quotations about losing
Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades.
GEORGE C. WALLACE
attributed, The New York Times, May 26, 2003
As there is no worldly gain without some loss, so there is no worldly loss without some gain; if thou hast lost thy wealth, thou hast lost some trouble with it; if thou art degraded from thy honor, thou art likewise freed from the stroke of envy; if sickness hath blurred thy beauty, it hath delivered thee from pride. Set the allowance against the loss, and thou shalt find no loss great; he loses little or nothing, that reserves himself.
FRANCIS QUARLES
attributed, Day's Collacon
You can't blame your opponents for applying a strategy that beats your brains out with regularity.
BILL CLINTON
speech at Campus Progress National Student Conference, July 13, 2005
I hate to lose more than I like to win.
LARRY BIRD
Christian Science Monitor, May 22, 1998
I would rather lose in a cause that will some day win, than win in a cause that will some day lose!
WOODROW WILSON
attributed, American Politics and the Party System
Victory has a hundred fathers but defeat is an orphan.
GALEAZZO CIANO
diary, Sep. 9, 1942
Nobody remembers who finished second but the guy who finished second.
BOBBY UNSER
attributed, Biteback Dictionary of Humorous Sporting Quotations
Always have the situation under control, even if losing. Never betray an inward sense of defeat.
ARTHUR ASHE
Arthur Ashe on Tennis: Strokes, Strategy, Traditions, Players, Psychology, and Wisdom
Sometimes you must lose everything to gain it again, and the regaining is the sweeter for the pain of loss.
CASSANDRA CLARE
City of Heavenly Fire
What makes defeat so painful is just the awareness that the other has won. It hurts to lose because it feels so good to win.
DAVID ROOCHNIK
"The Art of Losing", The Red Sox and Philosophy: Green Monster Meditations
If you can react the same way to winning and losing, that's a big accomplishment. That quality is important because it stays with you the rest of your life, and there's going to be a life after tennis that's a lot longer than your tennis life.
CHRIS EVERT LLOYD
attributed, William Safire's Good Advice
A good loser is all right, but it isn't so much fun to beat him.
EVAN ESAR
20,000 Quips & Quotes
Loss follows you home and taunts you at the breakfast table, follows you to work in the morning. You have to make accommodations and broker deals to soften the rabbit punches that loss brings to your daily life. You have to take the word "loser" and add it to your resume and walk around with it on your name tag as it hand-feeds you your own shit in dosages too large for even great beasts to swallow.
PAT CONROY
My Losing Season: A Memoir
Sometimes it is better to lose and do the right thing than to win and do the wrong thing.
TONY BLAIR
speech in House of Commons, 9 November 2005
The media attention. It's only good when your winning, but when you're winning, it's great. When you're losing around here, you're a complete bum.
CARSON PALMER
interview, Nov. 4, 2002
There may be as much nobility in being last as in being first, because the two positions are equally necessary in the world, the one to complement the other.
JOSE ORTEGA Y GASSET
"Preliminary Meditation", Meditations on Quixote
The fear of losing is the flip side of the need to win. Because evolution doesn't favor losers, the fear of losing is so programmed into our DNA that we do all sorts of things, both rational and irrational, to avoid losing. We don't let people cut into line, we compete in meaningless games and sports as if our lives were at stake, and we will never buy from or agree with someone who makes us feel as if he's about to win and we're about to lose.
GENE BEDELL
Three Steps to Yes: The Gentle Art of Getting Your Way
Losses are comparative, and imagination only makes them of any moment.
PASCAL
attributed, Day's Collacon
I never thought of losing, but now that it's happened, the only thing is to do it right. That's my obligation to all the people who believe in me. We all have to take defeats in life.
MUHAMMAD ALI
comment after losing to Ken Norton, Mar. 31, 1973
One of the first businesses of a sensible man is to know when he is beaten, and to leave off fighting at once.
SAMUEL BUTLER
Samuel Butler's Notebooks