Quotes about defeat
page 3

“We're told that men are strong & brave, but I think women know how to endure, accept defeat & bear physical & mental agony much better than men.”

Lisa See book Shanghai Girls

Source: Shanghai Girls

Women, Men, Thinking, Strong

“Over the last few hours I've allowed myself to feel defeated, and just like she said if you allow yourself to feel the way you really feel, maybe you won't be afraid of that feeling anymore.”

Tori Amos (1963) American singer

Source: Death: The High Cost of Living Collected

Way, Feeling

“Loving is a journey with water and with stars,
with smothered air and abrupt storms of flour:
loving is a clash of lightning-bolts
and two bodies defeated by a single drop of honey.”

Pablo Neruda (1904–1973) Chilean poet

Love, Star, Water

“That's ridiculous. The only point in having enemies is so you can defeat them, kill them, brush them aside."

"Or give them a chance to redeem themselves.”

Derek Landy (1974) Irish children's writer

Source: Death Bringer

Chance

“Defeat is not the worst of failures. Not to have tried is the true failure.”

George E. Woodberry (1855–1930) American poet and literary critic

Failure, Success, Peaceful

“Death is not such a bad thing. What would be a bad thing would be living without challenges. Without knowing defeat, we cannot know what victory is. There is no life without death.”

Patricia Briggs book River Marked

Source: River Marked

Life, Death, Victory

“I can give you my loneliness, my darkness, the hunger of my heart, I am trying to bribe you with uncertainty, with danger, with defeat.”

Jorge Luis Borges (1899–1986) Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator, and a key figure in Spanish language literature

Hunger, Heart, Loneliness

“to be once defeated is to find cause for an everlasting struggle to reach the top.”

Marcus Garvey (1887–1940) Jamaica-born British political activist, Pan-Africanist, orator, and entrepreneur

Source: Selected Writings and Speeches of Marcus Garvey

“The study of beauty is a duel in which the artist cries out in terror before being defeated.”

Charles Baudelaire book Le Spleen de Paris

L'étude du beau est un duel où l'artiste crie de frayeur avant d'être vaincu. <br class="br">III: "Le Confiteor de l'artiste" http://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/Petits_Po%C3%A8mes_en_prose_-_III._Le_Confiteor_de_l%27artiste <br class="br">Le Spleen de Paris (1862) <br class="br">Source: Twenty Prose Poems

Beauty, Study

“An ugliness unfurled in the moonlight and soft shadow and suffused the whole world. If I were an amoeba, he thought, with an infinitesimal body, I could defeat ugliness. A man isn’t tiny or giant enough to defeat anything.”

Yukio Mishima book The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea

Source: The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea

World

“The person I am now, compared with the person in the dream, has been baffled and defeated and only supposes he enjoys a full life. In the dreams, I see what a full life really consists of, and it is not what I really have.”

Philip K. Dick (1928–1982) American author

Life, Dreams, Personality

“The sign of a great man is how you handle defeat. - Old Jack”

Jeffrey Archer book Best Kept Secret

Source: Best Kept Secret

“I never seek to defeat the man I am fighting, " he explained. "I seek to defeat his confidence. A mind troubled by doubt cannot focus on the course to victory. Two men are equals - true equals - only when they both have equal confidence.”

Arthur Golden book Memoirs of a Geisha

Source: Memoirs of a Geisha

Men, Confidence, Victory, Fight

“some of us have so much defeat in our past that we feel we lost the race before we knew it started.”

Beth Moore (1957) American evangelist

Source: Believing in God - Member Book

Feeling, Past

“Listen to me: I never married because I was too easily bored. It's an awful, self-defeating trait to have. It's much better to be too easily interested.”

Rachel Cohn (1968) American writer

Source: Dash & Lily's Book of Dares

“When one is trying to do something beyond his known powers it is useless to seek the approval of friends. Friends are at their best in moments of defeat.”

Henry Miller (1891–1980) American novelist

“The will of God, to which the law gives expression, is that men should defeat their enemies by loving them.”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer book The Cost of Discipleship

Source: Discipleship (1937), The Enemy, the "Extraordinary", p. 147.
Source: The Cost of Discipleship

Love, Men, God, Law

“I went to a bookstore and asked the saleswoman, 'Where’s the self-help section?' She said if she told me, it would defeat the purpose.”

Steven Wright (1955) American actor and author

Help

“In any case you mustn't confuse a single failure with a final defeat.”

