“Defeat is not defeat unless accepted as a reality-in your own mind.”
Bruce Lee (1940–1973) Hong Kong-American actor, martial artist, philosopher and filmmaker
Torture and Resistance in Iran, 1971
This quote was about the regime of the Shah, who was forced to flee Iran in 1979
“Defeat is not defeat unless accepted as a reality-in your own mind.”
Bruce Lee (1940–1973) Hong Kong-American actor, martial artist, philosopher and filmmaker
Slobodan Milošević (1941–2006) Yugoslavian and Serbian politician
Kosovo Polje Speech (24 April 1987)
Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement
1950s, Loving Your Enemies (November 1957)
Context: Another way that you love your enemy is this: When the opportunity presents itself for you to defeat your enemy, that is the time which you must not do it. There will come a time, in many instances, when the person who hates you most, the person who has misused you most, the person who has gossiped about you most, the person who has spread false rumors about you most, there will come a time when you will have an opportunity to defeat that person. It might be in terms of a recommendation for a job; it might be in terms of helping that person to make some move in life. That’s the time you must not do it.
“It's been so long that I haven't seen your face I try to be strong.”
Akon (1973) singer
Right Now (Na Na Na)
Song lyrics, Freedom (2008)
William Morris book News from Nowhere
News from Nowhere (1890)
Context: Go back again, now you have seen us, and your outward eyes have learned that in spite of all the infallible maxims of your day there is yet a time of rest in store for the world, when mastery has changed into fellowship — but not before. Go back again, then, and while you live you will see all round you people engaged in making others live lives which are not their own, while they themselves care nothing for their own real lives — men who hate life though they fear death. Go back and be the happier for having seen us, for having added a little hope to your struggle. Go on living while you may, striving, with whatsoever pain and labour needs must be, to build up little by little the new day of fellowship, and rest, and happiness.
Attar of Nishapur (1145–1230) Persian Sufi poet
"Looking For Your Own Face" as translated by Coleman Barks in The Hand of Poetry: Five Mystic Poets of Persia
“Only when your intent and actions are in alignment can you create the reality you desire.”
Steve Maraboli (1975)
Source: Life, the Truth, and Being Free (2010), p. 135