There is no mistake; there has been no mistake; and there shall be no mistake.
Duke Of WellingtonRead
Nothing except a battle lost can be half so melancholy as a battle won.
Interpretation
Winning a battle brings its own sadness and reflection despite the apparent victory.
The quote by the Duke of Wellington suggests that even in victory, there can be deep sorrow and contemplation. While a lost battle is undoubtedly tragic, the pain associated with winning can stem from the realization of loss, sacrifice, and the heavy burdens that come with success. It highlights the complexity of human emotion in the face of achievements, where victory does not always equate to happiness.
In practice
In a discussion about the burdens of leadership during a team victory celebration.
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.
Next to a battle lost, the greatest misery is a battle gained.
Next to a lost battle, nothing is so sad as a battle that has been won.
Be discreet in all things, and so render it unnecessary to be mysterious about any.
Prayer is not a preparation for the battle; it is the battle!
What could be more futile, more insane, than to create inner resistance to something that already is?
I have made a great discovery. I no longer believe in anything. Objects don't exist for me except in so far as a rapport exists between them and myself. When one attains this harmony, one reaches a sort of intellectual non-existence, what I can only describe as a sense of peace, which makes everything possible and right. Life then becomes a perpetual revelation. That is true poetry.
Mostly I am sorry for the way I thought of other people. Like a good general, I had treated everyone who wasn't with me as against me.
To depend upon a profession is a less odious form of slavery than to depend upon a father.
...What you are is a force--a force that makes it possible for your body to live, a force that makes it possible for your whole mind to dream...You are life
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