There is no mistake; there has been no mistake; and there shall be no mistake.
Duke Of WellingtonRead
Next to a lost battle, nothing is so sad as a battle that has been won.
Interpretation
The sorrow of victory can be greater than the sorrow of defeat, highlighting the cost of conflict.
This quote by the Duke of Wellington reflects on the profound sadness that can accompany a victory in battle, suggesting that the repercussions of winning can be deeply troubling. It implies that a battle fought can lead to loss, destruction, and enduring grief, casting a shadow over the triumph itself and leading one to ponder the true value of victory amidst such sorrow.
In practice
During a speech about the horrors of war, one might use this quote to illustrate the hidden costs of victory.
There is no mistake; there has been no mistake; and there shall be no mistake.
All the business of war, and indeed all the business of life, is to endeavour to find out what you don't know by what you do; that's what I called 'guess what was at the other side of the hill'.
The whole art of war consists in getting at what is on the other side of the hill.
Nothing except a battle lost can be half so melancholy as a battle won.
Next to a battle lost, the greatest misery is a battle gained.
Be discreet in all things, and so render it unnecessary to be mysterious about any.
I like imagination -- and the way I think things could be, had been, or should be -- better than reality.
The Federal Constitution forms a happy combination in this respect; the great and aggregate interests being referred to the national, the local and particular, to the state legislatures.
To regret one’s own experiences is to arrest one’s own development. To deny one’s own experiences is to put a lie into the lips of one’s own life. It is no less than a denial of the soul.
The slurbs, urban sprawl, and the infinite number, of housing developments of the postwar boom have contributed to the architecture of entropy.
The season when to come, and when to go, to sing, or cease to sing, we never know.
If a juror feels that the statute involved in any criminal offence is unfair, or that it infringes upon the defendant's natural god-given unalienable or constitutional rights, then it is his duty to affirm that the offending statute is really no law at all and that the violation of it is no crime at all, for no one is bound to obey an unjust law.
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