Quotes about victory
page 13

William Faulkner photo
Abimael Guzmán photo
Maximilien Robespierre photo

“Citizens, did you want a revolution without a revolution? What is this spirit of persecution that has come to revise, so to speak, the one that broke our chains? But what sure judgement can one make of the effects that can follow these great commotions? Who can mark, after the event, the exact point at which the waves of popular insurrection should break? At that price, what people could ever have shaken off the yoke of despotism? For while it is true that a great nation cannot rise in a simultaneous movement, and that tyranny can only be hit by the portion of citizens that is closest to it, how would these ever dare to attack it if, after the victory, delegates from remote parts could hold them responsible for the duration or violence of the political torment that had saved the homeland? They ought to be regarded as justified by tacit proxy for the whole of society. The French, friends of liberty, meeting in Paris last August, acted in that role, in the name of all the departments. They should either be approved or repudiated entirely. To make them criminally responsible for a few apparent or real disorders, inseparable from so great a shock, would be to punish them for their devotion.”

Maximilien Robespierre (1758–1794) French revolutionary lawyer and politician

Citoyens, vouliez-vous une révolution sans révolution?
"Answer to Louvet's Accusation" (5 November 1792) Réponse à J.- B. Louvet http://www.royet.org/nea1789-1794/archives/discours/robespierre_reponse_louvet.htm, a speech to the National Convention (5 November 1792)

Swami Sivananda photo
Muhammad photo
Vivek Agnihotri photo
Alvin C. York photo
Adolf Hitler photo
Mao Zedong photo

“We, the communists, do not want official positions; we want revolution. We must have a thoroughly revolutionary spirit and must be with the masses every hour, every minute. As long as we are with the masses, we shall always be victorious.”

Mao Zedong (1893–1976) Chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China

Directives Regarding the Cultural Revolution (1966-1972)

Mao Zedong photo
Mao Zedong photo
Manmohan Singh photo
Michael Parenti photo
Arrian photo
Harold Wilson photo
Martin Luther King, Jr. photo
Jair Bolsonaro photo

“We also visited one of our great partners in the Southern Cone: Argentina. With President Mauricio Macri and our partners from Uruguay and Paraguay, we pushed ideology away from Mercosur. We also have been able to achieve important victories in terms of international trade, by successfully finalizing negotiations that had been going on for decades without a conclusion.”

Jair Bolsonaro (1955) Brazilian president elect

Speech at the at the 74th UN General Assembly. Statement by Mr. Jair Messias Bolsonaro, President of the Federative Republic of Brazil http://statements.unmeetings.org/GA74/BR_EN.pdf. United Nations PaperSmart (24 September 2019).

Sheila Jackson Lee photo
Smedley D. Butler photo
James Eastland photo
Pope Eugene III photo
C. L. R. James photo
Hendrik Verwoerd photo
Hannah Arendt photo

“In a head-on clash between violence and power, the outcome is hardly in doubt. Nowhere is the self-defeating factor in the victory of violence over power more evident than in the use of terror to maintain domination, about whose weird successes and eventual failures we know perhaps more than any generation before us. Violence can destroy power; it is utterly incapable of creating it.”

On the subject violence and power. Source: On Violence, published in 1970. As quoted by Scroll Staff (December 04, 2017): Ideas in literature: Ten things Hannah Arendt said that are eerily relevant in today’s political times https://web.archive.org/web/20191001213756/https://scroll.in/article/856549/ten-things-hannah-arendt-said-that-are-eerily-relevant-in-todays-political-times. In: Scroll.in. Archived from the original https://scroll.in/article/856549/ten-things-hannah-arendt-said-that-are-eerily-relevant-in-todays-political-times on October 1, 2019.

Friedrich Engels photo
V. V. Giri photo
V. V. Giri photo
Bobby Robson photo

“Bobby Robson is one of those people who never die, not so much for what he did in his career, for one victory more or less, but for what he knew to give to those who had, like me, the good fortune to know him and walk by his side.”

