It is a socialist idea that making profits is a vice; I consider the real vice is making losses.
Winston ChurchillRead
He sees with amazement that our defeats are but the stepping stones to victory and that all his victories are stepping stones to ruin. It was apparent to me that this bad man saw quite clearly the shadow of slowly and remorselessly approaching doom, and he railed at fortune for mocking him with the glitter of fleeting success.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Defeats can lead to future victories, while victories can sometimes lead to downfall.
In this quote, Churchill reflects on the dual nature of success and failure, suggesting that setbacks often pave the way for ultimate triumph, whereas triumphs may contain the seeds of future failure. This perspective emphasizes the transient nature of success and the importance of resilience in the face of defeat, illustrating how one's approach to both can shape their destiny.
Themes
DefeatVictorySuccessFailurePhilosophy
In practice
Example use cases
During a motivational speech about overcoming obstacles in life.
More from Winston Churchill
All quotes →The United States is like a gigantic boiler. Once the fire is lit under it, there's no limit to the power it can generate.
Winston ChurchillRead
Politics is almost as exciting as war, and quite as dangerous. In war you can only be killed once, but in politics many times.
Winston ChurchillRead
I will not pretend that if I had to choose between communism and Nazism I would choose communism.
Winston ChurchillRead
Mountaintops inspire leaders but valleys mature them.
Winston ChurchillRead
True genius resides in the capacity for evaluation of uncertain, hazardous, and conflicting information.
Winston ChurchillRead
Similar quotes
Withdraw allegiance from the old categories of the Negative (law, limit, castration, lack, lacuna), which the Western thought has so long held sacred as a form of power and an access to reality. Prefer what is positive and multiple, difference over uniformity, flows over unities, mobile arrangements over systems. Believe that what is productive is not sedentary but nomadic.
Michel FoucaultRead
The self of which you speak, whether it is the great self or the small self, is only a concept that does not correspond to any reality.
Gautama BuddhaRead
If there is no other world and there is no fruit and ripening of actions well done or ill done, then here and now in this life I shall be free from hostility, affliction, and anxiety, and I shall live happily.
Gautama BuddhaRead
If it weren't for the message of mercy and pity in Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, I wouldn't want to be a human being. I would just as soon be a rattlesnake.
Kurt VonnegutRead
We should commit ourselves to 'eucharistic coherence,' that is, we should be conscious that people cannot receive holy communion and at the same time act or speak against the commandments, in particular when abortions, euthanasia, and other serious crimes against life and family are facilitated. This responsibility applies particularly to legislators, governors, and health professionals.
Pope FrancisRead
There are three ways of dealing with difference: domination, compromise, and integration. By domination only one side gets what it wants; by compromise neither side gets what it wants; by integration we find a way by which both sides may get what they wish.
Mary Parker FollettRead