“With humanity's long proud history of standing firm against natural enemies, sometimes in the face of almost certain defeat and extinction, we would be cowardly and stupid to leave the field on the eve of our greatest potential victory.”

— John Steinbeck

Nobel Prize acceptance speech (1962)

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

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John Steinbeck 366

American writer 1902–1968

Robert L. Heilbroner (1919–2005) American historian and economist

Source: The Future As History (1960), Chapter II, Part 1, The Impact of the Bomb, p. 64

“Stand together in face of the brutal, cowardly enemies of your race!”

Charles Stewart Parnell (1846–1891) Irish politician

"No Rent" Manifesto (1881)

“The enemy shall be defeated. Victory will be ours.”

Vyacheslav Molotov (1890–1986) Soviet politician and diplomat

Radio broadcast in response to the German invasion (22 June 1941) http://historicalresources.org/2008/08/26/molotov-reaction-to-german-invasion-of-1941/
Context: This is not the first time that our people have had to deal with an attack of an arrogant foe. At the time of Napoleon’s invasion of Russia our people’s reply was war for the fatherland, and Napoleon suffered defeat and met his doom.
It will be the same with Hitler, who in his arrogance has proclaimed a new crusade against our country. The Red Army and our whole people will again wage victorious war for the fatherland, for our country, for honor, for liberty.
The government of the Soviet Union expresses the firm conviction that the whole population of our country, all workers, peasants and intellectuals, men and women, will conscientiously perform their duties and do their work. Our entire people must now stand solid and united as never before.
Each one of us must demand of himself and of others discipline, organization and self-denial worthy of real Soviet patriots, in order to provide for all the needs of the Red Army, Navy and Air Force, to insure victory over the enemy.
The government calls upon you, citizens of the Soviet Union, to rally still more closely around our glorious Bolshevist party, around our Soviet Government, around our great leader and comrade, Stalin. Ours is a righteous cause. The enemy shall be defeated. Victory will be ours.

“Sunzi said: The good fighters of old first put themselves beyond the possibility of defeat, and then waited for an opportunity of defeating the enemy. To secure ourselves against defeat lies in our own hands, but the opportunity of defeating the enemy is provided by the enemy himself. Thus the good fighter is able to secure himself against defeat, but cannot make certain of defeating the enemy.”

Sun Tzu (-543–-495 BC) ancient Chinese military general, strategist and philosopher from the Zhou Dynasty

Translation by Lionel Giles
Source: The Art of War, Chapter IV · Disposition of the Army

“The history of Australia, black or white, is not only the struggle between peoples but the struggle between nature and people. Nature tamed many of the settlers, sometimes defeating them, but people held many victories, sometimes at high cost.”

Geoffrey Blainey (1930) Australian historian

A Shorter History of Australia (1994)

“I am certain that after the dust of centuries has passed over our cities, we, too, will be remembered not for victories or defeats in battle or in politics, but for our contribution to the human spirit.”

John F. Kennedy (1917–1963) 35th president of the United States of America

"Remarks at a Closed-circuit Television Broadcast on Behalf of the National Cultural Center (527)" (29 November 1962) http://www.jfklibrary.org/Research/Research-Aids/Ready-Reference/JFK-Quotations.aspx
1962

“Right now we are facing a man-made disaster of global scale, our greatest threat in thousands of years: climate change. If we don’t take action, the collapse of our civilisations and the extinction of much of the natural world is on the horizon.”

David Attenborough (1926) British broadcaster and naturalist

Speech at the Katowice Climate Change Conference, "David Attenborough: collapse of civilisation is on the horizon" https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/dec/03/david-attenborough-collapse-civilisation-on-horizon-un-climate-summit, The Guardian, 3 December 2018.
Climate Change Conference 2018

“There is not a beast of the field but may trust his nature and follow it; certain that it will lead him to the best of which he is capable. But as for us, our only invincible enemy is our nature.”

William Arthur (minister) (1819–1901) Wesleyan Methodist minister and author

Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 190.

“All we know is that, sometimes, in our battles with the Russians, we had to remove the mounds of enemy corpses from before our trenches, in order to get a clear field of fire against fresh assaulting waves.”

Paul von Hindenburg (1847–1934) Prussian-German field marshal, statesman, and president of Germany

The Great War: A Combat History of the First World War (2013) by Peter Hart, p. 242
Undated

“Life is to be lived, not controlled; and humanity is won by continuing to play in face of certain defeat.”

Ralph Ellison book Invisible Man

Source: Invisible Man

“With humanity's long proud history of standing firm against natural enemies, sometimes in the face of almost certain defeat and extinction, we would be cowardly and stupid to leave the field on the eve of our greatest potential victory.”

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John Steinbeck 366

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