Bobby Robson (1933–2009) English association football player and manager

Jose Mourinho, 2009. http://www.theguardian.com/football/2009/jul/31/sir-bobby-robson-tributes

Tulsidas photo
Jagadish Chandra Bose photo
Alan Dzagoev photo
Chinua Achebe photo

“Let us give them a portion of the Evil Forest. They boast about victory over death. Let us give them a real battlefield in which to show their victory.”

[...] They offered them as much of the Evil Forest as they cared to take. And to their great amazement the missionaries thanked them and burst into song.
Source: Things Fall Apart (1958), Chapter 17 (p. 139)

Imad Mughniyah photo

“The martyrdom of our mujahid, devoted and selfless brother haj Imad Mugniya was a great victory and prosperous end for him…The crime-ridden and bloodthirsty Zionists must know that the holy blood of martyrs like Imad Mughniya create thousands of other Mughniyas.”

Imad Mughniyah (1962–2008) Lebanese militant, head of security for Hezbollah

Ali Khamenei, Iranian Leaders To Nasrallah: Mughniya "Example For Young Generation To Follow," Assassination "Will Boost Resistance", MEMRI, February 14, 2008 http://www.thememriblog.org/iran/blog_personal/en/5436.htm,

Dmitri Shostakovich photo
Guy Debord photo

“We are going through a crucial historical crisis in which each year poses more acutely the global problem of rationally mastering the new productive forces and creating a new civilization. Yet the international working-class movement, on which depends the prerequisite overthrow of the economic infrastructure of exploitation, has registered only a few partial local successes. Capitalism has invented new forms of struggle (state intervention in the economy, expansion of the consumer sector, fascist governments) while camouflaging class oppositions through various reformist tactics and exploiting the degenerations of working-class leaderships. In this way it has succeeded in maintaining the old social relations in the great majority of the highly industrialized countries, thereby depriving a socialist society of its indispensable material base. In contrast, the underdeveloped or colonized countries, which over the last decade have engaged in the most direct and massive battles against imperialism, have begun to win some very significant victories. These victories are aggravating the contradictions of the capitalist economy and (particularly in the case of the Chinese revolution) could be a contributing factor toward a renewal of the whole revolutionary movement. Such a renewal cannot limit itself to reforms within the capitalist or anticapitalist countries, but must develop conflicts posing the question of power everywhere.”

Guy Debord (1931–1994) French Marxist theorist, writer, filmmaker and founding member of the Situationist International (SI)

About the Situationist International movement
Report on the Construction of Situations (1957)

Steven Gerrard photo
Józef Piłsudski photo

“Józef Piłsudski will remain in the memory of our nation as the founder of independence and as the victorious leader who fended off a foreign assault that threatened the whole of Europe and its civilization. Józef Piłsudski served his country well, and has entered our history forever.”

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

Declaration of the Sejm (Lower House) of the Polish Parliament, May 12, 1995, the 60th anniversary of Piłsudski's death. Józef Piłsudski http://members.lycos.co.uk/jozefpilsudski/index2.html
About him

Thomas Carlyle photo
John Steinbeck photo
Rudyard Kipling photo
Franklin D. Roosevelt photo

“This is preeminently the time to speak the truth, the whole truth, frankly and boldly. Nor need we shrink from honestly facing conditions in our country today. This great Nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper. So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself — nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance. In every dark hour of our national life a leadership of frankness and vigor has met with that understanding and support of the people themselves which is essential to victory.”

Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945) 32nd President of the United States

Part of this is often misquoted as "We have nothing to fear but fear itself," most notably by Martin Luther King, Jr. in his I've Been To The Mountaintop https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkivebeentothemountaintop.htm speech. Similar expressions were used in ancient times, for example by Seneca the Younger (Ep. Mor. 3.24.12 http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/sen/seneca.ep3.shtml): scies nihil esse in istis terribile nisi ipsum timorem ("You will understand that there is nothing dreadful in this except fear itself"), and by Michel de Montaigne: "The thing I fear most is fear", in Essays (1580), Book I, Ch. 17.
1930s, First Inaugural Address (1933)

Tzvetan Todorov photo
Alex Jones photo

“Resistance is victory!”

