DEFEAT

Related States & Conditions | Syntonic | Dystonic

The real disgrace of poverty is not in owning to the fact but in declining to struggle against it.
Thucydides
c. 460-c. 399 BCE, Greek Historian

There are defeats more triumphant than victories.
Montaigne
Essais , 1580

Our strength grows out of our weakness. Not until we are pricked and stung and sorely shot at, awakens the indignation which arms itself with secret forces. A great man is always willing to be little. Whilst he sits on the cushion of advantages he goes to sleep. When he is pushed, tormented, defeated, he has a chance to learn something; he has been put on his wits; on his manhood; he has gained facts; learned his ignorance; been cured of the insanity of conceit; he has got moderation and real skill.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
1803-1882, American Poet, Essayist, Philosopher

The greatest test of courage on earth is to bear defeat without losing heart.
Robert Ingersoll
1833-1899, American Lawyer, Militarist, Writer

Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.
Thomas Edison
1847-1931, American Inventor, Industrialist

It is better to be defeated on principle than to win on lies.
Arthur Calwell
1894-1973, Australian Politician

Believe you are defeated, believe it long enough, and it is likely to become a fact.
Norman Vincent Peale
1898-1993, American Cleric, Writer

Never give up and sit and grieve. Find another way.
Satchel Paige
1900-1982, African-American Baseball Player

It's not whether you get knocked down. It's whether you get up.
Vince Lombardi
1913-1970, American Football Coach

Defeat doesn't finish a man – quit does. A man is not finished when he's defeated. He's finished when he quits.
Richard Nixon
1913-1994, 37th US President

If you stand up and be counted, from time to time you may get yourself knocked down. But remember this: A man flattened by an opponent can get up again. A man flattened by conformity stays down for good.
Thomas J. Watson
1914-1993, American Executive, Diplomat

The encountering (of defeats) may be the very experience which creates the vitality and the power to endure.
Maya Angelou
1928-, African-American Writer, Poet, Dramatist

It's easy to do anything in victory. It's in defeat that a man reveals himself.
Floyd Patterson
1935-, African-American Boxer
in The Boxing Book of Quotations , Henry Mullan, ed., 1988

Defeat is not bitter unless you swallow it.
Joe Clark
1939-, African-American Educator

You may not be responsible for getting knocked down, but you're certainly responsible for getting back up.
Jesse Jackson
1941-, African-American Cleric, Civil Rights Activist

Only a man who knows what it is like to be defeated can reach down to the bottom of his soul and come up with the extra ounce of power it takes to win when the match is even.
Muhammad Ali
1942-, African-American Boxer

It is inevitable that some defeat will enter even the most victorious life. The human spirit is never finished when it is defeated … it is finished when it surrenders.
Ben Stein
1944-, American Lawyer, Writer, Economist, TV Host

Being defeated is only a temporary condition; giving up is what makes it permanent.
Marilyn vos Savant
1946-, American Writer, Consultant

You won't win until you learn how to lose … Along with everything else, you have to acquire the ability to accept defeat. No one makes it without stumbling.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
1947-, African-American Basketball Player, Actor, Writer
Kareem , 1990

And there are defeats. No one can avoid them. But it's better to lose some of the battles in the struggle for your dreams than to be defeated without ever even knowing what you're fighting for.
Paulo Coelho
c. 1947-, Brazilian Writer
By the River Piedra I Sat down and Wept , Alan R. Clarke, tr., 1996

You may feel like dwelling on your limits or your fears. Don't do it. A perfect prescription for a squandered, unfulfilled life is to accommodate self-defeating feelings while undercutting your finest, most productive ones.
Marsha Sinetar
American Writer

No one is ever beaten unless he gives up the fight.
- W. Beren Wolfe

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Wisdom for The Soul: Five Millennia of Prescriptions for Spiritual Healing, © 2004