
Source: The Art of War, Chapter X · Terrain
The Second World War, Volume I : The Gathering Storm (1948) Chapter 19 (Prague, Albania, and the Polish Guarantee).
Post-war years (1945–1955)
Source: The Art of War, Chapter X · Terrain
“When you fight – fight to win.”
Thatcher, Margaret (2002). Statecraft: Strategies for a Changing World. New York: HarperCollins. ISBN 0-06-095912-6.
“When you fight for a desperate cause and have good reasons to fight, you usually win.”
As quoted by Robert C. Martin in Software Development magazine (September 2005), p. 60
“You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it.”
This quote is widely attributed to Margaret Thatcher on various websites, and also appears in a number of books, including The Concise Columbia Dictionary of Quotations, Columbia University Press (1989), ed. Robert Andrews, p. 320 : ISBN 0231069901. 9780231069908 , but without any further source information such as date, location or any other context.
One valid Thatcher quote which may be the basis for the version above appears in the Second Carlton Lecture http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/105799 (‘Why Democracy Will Last’), delivered at the Carlton Club, London (November 26, 1984) : Mr. Chairman, each generation has to stand up for democracy. It can’t take anything for granted and may have to fight fundamental battles anew. You know that marvellous quotation from Goethe : ‘That which thy fathers bequeathed thee / Earn it anew if thou would possess it.’
Thatcher also expressed this thought in a Speech to Atlantic Bridge (May 14, 2003) http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/111266, delivered at the St. Regis Hotel, New York City : My friends, every generation has to fight anew the battle for liberty.
Disputed
“Run when you have to, fight when you must, rest when you can.”
Elyas Machera
Variant: Take life as it comes. Run when you have to, fight when you must, rest when you can.
Source: The Eye of the World (15 January 1990)
Source: The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves, and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History