Alex Jones (1974) American radio host, author, conspiracy theorist and filmmaker

"I recognize you for what you are you filthy trash" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDRlo5IWuiI, 7 July 2011.
2011

Kim Il-sung photo
Kim Il-sung photo
Naomi Klein photo

“Instead of rescuing the dirty industries of the last century, we should be boosting the clean ones that will lead us into safety in the coming century (Green New Deal). If there is one thing history teaches us, it's that moments of shock are profoundly volatile. We either lose a whole lot of ground, get fleeced by elites, and pay the price for decades, or we win progressive victories that seemed impossible just a few weeks earlier. This is no time to lose our nerve.”

Naomi Klein (1970) Canadian author and activist

Quoted in 'We Know This Script': Naomi Klein Warns of 'Coronavirus Capitalism' in New Video Detailing Battle Before Us https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/03/17/we-know-script-naomi-klein-warns-coronavirus-capitalism-new-video-detailing-battle, by Jessica Corbett, Common Dreams, (17 March 2020)

Dietrich Bonhoeffer photo
Dietrich Bonhoeffer photo
Maryam Rajavi photo

“I have come here to reiterate what you seek: The time has come for the regime’s overthrow. Victory is certain, and Iran will be free.”

Maryam Rajavi (1953) Iranian politician

Maryam Rajavi as quoted in The Washington Times https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/jul/18/the-regimes-overthrow-is-certain-iran-will-be-free/ (18 July 2018)

Ulysses S. Grant photo

“The war is over — the rebels are our countrymen again. The war is over, the Rebels are our countrymen again, and the best sign of rejoicing after the victory will be to abstain from all demonstrations in the field.”

Ulysses S. Grant (1822–1885) 18th President of the United States

Upon stopping his men from cheering after Lee's surrender at Appomattox Court House (9 April 1865)
1860s

Ulysses S. Grant photo
Nikolai Bukharin photo
Kuvempu photo
Francis Bacon photo

“I cannot call riches better than the baggage of virtue. The Roman word is better, impedimenta. For as the baggage is to an army, so is riches to virtue. It cannot be spared, nor left behind, but it hindereth the march; yea, and the care of it, sometimes loseth or disturbeth the victory.”

Francis Bacon (1561–1626) English philosopher, statesman, scientist, jurist, and author

The Essays Or Counsels, Civil And Moral, Of Francis Ld. Verulam Viscount St. Albans (1857), Riches

Francis Bacon photo

“He that seeketh victory over his nature, let him not set himself too great, nor too small tasks; for the first will make him dejected by often failings; and the second will make him a small proceeder, though by often prevailings.”

Francis Bacon (1561–1626) English philosopher, statesman, scientist, jurist, and author

The Essays Or Counsels, Civil And Moral, Of Francis Ld. Verulam Viscount St. Albans (1625), Of Nature in Men

Monier Monier-Williams photo

“When the walls of the mighty fortress of Brahminism are encircled, undermined, and finally stormed by the soldiers of the Cross, the victory of Christianity must be signal and complete.”

Monier Monier-Williams (1819–1899) Linguist and dictionary compiler

Modern India and the Indians, 1878. in Shourie, Arun (1994). Missionaries in India: Continuities, changes, dilemmas. New Delhi : Rupa & Co, 1994

Muhammad photo

“I have been given the keys of eloquent speech and given victory with awe (cast into the hearts of the enemy), and while I was sleeping last night, the keys of the treasures of the earth were brought to me till they were put in my hand.”