F. Scott Fitzgerald book Tender Is the Night

Variant: Never confuse a single defeat with a final defeat.
Source: Tender Is the Night

Failure

“Dear Depression, please keep your distance. Don’t be nasty. Find some other person with more reason than me to look in the mirror and say: “What a pointless existence.” Whether you like it or not, I know how to defeat you. You’re wasting your time.”

Paulo Coelho book Adultery

Source: Adultery

Time, Personality

“Life can't ever really defeat a writer who is in love with writing, for life itself is a writer's lover until death – fascinating, cruel, lavish, warm, cold, treacherous, constant.”

Edna Ferber (1885–1968) Novelist, playwright

Love, Life, Death, Lovers

“I've got to get out of here. I choose a piece of shawl and my dirtiest suntans. I'll be back, I'll re-emerge, defeated, from the valley; you don't want me to go where you go, so I go where you don't want me to.”

Frank O'Hara book Meditations in an Emergency (book)

Source: Meditations in an Emergency

“Love conquers all. Let Love then smile at our defeat.”
Omnia vincit Amor; et nos cedamus Amori.

Virgil book Eclogues

The Eclogues
Eclogues (37 BC)
Variant: Love conquers all; let us, too, yield to Love!

Love, Smile

“Everything we shut our eyes to, everything we run away from, everything we deny, denigrate, or despise, serves to defeat us in the end.”

Henry Miller (1891–1980) American novelist

“Waitress: "And to drink?"
Artemis: "Spring water. Irish, if you have it. And no ice, please. As your ice is no doubt made from tap water, which rather defeats the purpose of spring water.”

Eoin Colfer (1965) Irish author of children's books

Source: The Eternity Code

Spring, Drink, Water

“For a Hero cannot triumph all the time. Sometimes he will be defeated, and how he faces that defeat is a test of his character.”

Cressida Cowell book How to Steal a Dragon's Sword

Source: How to Steal a Dragon's Sword

Time

“There was a saying that a man's true character was revealed in defeat. I thought it was also revealed in victory.”

Alison Goodman (1966) Australian science-fiction writer

Source: Eon: Dragoneye Reborn

Victory

“She was the living, breathing proof that the hard things in life didn't have to defeat you - or even define you.”

Susan Wiggs (1958) American writer

Source: Summer by the Sea

Life

“It could be worse,' Passini said respectfully. "There is nothing worse than war."
Defeat is worse."
I do not believe it," Passini said still respectfully. "What is defeat? You go home.”

Ernest Hemingway book A Farewell to Arms

Source: A Farewell to Arms

War, Home

“only the defeated know LOVE.
because it is in the realm of love that we
fight our first battles - and generally lose……..”

Paulo Coelho book Manuscript Found in Accra

Source: Manuscript Found in Accra

Love, Fight

“Power, wrongly used, defeats the oppressor as well as the oppressed.”

Wally Lamb book I Know This Much Is True

Source: I Know This Much Is True

“When you face adversity, you need to remind yourself that whatever is trying to defeat you could very well be what God will use to promote you.”

Joel Osteen (1963) American televangelist and author

Source: Your Best Life Now: 7 Steps to Living at Your Full Potential

God

“While one may encounter many defeats, one must not be defeated.”

Maya Angelou (1928–2014) American author and poet

“Empathy, he once had decided, must be limited to herbivores or anyhow omnivores who could depart from a meat diet. Because, ultimately, the empathic gift blurred the boundaries between hunter and victim, between the successful and the defeated.”

Philip K. Dick book Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

Source: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

Success

“You do not interrupt a man when he is explaining his master plan after having been soundly defeated. Don't you watch any James Bond Movies?”

Katie MacAlister (1964) Author

Source: Crouching Vampire, Hidden Fang

“Right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.”

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement

Evil

“Doughboy," I said. "What is this scroll?"
"A spell lost in time!" he pronounced. "Ancient words of tremendous power!"
"Well?" I demanded. "Does it tell how to defeat Set?"
"Better! The title reads: The Book of Summoning Fruit Bats!”

Rick Riordan book The Red Pyramid

Source: The Red Pyramid

Books, Time, Reading

“Most so called FAILURES are only temporary defeats”

Napoleon Hill (1883–1970) American author

Source: Law of Success: The 21st-Century Edition

Failure

“Hope is the last thing a person does before they are defeated.”

