Conquering Defeat Quotes

Remember, you see in any situation what you expect to see. ~ David J. Schwartz

When you stand and overcome a significant setback, you'll find an increasing inner confidence and self-assurance that has been created by conquering defeat. Absorbing and overcoming this kind of punishment engenders a sober, steely toughness that results in a hardened sense of independence and a personal belief that you can take on anything, survive and win. ~ Bill Walsh

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

The greatest thing the Democrats have ever done for me was to defeat me for the governor of Tennessee. ~ Roy Acuff

When the heavens are with you, when the earth is with you, when the sea is with you, when the wind is with you. Who's going to defeat you after that? Nobody. ~ Anjem Choudary

A failure becomes just one time at bat if you refuse to let it defeat you. ~ Marv Levy

There was, I thought, something calling to me from out in the dark.
It came from out in the tempest, even from the lights of the fishing boats a mile out at sea. You can be called to a last effort, a final heroic statement, because I doubt you call yourself to leave comforts and certainties for an open road. But the call is inside your own head. It's a sad summons from the depths of your own wasted past. You could call it the imperative to go out with full-tilt trumpets and gunshots instead of the quietly desperate sound of the hospital ventilator. Victory instead of defeat. ~ Lawrence Osborne

In a clock the complex action of countless different wheels works its way out in the even, leisurely movement of hands measuring time; in a similar way the complex action of humanity in those 160,000 Russians and Frenchmen – all their passions, longings, regrets, humiliation and suffering, their rushes of pride, fear and enthusiasm – only worked its way out in defeat at the battle of Austerlitz, known as the battle of the three Emperors, the slow tick-tock of the age-old hands on the clock face of human history. ~ Leo Tolstoy

Situations can change; people can change. Be the first to seek to bring good. Do not grow accustomed to evil, but defeat it with good. ~ Pope Francis

If you cannot defeat him and take his power, then you must kill him.
Apollo made it all sound so simple, like he was asking me to go to the store and pick up Crunchy Cheetos and if they didn't have them in stock, to get Cheetos Puffs. Insane. ~ Jennifer L. Armentrout

There are not enough Indians in the world to defeat the Seventh Cavalry. ~ George Armstrong Custer

Now you must cast aside your laziness,"
my master said, "for he who rests on down
or under covers cannot come to fame;
and he who spends his life without renown
leaves such a vestige of himself on earth
as smoke bequeaths to air or foam to water.
Therefore, get up; defeat your breathlessness
with spirit that can win all battles if
the body's heaviness does not deter it.
A longer ladder still is to be climbed;
it's not enough to have left them behind;
if you have understood, now profit from it. ~ Dante Alighieri

Hovering in the enemy's neighbourhood, cutting off stragglers and foraging parties, preventing them from gaining any permanent base, Fabius remained an elusive shadow on the horizon, dimming the glamour of Hannibal's triumphal progress. Thus Fabius, by his immunity from defeat, thwarted the effect of Hannibal's previous victories upon the minds of Rome's Italian allies and checked them from changing sides. This guerrilla type of campaign also revived the spirit of the Roman troops while depressing the Carthaginians who, having ventured so far from home, were the more conscious of the necessity of gaining an early decision. ~ B.H. Liddell Hart

That such clumsily Soviet efforts are easily laughed off does not defeat their purpose, for their aim is not to persuade but to cast enough doubt to make the truth a matter of opinion. In a world of liars, might not the West be lying, too? ~ Anonymous

The best way to compete is to get defeat. ~ Santosh Kalwar

People don't like to talk about victory and defeat anymore. ~ John Bolton

Suffer barbaric childhood to give and receive remorselessly; civilized age learns to protect what it has, to neither give nor accept freely, to trust it's own mistrust above faith, and intriguing others above the innocent. Intrigue, after all, is rational, something the mind can sink it's teeth into, and defeat it with the good digestion of reason, a hopeless prospect for the toothless heart, and God only knows what innocence will do next. ~ William Gaddis

One of the common traits of outstanding performers-coaches, athletes, managers, sales representatives, executives, and others who face a daily up/down, win/lose accounting system-is that a rejection, that is, defeat, is quickly forgotten, replaced eagerly by pursuit of a new order, client, or opponent. ~ Bill Walsh

Anyone who had died young after a happy childhood had won a great victory, since he would be forever spared the discovery of what sort of place the world really is. Others must look forward to death by defeat - their bodies gone, their world destroyed. ~ Carlos Baker

As a writer you slant all evidence in favor of the conclusions you want to produce and you rarely tilt in favor of the truth. ...This is what a writer does: his life is a maelstrom of lying. Embellishment is his focal point. This is what we do to please others. This is what we do in order to flee ourselves. A writer's physical life is basically one of stasis, and to combat this constraint, an opposite world and another self have to be constructed daily. ...the half world of a writer's life encourages pain and drama, and defeat is good for art: if it was day we made it night, if it was love we made it hate, serenity becomes chaos, kindness became viciousness, God became the devil, a daugher became a whore. I had been inordinately rewarded for participating in this process, and lying often leaked from my writing life--an enclosed sphere of consciousness, a place suspended outside of time, where the untruths flowed onto the whiteness of a blank screen--into the part of me that was tactile and alive. ~ Bret Easton Ellis

There are no boundaries in this struggle to the death. We cannot be indifferent to what happens anywhere in the world, for 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

Never stop just because you feel defeated. The journey to the other side is attainable only after great suffering. ~ Santosh Kalwar