Muhammad (570–632) Arabian religious leader and the founder of Islam

Sunni Hadith
Source: Narrated in Bukhari by Abu Huraira, Vol. 9, Book 87, Hadith 127 http://sunnah.com/bukhari/91/17

Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay photo
Luís de Camões photo

“Love is a fire that burns unseen,
A wound that aches yet isn't felt,
An always discontent contentment,
A pain that rages without hurting,A longing for nothing but to long,
A loneliness in the midst of people,
A never feeling pleased when pleased,
A passion that gains when lost in thought.It's being enslaved of your own free will;
It's counting your defeat a victory;
It's staying loyal to your killer.But if it's so self-contradictory,
How can Love, when Love chooses,
Bring human hearts into sympathy?”

Rimas, Sonnet 81 (as translated by Richard Zenith)
Listen to the poem in Portuguese https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ToldDy8izc&feature=youtu.be&t=33s
Lyric poetry, Não pode tirar-me as esperanças, Amor é fogo que arde sem se ver
Original: (pt) <p> Amor é um fogo qu'arde sem se ver,
É ferida que dói, e não se sente,
É um contentamento descontente,
É dor que desatina sem doer.</p><p>É um não querer mais que bem querer,
É um andar solitário entre a gente,
É nunca contentar-se de contente,
É um cuidar que ganha em se perder.</p><p>É querer estar preso por vontade,
É servir a quem vence o vencedor
É ter com quem nos mata lealdade.</p><p>Mas como causar pode seu favor
Nos corações humanos amizade,
Se tão contrário a si é o mesmo Amor?</p>

Mikhail Gorbachev photo
Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury photo

“The North is fighting for no sentimental cause—for no victory of a 'higher civilization.'”

Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury (1830–1903) British politician

It is fighting for a very ancient and vulgar object of war—for that which Russia has secured in Poland—that which Austria clings to in Venetia—that which Napoleon sought in Spain. It is a struggle for empire, conducted with a recklessness of human life which may have been paralleled in practice, but has never been avowed with equal cynicism. If any shame is left in the Americans, the first revision they will make in their constitution will be to repudiate formally the now exploded doctrine laid down in the Declaration of Independence, that 'Governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed'.
Source: 'The United States as an Example', Quarterly Review, 117, 1865, pp. 252-253

Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury photo
Ted Kennedy photo

“There is a new wave of change all around us, and if we set our compass true, we will reach our destination — not merely victory for our Party, but renewal for our nation.”

Ted Kennedy (1932–2009) United States Senator

This last line references the last line of his DNC speech in 1980 where he said "the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die."
2000s, DNC Speech (2008)
And this November the torch will be passed again to a new generation of Americans, so with Barack Obama and for you and for me, our country will be committed to his cause. The work begins anew. The hope rises again. And the dream lives on.

Robert Walpole photo

“I dare be bold to affirm that, had the King of France beaten us, as we have done him, he would have been so modest as to have given us better terms than we have gained after all our glorious victories.”

Robert Walpole (1676–1745) British statesman

Source: Address https://historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1690-1715/member/walpole-robert-ii-1676-1745 to the electors of Kings Lynn for the general election of 1713 against the Treaty of Utrecht

Adolf Hitler photo

“Soldiers of the Reich! This day, you are to take part in an offensive of such importance that the whole future of the war may depend on its outcome. More than anything else, your victory will show the whole world that resistance to the power of the German Army is hopeless.”

Adolf Hitler (1889–1945) Führer and Reich Chancellor of Germany, Leader of the Nazi Party

In a message to German soldiers at the start of the Battle of Kursk, 5 July 1943, as quoted in Kursk by Rupert Matthews
1940s

Thomas Jackson photo
Thomas Jackson photo
Joe Biden photo
Richard Dawkins photo

“I hate the neologism "owned" for "scored a victory over."”

Richard Dawkins (1941) English ethologist, evolutionary biologist and author

I have no intention of owning anyone, and nobody will ever own me.
https://twitter.com/RichardDawkins/status/336048706853937152 (19 May 2013)
Twitter

James Thomson (B.V.) photo
Attila photo

“The greater your successes and victories, the more opposition your enemies will come your way, with painful and discouraging events.”

