burkina Faso Revolution 1983-87. trans. Samantha Anderson. New York: Pathfinder, 1988. pp. 141-144.
“He, therefore, who desires peace, should prepare for war. He who aspires to victory, should spare no pains to form his soldiers. And he who hopes for success, should fight on principle, not chance. (Book 3, Foreword)”
Igitur qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum; qui uictoriam cupit, milites inbuat diligenter; qui secundos optat euentus, dimicet arte, non casu.
De Re Militari (also Epitoma Rei Militaris), Book III, "Dispositions for Action"
Variant: Si vis pacem para bellum. ("If you want peace, prepare for war.")
About the defeat of Jaipal. Tarikh Yamini (Kitabu-l Yamini) by Al Utbi, in Elliot and Dowson, Vol. II : Elliot and Dowson, History of India as told by its own Historians, 8 Volumes, Allahabad Reprint, 1964. p. 27 Also quoted (in part) in Jain, Meenakshi (2011). The India they saw: Foreign accounts.
Quotes from Tarikh Yamini (Kitabu-l Yamini) by Al Utbi
“God has given to man no sharper spur to victory than contempt of death.”
nullum contemptu m[ortis incitamentum] ad uincendum homini ab dis immortalibus acrius datum est.
As quoted by Livy, :la:s:Ab Urbe Condita/liber XXI 44, as translated by Aubrey De Sélincourt, in The War with Hannibal (1965).
As quoted in Lives by Plutarch, as translated by Arthur Hugh Clough
Letter (September 1944)
Source: The Art of War, Chapter X · Terrain
“A skilled commander seeks victory from the situation and does not demand it of his subordinates.”
Variant: The expert in battle seeks his victory from strategic advantage and does not demand it from his men.
Source: The Art of War, Chapter V · Forces
“In a competition of love we'll all share in the victory, no matter who comes first.”
Source: The Soul of a Butterfly (2004), p. xxiv
Context: Once we realize we are all members of humanity, we will want to compete in the spirit of love.
In a competition of love we would not be running against one another, but with one another. We would be trying to gain victory for all humanity. If I am a faster runner than you, you may feel bad seeing me pass you in the race, but if you know that we are both racing to make our world better, you will feel good knowing that we are racing toward a common goal, a mutual reward.
In a competition of love we'll all share in the victory, no matter who comes first.
Nobel lecture (1970)
Context: Violence, less and less embarrassed by the limits imposed by centuries of lawfulness, is brazenly and victoriously striding across the whole world, unconcerned that its infertility has been demonstrated and proved many times in history. What is more, it is not simply crude power that triumphs abroad, but its exultant justification. The world is being inundated by the brazen conviction that power can do anything, justice nothing.
“Fight, and you shall win. For God grants victory to perseverance.”
As quoted in Simón Bolívar (1969) by Gerhard Masur
Context: Do not compare your material forces with those of the enemy. Spirit cannot be compared with matter. You are human beings, they are beasts. You are free, they are slaves. Fight, and you shall win. For God grants victory to perseverance.
1850s, The House Divided speech (1858)
Context: Of strange, discordant, and even hostile elements, we gathered from the four winds, and formed and fought the battle through, under the constant hot fire of a disciplined, proud, and pampered enemy. Did we brave all them to falter now? — now, when that same enemy is wavering, dissevered, and belligerent? The result is not doubtful. We shall not fail — if we stand firm, we shall not fail. Wise counsels may accelerate, or mistakes delay it, but, sooner or later, the victory is sure to come.
Narrated in Bukhari by Abu Huraira, Vol. 9, Book 87, Hadith 141 http://sunnah.com/bukhari/91/31
Sunni Hadith
Postquam bis classe victus naves perdidit, Aliquando ut vincat, ludit assidue aleam.
A popular rhyme at the time of the Sicilian war, mocking Augustus' habit of playing dice; in Suetonius, Divus Augustus, paragraph 70. Translation: Robert Graves, 1957.