Henry Rollins (1961) American singer-songwriter

Hope, Personality, Hope

“Fear defeats more people than any other one thing in the world.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet

People, World, Fear

“we can not prepare for defeat and expect to live a life in Victory.”

Joel Osteen (1963) American televangelist and author

Life, Victory

“Grief was like a newborn, and the first three months were hard as hell, but by six months you'd recognized defeat, shifted your life around, and made room for it.”

Ann Brashares book Sisterhood Everlasting

Source: Sisterhood Everlasting

Life, Hell

“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

World, Victory

“Life is essentially a cheat and its conditions are those of defeat; the redeeming things are not happiness and pleasure but the deeper satisfactions that come out of struggle.”

F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940) American novelist and screenwriter

Life, Happiness, Pleasure, Cheating

“Skepticism has become a virtue. Cynicism and demand for proof has become enlightened thought. Is it any wonder that humans now feel more depressed and defeated than they have at any point in human history?”

Dan Brown book Angels & Demons

Source: Angels & Demons

Feeling, History

“I never thought of losing, but now that it's happened, the only thing is to do it right. That's my obligation to all the people who believe in me. We all have to take defeats in life.”

Muhammad Ali (1942–2016) African American boxer, philanthropist and activist

Statement before his fight with George Foreman (31 March 1973)

Life, People

“I will remember this, thought Ender, when I am defeated. To keep dignity, and give honor where it's due, so that defeat is not disgrace. And I hope I don't have to do it often.”

Orson Scott Card book Ender's Game

Source: Ender's Game

Hope

“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)

Death, World, Victory, Country

“There is suffering in life, and there are defeats. No one can avoid them. But it's better to lose some of the battles in the struggles for your dreams than to be defeated without ever knowing what you're fighting for.”

Paulo Coelho (1947) Brazilian lyricist and novelist

As quoted in Honor Your Gifts (2007) by Dona M. Deane, p. 199.
Variant: But there is suffering in life, and there are defeats. No one can avoid them. But it's better to lose some of the battles in the struggles for your dreams than to be defeated without ever knowing what you're fighting for

Life, Dreams, Suffering, Fight

“History isn't the lies of the victors, as I once glibly assured Old Joe Hunt; I know that now. It's more the memories of the survivors, most of whom are neither victorious or defeated.”

Julian Barnes book The Sense of an Ending

Source: The Sense of an Ending

History, Memory, Victory

“To do that would mean, not merely to be defeated, but to acknowledge defeat- and the difference between these two things is what keeps the world going.”

Upton Sinclair book The Jungle

Source: The Jungle

World

“How do I defeat Apophis?”
“I’m so glad you asked!” Thoth beamed at me with his multicolored eyes. “Unfortunately, I can’t tell you.”
I glanced at Walt. “Do you want to kill him, or should I?”

Rick Riordan book The Serpent's Shadow

Source: The Serpent's Shadow

“In a society governed passively by free markets and free elections, organized greed always defeats disorganized democracy.”

Matt Taibbi (1970) author and journalist

Source: Griftopia: Bubble Machines, Vampire Squids, and the Long Con That Is Breaking America

Democracy

“The whole terrible fight occured in the area of imagination. That is the precise location of our battlefield. It is there, that we experience our victories and defeats.”

Haruki Murakami (1949) Japanese author, novelist

Source: After the Quake

Imagination, Victory, Fight

“Again and again I will suffer; again and again I will get back on my feet. I will not be defeated. I won't let my spirit be destroyed.”

Banana Yoshimoto book Kitchen

Source: Kitchen

Suffering

“I have become convinced that God thoroughly enjoys fixing and saving things that are broken. That means that no matter how hurt and defeated you feel, no matter how badly you have been damaged, God can repair you. God can give anyone a second chance.”

Melody Carlson (1956) American writer

Source: Damaged: A Violated Trust

God, Feeling, Chance, Hurt

“The phenomenon of war is its hermaphroditism: the principles of victory and of defeat inhabit the same body and the necessary opponent, enemy, is merely the bed they self-exhaust each other on.”

William Faulkner book A Fable

Source: A Fable

War, Victory

“We must never shed tears
That is the life form’s defeat and if we give into the emotions then it only becomes proof of our inability to control it.”

Tite Kubo (1977) Japanese manga artist

Life, Tear

“Remember Jesus of Nazareth, staggering on broken feet out of the tomb toward the Resurrection, bearing on his body the proud insignia of the defeat which is victory, the magnificent defeat of the human soul at the hands of God.”