Attila (406–453) King of the Hunnic Empire

Turkish Wikipedia
https://quotestats.com/topic/attila-hun-quotes/

Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg photo

“We can assure the English cabinet—presupposing its neutrality—that even in case of a victorious war, we will seek no territorial aggrandizement in Europe at the cost of France.”

Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg (1856–1921) German chancellor during World War I

Note (29 July 1914), quoted in Konrad H. Jarauschl, ‘The Illusion of Limited War: Chancellor Bethmann Hollweg's Calculated Risk, July 1914’, Central European History, Vol. 2, No. 1 (Mar., 1969), pp. 68–69

Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg photo

“If war is forced upon us, we shall fight and, with God's help, not perish. But to conjure up a war ourselves without having our honor or vital interests imperiled, this I would consider a sin against Germany's destiny, even if human foresight would predict a total victory.”

Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg (1856–1921) German chancellor during World War I

Letter to the Kaiser (6 March 1912), quoted in Konrad H. Jarauschl, ‘The Illusion of Limited War: Chancellor Bethmann Hollweg's Calculated Risk, July 1914’, Central European History, Vol. 2, No. 1 (Mar., 1969), pp. 59–60

Epictetus photo
James A. Garfield photo

“Gentlemen, ideas outlive men; ideas outlive all earthly things. You who fought in the war for the Union fought for immortal ideas, and by their might you crowned the war with victory.”

James A. Garfield (1831–1881) American politician, 20th President of the United States (in office in 1881)

[Great applause.] But victory was worth nothing except for the truths that were under it, in it, and above it. We meet tonight as comrades to stand guard around the sacred truths for which we fought. [Loud and prolonged cheers.] And while we have life to meet and grasp the hand of a comrade, we will stand by the great truths of the war. ["Good," "good," and loud cheers.] Many convictions have sunk so deep into our hearts that we can never forget them. Think of the elevating spirit of the war itself. We gathered the boys from all our farms and shops and stores and schools and homes, from all over the Republic. They went forth unknown to fame, but returned enrolled on the roster of immortal heroes. [Great applause.] They went in the spirit of the soldiers of Henry at Agincourt, of whom he said. 'For he today that sheds his blood with me. Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile. This day shall gentle his condition.'
1880s, Speech to the 'Boys in Blue' (1880)

Muhammad photo

“O my uncle! by God if they put the sun in my right hand and the moon in my left on condition that I abandon this course, until God has made me victorious, or I perish therein, I would not abandon it.”

Muhammad (570–632) Arabian religious leader and the founder of Islam

https://hawzah.net/fa/Magazine/View/2689/3869/29058
Sunni Hadith

Thomas Jackson photo

“Yesterday we fought a great battle and gained a great victory, for which all the glory is due to God alone.”

Thomas Jackson (1824–1863) Confederate general

Although under a heavy fire for several continuous hours I received only one wound, the breaking of the longest finger of my left hand; but the doctor says the finger may be saved. It was broken about midway between the hand and knuckle, the ball passing on the side next to the forefinger. Had it struck the centre, I should have lost the finger. My horse was wounded, but not killed. Your coat got an ugly wound near the hip, but my servant, who is very handy, has so far repaired it that it doesn't show very much. My preservation was entirely due, as was the glorious victory, to our God, to whom be all the honor, praise, and glory. The battle was the hardest that I have ever been in, but not near so hot in its fire.
Letter to his wife after the First Battle of Bull Run (22 July 1861); as quoted in Memoirs of Stonewall Jackson by His Widow Mary Anna Jackson (1895) http://books.google.com/books?id=bG2vg5cH004C, Ch. XI : The First Battle of Manassas, p. 178

Mary Baker Eddy photo
Frithjof Schuon photo

“To accept a trial is to thank God for it, with the understanding that it permits us a victory, a detachment with regard to the world and with regard to the ego.”

