The permanent temptation of life is to confuse dreams with reality. The permanent defeat of life comes when dreams are surrendered to reality.
James A. Michener

The problems of victory are more agreeable than those of defeat, but they are no less difficult.
Winston Churchill

The pursuit of peace and progress cannot end in a few years in either victory or defeat. The pursuit of peace and progress, with its trials and its errors, its successes and its setbacks, can never be relaxed and never abandoned.
Dag Hammarskjold

The real peril of war lies not in military defeat. It lies in war itself, whether we win or lose.
John T. Flynn

The reason is that a military defeat of Britain will bring about the disintegration of the British Empire. This would not be of any benefit to Germany.
Franz Halder

The social object of skilled investment should be to defeat the dark forces of time and ignorance which envelope our future.
John Maynard Keynes

The struggle is always worthwhile, if the end be worthwhile and the means honorable; foreknowledge of defeat is not sufficient reason to withdraw from the contest.
Steven Brust

The taste of defeat has a richness of experience all its own.
Bill Bradley

The terrorist uses surprise and stealth, and the only way to defeat that is by having accurate and timely intelligence.
Bill Nelson

There are many victories worse than a defeat.
George Eliot

There are no contests in the Art of Peace. A true warrior is invincible because he or she contests with nothing. Defeat means to defeat the mind of contention that we harbor within.
Morihei Ueshiba

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

There could be no honor in a sure success, but much might be wrested from a sure defeat.
Ann Landers

There is a hangover from a defeat like Denmark - ask any player about when they've had a bad game, it's still in there somewhere in the back of your mind.
Rio Ferdinand

There is no better than adversity. Every defeat, every heartbreak, every loss, contains its own seed, its own lesson on how to improve your performance the next time.
Malcolm X

There is no failure except in no longer trying. There is no defeat except from within, no really insurmountable barrier save our own inherent weakness of purpose.
Kin Hubbard

There is no meeting of minds, no point of understanding with such terror. Just a choice: Defeat it or be defeated by it. And defeat it we must.
Tony Blair

There is no such thing as defeat in non-violence.
Cesar Chavez

There was never a night or a problem that could defeat sunrise or hope.
Bern Williams

There's a victory, and defeat; the first and best of victories, the lowest and worst of defeats which each man gains or sustains at the hands not of another, but of himself.
Plato