C.N. Douglas, comp. Forty Thousand Quotations: Prose and Poetical. 1917.
Defeat
Defeat serves to enlighten us.
It is defeat which educates us.
Defeat is a school in which truth always grows strong.
Defeat should never be a source of discouragement, but rather a fresh stimulus.
Ah! what seeds for a paradise I bore in my heart, of which birds of prey have robbed me.
What is defeat? Nothing but education, nothing but the first step to something better.
Thirsting for the golden fountain of the fable, from how many streams have we turned away, weary and in disgust!
There is something solid and doughty in the man that can rise from defeat, the stuff of which victories are made in due time, when we are able to choose our position better, and the sun is at our back.
No man is defeated without some resentment which will be continued with obstinacy while he believes himself in the right, and asserted with bitterness, if even to his own conscience he is detected in the wrong.
We mortals, men and women, devour many a disappointment between breakfast and dinner-time; keep back the tears and look a little pale about the lips, and in answer to inquiries say, “Oh, nothing!” Pride helps us; and pride is not a bad thing when it only urges us to hide our own hurts—not to hurt others.