Frederick Buechner (1926) Poet, novelist, short story writer, theologian

Source: The Magnificent Defeat

God, Soul, Victory

“He who jokes in the executioners face can be destroyed, but never defeated.”

Tom Robbins book Wild Ducks Flying Backward

Source: Wild Ducks Flying Backward

“How marvelous books are, crossing worlds and centuries, defeating ignorance and, finally, cruel time itself.”

Gore Vidal book Julian

Source: 1960s, Julian (1964), Chapter 1, Libanius to Priscus, Antioch March 380

Books, World, Time

“Good music always defeats bad luck.”

Jack Vance (1916–2013) American mystery and speculative fiction writer

Bad luck, Music

“Then stop trying to throw logic at nightmares. Sometimes the monsters are real, Anita. Sometimes they're real and the only way to defeat them is to be the bigger monster. ~Bibiana to Anita”

Laurell K. Hamilton book Bullet

Variant: Sometimes the monsters are real, Anita. Sometimes they’re real and the only way to defeat them is to be the bigger monster.'
- Chang Bibi to Anita
Source: Bullet

Way

“If a victory is told in detail, one can no longer distinguish it from a defeat.”

Jean Paul Sartre book The Devil and the Good Lord

Act 1
The Devil and the Good Lord (1951)

Victory, Powerful

“You cannot defeat your enemies until you know who they are.”

Anthony Horowitz book Crocodile Tears

Source: Crocodile Tears

“Prefer to be defeated in the presence of the wise than to excel among fools.”

Dogen (1200–1253) Japanese Zen buddhist teacher

Fools

“The early morning belongs to the Church of the risen Christ. At the break of light it remembers the morning on which death and sin lay prostrate in defeat and new life and salvation were given to mankind”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906–1945) German Lutheran pastor, theologian, dissident anti-Nazi

Source: Life Together: The Classic Exploration of Christian Community

Life, Death, Light, Christ

“Defeat ends when we launch into another battle. Failure has no end: it is a lifetime choice.”

Paulo Coelho book Manuscript Found in Accra

Source: Manuscript Found in Accra (2012), The Defeated Ones

Failure

“Done time in the lock-up, done time on the streets. Done time on the upswing, and time in defeat. I know what I'm askin'. I know it's a lot. Just to say that I love you. Believe it or not.”

Jerry Garcia (1942–1995) American musician and member of the Grateful Dead

Love, Time

“Defeat is most devastating at the moment of victory" Saint Dane”

D.J. MacHale book The Never War

Source: The Never War

Victory

“But there are victories far worse than defeats; and to overcome an angel too gentle to put out all his strength, and ride away in triumph on the back of a devil, is one of the poorest.”

George MacDonald (1824–1905) Scottish journalist, novelist

Source: The Lost Princess: A Double Story

Angels, Victory

“Defeating one ant had taken all my energy. (I don’t think I have ever written a sadder sentence than that.)”

Rick Riordan book The Hidden Oracle

Source: The Hidden Oracle

Thinking

“How do you defeat terrorism? Don’t be terrorized.”

Salman Rushdie (1947) British Indian novelist and essayist

Source: Step Across This Line: Collected Nonfiction 1992-2002

“He had an idea that even when beaten he could steal a little victory by laughing at defeat.”

John Steinbeck book East of Eden

Source: East of Eden

Idea, Victory

“Arguments cannot be answered by personal abuse; there is no logic in slander, and falsehood, in the long run, defeats itself.”

Robert G. Ingersoll (1833–1899) Union United States Army officer

Source: Some Mistakes of Moses

Personality

“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

Victory

“People aren't overcome by situations or outside forces. Defeat comes from within.”

Banana Yoshimoto book Kitchen

Source: Kitchen (1988)

People

“Nothing can hurt you except sin; nothing can grieve me except sin; nothing can defeat you except sin. Therefore, be on your guard, my Mansoul.”

John Bunyan book The Holy War

Source: The Holy War

Hurt

“life is truly known only to those who suffer, lose, endure adversity, & stumble from defeat to defeat.”

Anaïs Nin (1903–1977) writer of novels, short stories, and erotica

Life, Suffering

“Further, an excess of legislation defeats its own ends. It makes the whole population criminals, and turns them all into police and police spies. The moral health of such a people is ruined for ever; only revolution can save it.”

