Another victory like that and we are done for.
Interpretation
This quote reflects the idea that excessive or hollow victories can lead to defeat or downfall.
Pyrrhus of Epirus highlights the notion that winning at a great cost can be more damaging than losing. This statement suggests that one should evaluate the consequences of their actions and victories; if every win results in substantial losses, it may lead to overall failure. The quote serves as a cautionary principle about the nature of conflict and the true value of success.
In practice
During a motivational speech about the importance of balanced success.
Space-ships and time machines are no escape from the human condition. Let Othello subject Desdemona to a lie-detector test; his jealousy will still blind him to the evidence. Let Oedipus triumph over gravity; he won't triumph over his fate.
When war is not just it is subsequently justified; so it becomes many things. In reality, an unjust war is merely piracy. It consists of piracy, ego and, more than anything, money. War is our century's prostitution.
My father (Danny Thomas) used to tell me there are two kinds of people, the takers and the givers. 'The takers sometimes eat better,' he would say, 'but the givers always sleep better.'
Guilt -- if there was any guilt -- spread out and diffused itself over everybody and everything. . . . Perhaps at some point in time, at some spot in the world, a moment of responsibility existed.
Let us be dreamers, thinkers, speculative philosophers, or as our spouses would have it: Idiots
We have heard the rationales offered by the nuclear superpowers. We know who speaks for the nations. But who speaks for the human species? Who speaks for Earth?
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