In war: resolution. In defeat: defiance. In victory: magnanimity. In peace: goodwill.

-Churchill, Lord Randolph Henry Spencer
c.1918  The Second World War (1948), vol.1, epigraph.  According to Sir Edward Marsh, in  A Number of People (1939), the phrase occurred to Churchill shortly after the end of  World War I. Some sources attribute it to Marsh himself.

   In defeat unbeatable: in victory unbearable.

-Churchill, Lord Randolph Henry Spencer
Of Montgomery. Quoted in Sir Edward Howard Marsh  Ambrosia and Small Beer (1964), ch.5.

Si l'on vit assez longtemps, on voit que toute victoire se change un jour en de¤  faite. If you live long enough, you'll find that every victory turns into a defeat.

-de Beauvoir, Simone
  Tous les hommes sont mortels (All Men  Are Mortal).

   We are suffering a national defeat comparable to any lost military campaign, and what is more, it is self- inflicted† It is about time that we pulled our fingers out† The rest of the world most certainly does not owe us a living.

-Edinburgh, Prince Philip, Duke of
  Speech to British industrialists, London,17 Oct.

And I'm afraid, reading this passage now, That everything I knew has been destroyed By those whom I admired but never knew; The laughing soldiers fought to their defeat And I'm afraid most of my friends are dead.

-Fenton,James
  'In a Notebook'.

It is always a temptation to a rich and lazy nation, To puff and look important and to say: 'Though we know we should defeat you, we have not the time to meet you, We will therefore pay you cash to go away.' And that is called paying the Dane-geld; But we've proved it again and again, That if once you have paid him the Dane-geld You never get rid of the Dane.

-Kipling, (Joseph) Rudyard
  'Dane-Geld'.

Nos deux passions favorites, la gloire de la de¤  fense et le plaisir de la de¤  faite. The gloryof theresistanceand the pleasure of the defeat are our two favourite passions.

-Laclos, Pierre-Ambroise Choderlos de
  Les Liaisons dangereuses, letter10.

   Good scientists often possess old-fashioned virtues of the kind school teachers have always professed to despair of ever inculcating in us. These are: a sanguine temperament that expects to solve a problem; power of applicationand thekind of fortitudethat keepsscientists erect inthe face of muchthat might otherwise cast them down; and above all, persistence, a refusal bordering upon obstinacy to give in and admit defeat.

-Medawar, Sir Peter Brian
  The Limits of Science.

Champagne! In victory, one deserves it; in defeat, one needs it.

-Pol-Roger, Christian
  'Champagne, a Magnum Opus', in the NewYorkTimes, 31 Dec.

Thislittlesteamer, likeall herbraveand battered sisters,is immortal. She'll go sailing proudly down the years in the epic of Dunkirk. And our great-great-grand-children, when they learn how we began this war by snatching glory out of defeat, and then swept on to victory, may also learn how the little holiday steamers made an excursion to hell and came back glorious.

-Priestley,J(ohn) B(oynton)
  Radio broadcast, 5 Jun, quoted in The Listener,13 Jun.

This is the country of defeat.

-Purdy, Al
  The Cariboo Horses,'The Country North of Belleville' (revised1972).

Perhaps it is God's will to lead the people of South Africa through defeat and humiliation to a better future and a brighter day.

-Smuts,Jan Christian
  Speech at theVereeniging peace talks, 31 May.

Human nature is the same everywhere; it deifies success, it has nothing but scorn for defeat.

-Twain, Mark pseudonym of  Samuel Langhorne Clemens
  Joan of Arc, bk.1, ch.8.

Please understand that there is no one depressed in this house.Wearenot interestedinthepossibilities ofdefeat; they do not exist.

-Victoria in full  Alexandrina Victoria
  On the 2nd BoerWar. Comment to the Prime Minister, Arthur Balfour, Dec. Quoted in Lady Gwendolen Cecil Life of Robert, Marquis of Salisbury (1931), vol.3, ch.6.