Speech in the House of Commons, November 11, 1942 Debate on the address http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1942/nov/11/debate-on-the-address#column_39.
The Second World War (1939–1945)
“Every victory is only the price of admission to a more difficult problem”
“There are some defeats more triumphant than victories.”
Book I, Ch. 30. Of Cannibals
Essais (1595), Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
“A well-fought defeat is worth more than a casual victory.”
Una derrota peleada vale más que una victoria casual.
100 Masones Su Palabra (2010)
“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
“I had no taste for defeat — much less victory — without a fight.”
Source: Sun and Steel (1968), p. 49.
Source: Of Human Bondage (1915), Ch. 122
“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
“To be defeated and not submit, is victory; to be victorious and rest on one's laurels, is defeat.”
(Late 1920s or the 1930s) Zbigniew Brzezinski in his introduction to Wacław Jędrzejewicz’s Piłsudski: A Life For Poland. Quoted from this website http://members.lycos.co.uk/jozefpilsudski/index2.html
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.