Give me the supreme courage of love, this is my prayer - the courage to speak, to do,
to suffer at thy will, to leave all things or be left alone.
Strengthen me on errands of danger, honour me with pain, and help me climb to that difficult mood which sacrifices daily to thee.
Give me the supreme confidence of love, this is my prayer - the confidence that belongs to life in death, to victory in defeat, to the power hidden in frailest beauty, to that dignity in pain which accepts hurt but disdains to return it. ~ Rabindranath Tagore

Let the record show that you can be a United States senator for 21 years. You can be 79 years old. You can be the chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, and one of the most recognizable and widely-respected veteran public servants in your nation. But if you are female while all of those things, men who you defeat in arguments will still respond to you by calling you hysterical and telling you to calm down. They'll patronize you and say they admire your passion, 'sweetie,' but they deal in facts, not your silly, girly feelings. It's inescapable. You can set your watch by it. ~ Dianne Feinstein

Accepting that the odds are against you is the same as accepting defeat before you begin. ~ Jay Samit

Oh, no," Hope said. "I'm not. No, I don't believe in all that, but it's - well, it's two things. One is my job, you know? In China? So I'm all for that side of it, the war and so on; we really have to, you know, defeat those people. And the other is, uh, my husband. He's from the Highlands and he's half native, as he puts it, and I don't know if you know what the people up there are like, but I swear if he even thought I was going to vote any other way he'd walk out on me. ~ Ken MacLeod

A victory which is not honourable is nothing but a defeat! ~ Mehmet Murat Ildan

All that we are is the result of what we have thought. The mind is everything. What we think, we become. ~ Maharishi Mahesh Yogi

If you bring darkness, I bring stars. If you bring clouds, I bring rain. If you bring a shroud, I burn it. To defeat an opponent with his own power...is elementary. ~ Yun Kouga

He was looking at her with that intense blazing gaze – the one that made her feel she was the only woman in the world. Oh God, don't let him get to her. She'd tried to raise her defences against him, but he was so very attractive – almost irresistible. It would be easy to admit defeat… ~ Emily Arden

Life is like a boxing match. Defeat is declared not when you fall but when you refuse to stand again. ~ Kristen Ashley

Yes, this is life; and everywhere we meet,
Not victor crowns, but wailings of defeat. ~ Elizabeth Oakes Smith

Nothing is more certain than the defeat of a man who gives up. ~ George A. Sheehan

In order not to be astonished at obtaining victories, one ought not to think only of defeats. ~ Napoleon Bonaparte

Didn't know anyone could see it," Samuel said. "You know, Lee, I think of my life as a kind of music, not always good music but still having form and melody. And my life has not been a full orchestra for a long time now. A single note only - and that note unchanging sorrow. I'm not alone in my attitude, Lee. It seems to me that too many of us conceive of a life as ending in defeat. ~ John Steinbeck

*Gone are the days of Benton's childhood, when his sticky fingers dung through caramel-glazed popcorn and peanuts for treasure, such as a plastic whistle or BB game or, best of all, the magic decoding ring that little Benton wore on his index finger, pretending it empowered him to know wgat people thought, what they would do and which monster he would defeat on his next secret mission.
*The toy surprises inside are games printed on folded white paper, cheap as hell, and require the IF of a pigeon. ~ Patricia Cornwell

I've had some dark nights of the soul, of course, but giving in to depression would be a sellout, a defeat. ~ Christopher Hitchens

What can we put into the hands of people under oppressive regimes to help them? For me, a big part of it is information, knowledge - the ability to defeat propaganda by understanding it. ~ Jimmy Wales

Find in Jesus the power to defeat every foe. ~ Katy Kauffman

Defeat serves to enlighten us. ~ Johann Kaspar Lavater

So I help you defeat your brother," he cut in churlishly.
"And then what are your plans?"
Annwyl frowned. "My plans?"
"Yes. Your plans. You take your brother's head, your troops are waiting. What is the next thing that you do?"
Annwyl just stared at him. He realized in that instant that the girl had no plans. None. No grand schemes of controlling the world. No plots to destroy any other empires.
Not even the plan to have a celebratory dinner.
"Annwyl, you'll be queen. You'll have to do something."
"But I don't want to be queen." Her body shook with panic, and he could hear it in her voice.
"You take his head, you'll have little choice."
"What the hell am I supposed to do as queen?"
"Well . . . you could try ruling."
"That sounds awfully complicated."
"I don't understand you."
"What do you mean?"
"You command the largest rebellion known to this land.
From what I understand, your troops are blindingly loyal to you. And other kingdoms send you reinforcements and gold."
"Your point?"
"You're already queen, Annwyl. You just need to take the crown."
She shook her head. "My father didn't believe in crowns. There's a throne, though."
"Then take your throne. Take it and become queen. ~ G.A. Aiken

They passed a succession of granite monuments to the conquering magicians of the late Victorian age and the fallen heroes of the Great War, then a few monolithic sculptures representing Ideal Virtues (Patriotism, Respect for Authority, the Dutiful Wife). ~ Jonathan Stroud

The Government finally decided
To wage the war all-out. Defeat
is Un-American.
And they took to the air,
Their women beside them
in bouffant hairdos
putting nail-polish on the
gunship cannon-buttons.
And they never came down
for they found,
the ground
is Pro-Communist. And dirty.
And the insects side with the Viet Cong. ~ Gary Snyder

It is not defeat that destroys you,it is being demoralized by defeat that destroy you. ~ Imran Khan

To her, all familiar responses smell of entrapment. Sharing an old joke, singing an old song - these are admissions of defeat, of being satisfied with one's lot. In the sky, the Fates are watching, and when they hear such things, they murmur amongst themselves: Ah yes, that one is quite content as she is; changing her lot would only confuse her. ~ Michel Faber