Most would not even begin to question the goodness of winning and would consider any suggestion to the contrary as crazy and absurd. And yet, the greatest sages of all history do just that. The Buddha is quoted saying, “Victory breeds hatred” and Lao Tzu, “Less fame, less fighting.” Even political leaders like Napoleon saw through the myth of victory and realized that “It is only a small step from victory to disaster.” The absurdity begins to dissolve when we look a little deeper into our desire for victory and what we really want. Many psychologists and philosophers agree that the main human motivation is for approval and respect. And although we assume that being victorious brings these to us, the opposite is most often the case and victory only brings disillusionment, resentment, jealousy, and even hatred. For example, John Lennon being murdered, so many rock and movie stars dying from drug overdoses, charismatic political leaders being assassinated. Our educational, sports, and business systems praise and reward so highly the very few most successful making a tiny percentage glad while embittering the majority. So often our quests for approval collapse into animosity. The idea of victory needs to fall apart and transform from a personal, egocentric quest into a vision of success for a larger hole, our families, countries, for the world as a whole.
“Victory breeds hatred. The defeated live in pain. Happily the peaceful live giving up victory and defeat.”
“It is better to conquer yourself than to win a thousand battles. Then the victory is yours. It cannot be taken from you, not by angels or by demons, heaven or hell.”
“Defend and one has a surplus. Attack and one is insufficient…Taking whole is victory over aggression… It preserves the possibilities. Victory is ongoing, a way of being rather than a final goal.”
“Trust in self interest, spread one’s awesomeness over the enemy... Victory can be known. It cannot be made… And so the superior military cuts down strategy. Its inferior cuts down alliances. Its inferior cuts down the military. The worst attacks walled cities.”
“the daughters of the Sun, hasting to convey me into the light, threw back their veils”
“Greedy for sights you should not see, impatient for deeds you should not do... he who best enjoys each passing day is truly blessed.”
“The first and greatest victory is to conquer yourself; to be conquered by yourself is of all things most shameful and vile.”
“I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who conquers his enemies; for the hardest victory is over self.”
“When an archer is shooting for nothing, he has all his skill… But the prize divides him… He thinks more of winning than of shooting – the need to win drains him of power.”
“You can win over a greedy person by offering money, a proud person by cowering, a foolish one by agreeing with him; but you can only win over the wise with truth.”
“The path of perennial victory is weakness. The path of perennial defeat is strength. These two are easy to recognize, but people remain oblivious to them.”
“First, do not lose the view in action... at the same time one should not lose one's actions in the view.”
“It isn’t hard for an army to achieve victory. But it is hard to hold on to victory. There is no great army that has not brought on its own defeat through its victories.”
“dispassion means to rest, and rest is the root of victory… passion means to act, and action is the basis of defeat.”
“By making ourselves lower than others we can use their wisdom and power as our own. Thus we can win without taking up arms, without getting angry, and without making enemies.”
“If you imagine that once you have accomplished your ambitions you will have time to turn to the Way, you will discover that your ambitions never come to an end.”
“To experience constant success, it's necessary to change habits and attitudes, to recreate yourself according to the changing times.”
“A worthy and heroic death is better than worthless and despicable triumph”
“All victories breed hate, and that over your superior is foolish or fatal. Preeminence is always detested”
“Our debates were… to be conducted in the sincere spirit of inquiry after truth without… desire of victory… all expressions of positiveness in opinions or direct contradiction were prohibited.”
“What you have inherited from your forefathers, you must first win for yourself if you are to possess it.”
“If there be no enemy there's no fight. If no fight, no victory and if no victory there is no crown.”
“What is success? To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived”
“The god of Victory is said to be one handed, but Peace gives victory to both sides.”
“Out of every fruition of success, no matter what, comes forth something to make a new effort necessary.”
“When our hearts grow soft with infinite, universal, unquenchable love and we realize that each one of us is responsible for all of mankind and for every individual person, we will have the power to win over the whole world.”
“When you have prayed for victory you have prayed for many unmentioned results which follow victory — must follow it, cannot help but follow it.”
“If this be the whole fruit of victory— that a race of creatures of such unexampled insipidity should succeed, and protract... their contented and inoffensive lives— better to lose rather than win the battle.”
“the aggressor is overcome by the poison of his pride; victory is only another name for defeat; but the Spirit of Gentleness and Truth is eternal.”
“A victory meant the glory of a lifetime. the soul-stirring excitement together with the extreme beauty of the spectacle would seem to give a theme fitted to the heart's desire of a poet. But... the perfect expression of anything means that that thing has reached its culmination and is on the point of declining.”
“If we take care of the means, we are bound to reach the end sooner or later. When once we have grasped this point, final victory is beyond question.”
“The problems of victory are more agreeable than the problems of defeat, but they are no less difficult.”
“as in all metaphysical questions, both are true; Life is—or has—meaning and meaninglessness. I cherish the anxious hope that meaning will preponderate and win the battle.”
“When the heart believes and loves, nothing chimerical exists; nothing exists but courage, trust, and fruitful action.”
“We seek victory—not over any nation or people—but over ignorance, poverty, disease, and human degradation wherever they may be found.”
“History shows that where ethics and economics come in conflict, victory is always with economics. Vested interests have never been known to have willingly divested themselves unless there was sufficient force to compel them.”
“The struggle can be won only by acceptance of both the forces of light and darkness in their full significance: as the creative and the receptive, the male and the female, the strong and the soft.”
“We know that there is no defense against the most destructive of modern weapons. Both the victor and the defeated will lose the next war. All the factors that formerly protected this country—geographical isolation, industrial strength, and military power—are now obsolete.”
“On the plains of hesitation lie the blackened bones of countless millions who at the dawn of victory lay down to rest, and in resting died.”
“Despite the success cult, men are most deeply moved not by the reaching of the goal but by the grandness of the effort involved in getting there - or failing to get there.”
“One may conquer millions in battle, but he who conquers himself—only one—is the greatest of conquerors.”
“To win his two dozen victories, Sophocles had to be wondrously fertile and able to produce on demand. A man of wealth, noted for his elegant style of life, he was a model of the Athenian public man of letters… He served as a treasurer for tribute money, was elected one of Athen’s ten generals, mounted many expeditions, and—at the age of 83—served on a commission to reorganize the government.”
“low and high, winning and losing, destruction and self-destruction, reverse themselves, each turning into its seeming opposite.”
“It helps to remember that our spiritual practice is not about accomplishing anything—not about winning or losing—but about ceasing to struggle and relaxing as it is.”
“Advertising signs that con you
Into thinking you're the one
That can do what's never been done
That can win what's never been won
Meantime, life outside goes on
All around you”
“Chinese leaders used 5 strategies to win over ‘barbarians’ into the ‘true civilization:’ luxurious clothes to corrupt their eyes, delicious food to corrupt their mouths, beautiful women and music to corrupt their ears; massive buildings, slaves, and granaries to corrupt their appetites; and finally, wine and feasts to corrupt the minds of their leaders.”
“There is no biological incentive to do nothing… it feels good to put in a lot of effort to accomplish something.”
“If we wake up to this reality, we can actively direct what comes next, and not just passively accept false conclusions of what feels inevitable.”
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