„Any man who sees Europe now must realize that victory in a great war is not something you win once and for all, like victory in a ball game. Victory in a great war is something that must be won and kept won.“
Report on the Potsdam Conference (1945)
Kontext: Any man who sees Europe now must realize that victory in a great war is not something you win once and for all, like victory in a ball game. Victory in a great war is something that must be won and kept won. It can be lost after you have won it — if you are careless or negligent or indifferent.
Europe today is hungry. I am not talking about Germans. I am talking about the people of the countries which were overrun and devastated by the Germans, and particularly about the people of Western Europe. Many of them lack clothes and fuel and tools and shelter and raw materials. They lack the means to restore their cities and their factories.
As the winter comes on, the distress will increase. Unless we do what we can to help, we may lose next winter what we won at such terrible cost last spring. Desperate men are liable to destroy the structure of their society to find in the wreckage some substitute for hope. If we let Europe go cold and hungry, we may lose some of the foundations of order on which the hope for worldwide peace must rest.
We must help to the limits of our strength. And we will.
Harry S. Truman
33. Präsident der Vereinigten Staaten 1884 - 1972Ähnliche Zitate
„We must take advantage of the victory in the anti-Japanese War to win our war against the Communist bandits, once for all.“
— Bai Chongxi Chinese general 1893 - 1966
As quoted in Image, perception, and the making of U.S.-China relations (1998) http://books.google.com/books?id=gnmxDpX7ZlsC&pg=PA268&dq=Can+we+now+call+these+disguised+warlords+and+new+feudalists+genuine+revolutionaries&hl=en&ei=SjmmTPKiI4Wdlgen2bwY&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CCoQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=We%20must%20take%20advantage%20of%20the%20victory%20in%20the%20anti-Japanese%20War%20to%20win%20our%20war%20against%20the%20Communist%20bandits%2C%20once%20for%20all&f=false by Hongshan Li and Zhaohui Hong, p. 268 ISBN 0761811583
„Wars may be fought with weapons, but they are won by men. It is the spirit of the men who follow and of the man who leads that gains the victory.“
— George S. Patton United States Army general 1885 - 1945
Cavalry Journal (September 1933)
„Asking who won a given war, someone has said, is like asking who won the San Francisco earthquake. That in war there is no victory but only varying degrees of defeat is a proposition that has gained increasing acceptance in the twentieth century.“
— Kenneth N. Waltz, buch Man, the State, and War
Quelle: Man, the State, and War (1959), Chapter I, Introduction, p. 1
„We have differed and quarrelled in the past but now one bond unites us all—to wage war until victory is won, and never to surrender ourselves to servitude and shame, whatever the cost and the agony must be.“
— Winston S. Churchill, buch The Second World War
Broadcast (19 May 1940), quoted in Martin Gilbert, Finest Hour: Winston S. Churchill, 1939–1941 (London: Heinemann, 1983), p. 364
The Second World War (1939–1945)
„It is true we have won all our wars, but we have paid for them. We don't want victories anymore.“
— Golda Meir former prime minister of Israel 1898 - 1978
As quoted in LIFE magazine (3 October 1969), p. 32
„Victory is won not in miles but in inches. Win a little now, hold your ground, and later, win a little more.“
— Louis L'Amour Novelist, short story writer 1908 - 1988
„In the first six to twelve months of a war with the United States and Great Britain I will run wild and win victory upon victory. But then, if the war continues after that, I have no expectation of success.“
— Isoroku Yamamoto Japanese Marshal Admiral 1884 - 1943
Statement to Japanese cabinet minister Shigeharu Matsumoto and Japanese prime minister Fumimaro Konoe, as quoted in Eagle Against the Sun: The American War With Japan (1985) by Ronald Spector. This remark would later prove prophetic; precisely six months after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Japanese navy would suffer a major defeat at the Battle of Midway, from which it never recovered.
„Today the guns are silent. A great tragedy has ended. A great victory has been won.“
— Douglas MacArthur U.S. Army general of the army, field marshal of the Army of the Philippines 1880 - 1964
1940s, Victory broadcast (1945)
Kontext: Today the guns are silent. A great tragedy has ended. A great victory has been won. The skies no longer rain with death — the seas bear only commerce — men everywhere walk upright in the sunlight. The entire world lies quietly at peace. The holy mission has been completed. And in reporting this to you, the people, I speak for the thousands of silent lips, forever stilled among the jungles and the beaches and in the deep waters of the Pacific which marked the way.
„The Twins are gonna win the World Series! The Twins have won it! It's a base hit! It's a 1–0, ten inning victory!“
— Jack Buck American sportscaster 1924 - 2002
Calling Gene Larkin's game-winning hit in Game 7 of the 1991 World Series.
1990s
„Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity.“
— Horace Mann American politician 1796 - 1859
Address at Antioch College (1859)
„Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win.“
— Sun Tzu ancient Chinese military general, strategist and philosopher from the Zhou Dynasty -543 - -495 v.Chr
Original: (zh_Hant) 是故勝兵先勝而後求戰，敗兵先戰而後求勝。
Variante: Thus it is that in war the victorious strategist only seeks battle after the victory has been won, whereas he who is destined to defeat first fights and afterwards looks for victory.
Quelle: The Art of War, Chapter IV · Disposition of the Army
„In reading the lives of great men, I found that the first victory they won was over themselves… self-discipline with all of them came first.“
— Harry Truman American politician, 33rd president of the United States (in office from 1945 to 1953) 1884 - 1972
„Well, who decides who as won or lost? It's not like Avondale any more. That was easy. We charged. They ran. We captured their cannon. Now, that was a victory. Now, we just charge each other, kill each other, and argue about who won.“
— David Gemmell, buch Stormrider
Quelle: Rigante series, Stormrider, Ch. 3
„Victories will be won, one of these days, without cannon, and without bayonets.“
— Napoleon I of France French general, First Consul and later Emperor of the French 1769 - 1821
Napoleon : In His Own Words (1916)
Kontext: War is becoming an anachronism; if we have battled in every part of the continent it was because two opposing social orders were facing each other, the one which dates from 1789, and the old regime. They could not exist together; the younger devoured the other. I know very well, that, in the final reckoning, it was war that overthrew me, me the representative of the French Revolution, and the instrument of its principles. But no matter! The battle was lost for civilization, and civilization will inevitably take its revenge. There are two systems, the past and the future. The present is only a painful transition. Which must triumph? The future, will it not? Yes indeed, the future! That is, intelligence, industry, and peace. The past was brute force, privilege, and ignorance. Each of our victories was a triumph for the ideas of the Revolution. Victories will be won, one of these days, without cannon, and without bayonets.
„Once we have a war there is only one thing to do. It must be won. For defeat brings worse things than any that can ever happen in war.“
— Ernest Hemingway American author and journalist 1899 - 1961
Introduction to Men at War (1942)
„In a war, to win a victory or suffer a defeat are common things. The essential is that we must win final victory. We must help all officers and men and the people to bear that firmly in mind so that they will not be self-complacent when winning and disappointed when losing, but instead will always make utmost efforts to overcome difficulties and hardships and advance towards final victory.“
— Ho Chi Minh Vietnamese communist leader and first president of Vietnam 1890 - 1969
Instructions Given at the Conference (Fall 1950)
1950's
„This is the sweetest victory of all. This is a victory for the true believers; the people who, in difficult times, have kept the faith.“
— Paul Keating Australian politician, 24th Prime Minister of Australia 1944
1993 election victory speech.
„We improve ourselves by victory over our self. There must be contests, and you must win.“
— Edward Gibbon English historian and Member of Parliament 1737 - 1794