Frithjof Schuon (1907–1998) Swiss philosopher

[2012, Echoes of Perennial Wisdom, World Wisdom, 44, 978-1-93659700-0]
Spiritual life, Trials

David Mitchell photo

“Once any tyranny becomes accepted as ordinary, its victory is assured.”

"The Ghastly Ordeal of Timothy Cavendish", p. 363
Cloud Atlas (2004), The Ghastly Ordeal of Timothy Cavendish (Part 2)

“Warriors do not win victories by beating their heads against walls, but by overtaking the walls. Warriors jump over walls; they don't demolish them.”

Source: The Wheel of Time: Shamans of Ancient Mexico, Their Thoughts About Life, Death and the Universe], (1998), Quotations from "Tales of Power" (Chapter 10)

Poemen photo

“The victory over all the afflictions that befall you, is, to keep silence.”

Poemen (340–450) Egyptian monk and desert father

Saying 37

“The average man is either victorious or defeated and, depending on that, he becomes a persecutor or a victim. These two conditions are prevalent as long as one does not "see." "Seeing" dispels the illusion of victory, or defeat, or suffering.”

Source: The Wheel of Time: Shamans of Ancient Mexico, Their Thoughts About Life, Death and the Universe], (1998), Quotations from A Separate Reality (Chapter 6)

Chetan Bhagat photo

“The best news of the day. Pfizer vaccine (a major trial was under progress) is 90% effective. Victory for science and humanity. Stock markets soaring across the world. Seems like the real deal this time.”

Chetan Bhagat (1974) Indian author, born 1974

Source: — Chetan Bhagat (@chetan_bhagat) 2021 at Twitter https://twitter.com/chetan_bhagat/status/1325779100686970882

Ivan Kozhedub photo

“The victory belonged to those who knew their planes and weapons inside out and had the initiative.”

Ivan Kozhedub (1920–1991) Soviet aviator, thrice hero of the Soviet Union

Source: "Aviation History: Interview with World War II Soviet Ace Ivan Kozhedub" in History Net https://www.historynet.com/aviation-history-interview-with-world-war-ii-soviet-ace-ivan-kozhedub.htm

Xiomara Castro photo

“We are going to build a new era. Out with the death squads. Out with corruption. Out with drug trafficking and organized crime. No more poverty and misery. To victory! The people will always be united. Together, we are going to transform this country...”

Xiomara Castro (1959) First Lady of Honduras

speaking November 28, 2021
Quoted in “A Moment of Hope”: Xiomara Castro’s Likely Win in Honduran Election Ends Years of Right-Wing Rule After Coup https://www.democracynow.org/2021/11/30/xiomara_castro_first_woman_president_honduras, Democracy Now!, November 30, 2021

Mustafa Dzhemilev photo

“If you have hurt even a single innocent person, even if you remain independent, that struggle for independence will never be considered a victory.”

Mustafa Dzhemilev (1943) Leader of the Crimean Tatar National Movement

Source: Dünya Demokrasi Hareketi şeref belgesi töreni http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7414118294379483231 (5 April 2006)

Konrad Adenauer photo

“I see the significance of the Marshall Plan in the fact that probably for the first time in history a victorious country held out its hand so that the vanquished might rise again.”

Konrad Adenauer (1876–1967) German statesman, Federal Chancellor of Germany, politician (CDU)

Oral History Interview with Konrad Adenauer https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/library/oral-histories/adenauer (10 June 1964), Harry S. Truman Library

Wei Jingsheng photo

“I consider my release to be only a small victory for human rights and democracy.”

Wei Jingsheng (1950) Chinese democracy activist and dissident

"In Exile, Free Speech at Last in The Washington Post https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1997/11/22/in-exile-free-speech-at-last/4591c34b-12c4-4a86-be28-261f6a260b8d/ (22 November 1997)

Aristotle photo
Joe Biden photo
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow photo