“Victory over self will not lead us to glory. It is only a postponement of destruction. There is no lasting victory except for those who have faced and defeated death.”

Last update Feb. 10, 2024. History

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“If a general and his men fear death and are apprehensive over possible defeat, then they will unavoidably suffer defeat and death. But if they make up their minds, from the general down to the last footsoldier, not to think of living but only of standing in one place and facing death together, then, though they may have no other thought than meeting death, they will instead hold on to life and gain victory.”

Yoshida Shoin (1830–1859) Japanese politician

Vol. I.
Yoshida Shoin Zenshu

“I don't think victory over death… is anything so superficial as a person fulfilling their normal span of life. It can be twofold; a victory over death by the man who faces it for himself without fear, and a victory by those who, loving him, know that death is but a little thing compared with the fact that he lived and was the kind of person he was.”

Vera Brittain book Testament of Youth

Source: Testament of Youth (1933), Chapter 12 [quoting a 1924 letter]

“There are no borders in this struggle to the death. We cannot be indifferent to what happens anywhere in the world, because a victory by any country over imperialism is our victory, just as any country's defeat is a defeat for all of us.”

Ernesto Che Guevara (1928–1967) Argentine Marxist revolutionary

Afro-Asian Conference (1965)

“When victory is gained by cunning and vicious means. By deceit and manipulation, such victories will never last. History is written by the victors. But history also proves, if the glory that is built with the denial of human values is only waiting for the time of its own destruction.”

Titon Rahmawan

“Somewhere in the world there is a defeat for everyone. Some are destroyed by defeat, and some made small and mean by victory. Greatness lives in one who triumphs equally over defeat and victory.”

John Steinbeck book The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights

Source: The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights

“The defeat of Nazi Germany signified the victory of progress over reaction, humanity over barbarism and the victory of socialism over imperialist obscurantism. This victory opened the road for advancing the revolutionary struggle of the working class, a national liberation movement on an unprecedented scale and the destruction of the shameful colonial system.”

Leonid Brezhnev (1906–1982) General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union

Cited in Behind the Scenes of Third Reich Diplomacy http://leninist.biz/en/1984/BSTRD194/8-Conclusion

“Only he who gives up is defeated. Everyone else is victorious.”

Paulo Coelho book Manuscript Found in Accra

Source: Manuscript Found in Accra (2012), About Defeat

“To be defeated and not submit, is victory; to be victorious and rest on one's laurels, is defeat.”

Józef Piłsudski (1867–1935) Polish politician and Prime Minister

(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 <br class="br">Attributed

“It is regrettable to spend one's life in a battle that ends with no victory nor defeat, to consume it in another battle that ends with a defeat, and in a third that ends with his victory over his brother.”

Salman al-Ouda (1956) journalist

My Enemies, I Thank You (كتاب شكرا أيها الأعداء)

“Let us give them a portion of the Evil Forest. They boast about victory over death. Let us give them a real battlefield in which to show their victory.”

Chinua Achebe book Things Fall Apart

[...] They offered them as much of the Evil Forest as they cared to take. And to their great amazement the missionaries thanked them and burst into song.
Source: Things Fall Apart (1958), Chapter 17 (p. 139)

“Victory over self will not lead us to glory. It is only a postponement of destruction. There is no lasting victory except for those who have faced and defeated death.”

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