“If they know nothing of victory, they are at least spared the knowledge of defeat.”
Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray
“Even if you rise up a thousand times, your side will never achieve victory.
~Ulquiorra”
Source: Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting
Speech in the House of Commons, after taking office as Prime Minister (13 May 1940) This has often been misquoted in the form: "I have nothing to offer but blood, sweat and tears ..."
The Official Report, House of Commons (5th Series), 13 May 1940, vol. 360, c. 1502. Audio records of the speech do spare out the "It is" before the in the beginning of the "Victory"-Part.
The Second World War (1939–1945)
Context: You ask, what is our policy? I will say: It is to wage war, by sea, land and air, with all our might and with all the strength that God can give us: to wage war against a monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the dark, lamentable catalogue of human crime. That is our policy. You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word: It is victory, victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory, however long and hard the road may be; for without victory, there is no survival.
Context: I would say to the House, as I said to those who have joined this Government: 'I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat.' We have before us an ordeal of the most grievous kind. We have before us many, many long months of struggle and of suffering. You ask, what is our policy? I will say: It is to wage war, by sea, land and air, with all our might and with all the strength that God can give us: to wage war against a monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the dark, lamentable catalogue of human crime. That is our policy. You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word: It is victory, victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory, however long and hard the road may be; for without victory, there is no survival.
“Love is not a victory march
It's a cold and it's a broken Hallelujah”
Source: Songs of Leonard Cohen, Herewith: Music, Words and Photographs
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."
“In the cycle of nature there is no such thing as victory or defeat; there is only movement.”
Source: Manuscript Found in Accra
Source: How to Win Friends and Influence People
“These sudden joys have sudden endings. They burn up in victory like fire and gunpowder.”
Source: Romeo and Juliet
André Malraux, TV program: Promenades imaginaires dans Florence, 1975.
Quoted in "The unmaking of Adolf Hitler" - Page 377 - by Eugene Davidson - 2004
Quoted in V. Ye. Savkin, "Basic Principles of Operational Art and Tactics," 1972.
As quoted in The Story of World Progress (1922) by Willis Mason West, p. 437
Attributed
Søren Kierkegaard The Concept of Anxiety, Nichol p. 98-100 (1844)
About
Vol. I, p. 29
Lady Holland's Memoir (1855), Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
Quotations from Gurudev’s teachings, Chinmya Mission Chicago
Interview with Nathan Gardels http://www.digitalnpq.org/archive/2009_fall_2010_winter/04_kolakowski.html (1991)
“There is a division of duties between the army and its generals. Eagerness for battle becomes the soldiers, but generals serve the cause by forethought, by counsel, by delay oftener than by temerity. As I promoted your victory to the utmost of my power by my sword and by my personal exertions, so now I must help you by prudence and by counsel, the qualities which belong peculiarly to a general.”
Divisa inter exercitum ducesque munia: militibus cupidinem pugnandi convenire, duces providendo, consultando, cunctatione saepius quam temeritate prodesse. ut pro virili portione armis ac manu victoriam iuverit, ratione et consilio, propriis ducis artibus, profuturum.
Book III, 20; Church-Brodribb translation
Histories (100-110)
“Ours is a just cause; victory will be ours!”
In Russian: Наше дело правое — победа будет за нами!
Speech at celebration meeting (6 November 1941). However, Stalin was quoting Vyacheslav Molotov's speech to the Soviet people of June 22, 1941. A facsimile of the draft of this speech is reprinted in the Russian journal _Istoricheskii Arkhiv_ No. 2, 1995, pp. 35-37. This quotation, in Molotov's handwriting, is on p. 37 of that issue. http://marx2mao.com/Stalin/GPW46.html#s2
Stalin's speeches, writings and authorised interviews
As quoted in "On the Fortune of Alexander" by Plutarch, 332 a-b
Section 1, paragraph 53, lines 11-13.
The Manifesto of the Communist Party (1848)