Losing

Famous quotes containing the word losing:

    Our passional nature not only lawfully may, but must, decide an option between propositions, whenever it is a genuine option that cannot by its nature be decided on intellectual grounds; for to say, under such circumstances, “Do not decide, but leave the question open,” is itself a passional decision—just like deciding yes or no—and is attended with the same risk of losing the truth.
    William James (1842–1910)

    All this stuff you heard about America not wanting to fight, wanting to stay out of the war, is a lot of horse dung. Americans, traditionally, love to fight. All real Americans love the sting of battle.... Americans play to win all the time. I wouldn’t give a hoot in hell for a man who lost and laughed. That’s why Americans have never lost—and will never lose—a war, because the very thought of losing is hateful to Americans.
    Francis Ford Coppola (b. 1939)

    The eager fate which carried thee
    Took the largest part of me:
    For this losing is true dying;
    This is lordly man’s down-lying,
    This his slow but sure reclining,
    Star by star his world resigning.
    Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)