“An honorable defeat is better than a dishonorable victory.”
Speech http://books.google.com/books?id=Ihs8AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA407&dq=honorable+defeat (13 September 1844), Buffalo, New York, quoted in the Buffalo Commercial Advertiser (14 September 1844). Fillmore had lost the Whig nomination for governor of New York. The newspaper summary was: "He entreated them to enter the contest with zeal and enthusiasm; but as they valued the sacredness of their cause, and the stability of their principles, to resort to no unfair means: that an honorable defeat was better than a dishonorable victory."
1840s
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Millard Fillmore 6
American politician, 13th President of the United States (i… 1800–1874Related quotes

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“A well-fought defeat is worth more than a casual victory.”
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“To be defeated and not submit, is victory; to be victorious and rest on one's laurels, is defeat.”
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Attributed

Hagakure (c. 1716)
Context: People with intelligence will use it to fashion things both true and false and will try to push through whatever they want with their clever reasoning. This is injury from intelligence. Nothing you do will have effect if you do not use truth.
In affairs like law suits or even in arguments, by losing quickly one will lose in fine fashion. It is like sumo. If one thinks only of winning, a sordid victory will be worse than a defeat. For the most part, it becomes a squalid defeat.

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2000s, 2005, Address to the Nation on Iraqi Elections (December 2005)

“The problems of victory are more agreeable than those of defeat, but they are no less difficult.”
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The Second World War (1939–1945)

“Courage is more important than to be deceived by shallow victory waiting for a delayed defeat.”
Reality http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/reality-168/
From the poems written in English