Aleister Crowley (1875–1947) poet, mountaineer, occultist

Source: Cocaine: Impressions & Opinions

People, Health

“As I grow older, much older, I will experience many things, and I will hit rock bottom again and again. Again and again I will suffer; again and again I will get back on my feet. I will not be defeated. I won't let my spirit be destroyed.”

Banana Yoshimoto book Kitchen

Source: Kitchen (1988)

Suffering

“I could have fixed almost everything else, but death defeated me every time.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Burns

Death, Time

“You might as well ask an artist to explain his art, or ask a poet to explain his poem. It defeats the purpose. The meaning is only clear thorough the search.”

Rick Riordan (1964) American writer

Art, Search

“Victory has a hundred fathers and defeat is an orphan.”

John F. Kennedy (1917–1963) 35th president of the United States of America

Victory

“But as I guided her to my belt and then laid her down on the bed, I knew which way our path would go. Webe together forever. We had to be. There was no way that all these feelings between us could ever dim or be defeated.”

Richelle Mead book The Fiery Heart

Source: The Fiery Heart

Way, Feeling

“Every defeat, every heartbreak, every loss, contains its own seed, its own lesson on how to improve your performance the next time.”

Og Mandino (1923–1996) American author

Loss, Time, Heartbreaking, Powerful

“When defeat comes, accept it as a signal that your plans are not sound, rebuild those plans, and set sail once more toward your coveted goal.”

Napoleon Hill (1883–1970) American author

Source: Think and Grow Rich: The Landmark Bestseller - Now Revised and Updated for the 21st Century

“She was struggling, as she always had struggled, not to show what she could do but to hide what she couldn't do. A life made up of advances that were actually frantic retreats and victories that were concealed defeats.”

Bernhard Schlink book The Reader

Source: The Reader

Life, Victory

“Victories and defeats form part of everyone's life - everyone, that is, except cowards, as you call them, because they never lose or win.”

Paulo Coelho book The Devil and Miss Prym

Source: The Devil and Miss Prym

Life, Victory, Parting

“Ask me again, once we defeat Gaea.”

Rick Riordan book The House of Hades

Source: The House of Hades

“I look coolly in to the blue eyes of the person who is now my greatest opponent, the person who would keep me alive at his own expense. And I promise myself I will defeat his plan.”

Suzanne Collins book Catching Fire

Source: Catching Fire

Personality

“I must say a word about fear. It is life's only true opponent. Only fear can defeat life.”

Yann Martel book Life of Pi

Source: Life of Pi (2001), Chapter 56, p. 178

Life, Fear

“It is only the darkness in our own hearts that will defeat us, in the end.”

Alison Croggon book The Crow

Source: The Crow

Heart

“You cannot expect victory and plan for defeat.”

Joel Osteen (1963) American televangelist and author

Victory

“Vulnerability is not knowing victory or defeat, it’s understanding the necessity of both; it’s engaging. It’s being all in.”

Brené Brown (1965) US writer and professor

Source: Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead

Understanding, Victory

“[Nonviolence] is directed against forces of evil rather than against persons who happen to be doing the evil. It is evil that the nonviolent resister seeks to defeat, not the persons victimized by evil.”

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement

Source: Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story

Evil, Personality

“It was like this sometimes, and I felt I should look away, but I couldn't. I wanted to be there, having my face touched, defeating a heart like Peter's, but the next best thing was seeing it for Tiger Lily.”

Jodi Lynn Anderson American children's writer

Source: Tiger Lily

Heart

“In War: Resolution. In Defeat: Defiance. In Victory: Magnanimity. In Peace: Good Will.”

Winston S. Churchill book The Second World War

Post-war years (1945–1955) <br class="br">Source: The Second World War, Volume I : The Gathering Storm (1948) Moral of the Work, p. ix http://books.google.de/books?id=HzlT3t05OHoC&pg=PR9#v=onepage&q&f=false

War, Peace, Victory

“Free men cannot start a war, but once it is started, they can fight on in defeat. Herd men, followers of a leader, cannot do that, and so it is always the herd men who win battles and the free men who win wars.”

John Steinbeck book The Moon Is Down

Source: The Moon Is Down

Men, War, Fight

“Creativity is the defeat of habit by originality.”

Arthur Koestler (1905–1983) Hungarian-British author and journalist

Quotes about defeat page 3

Quotes about defeat
page 3