QuoteProject
A lost battle is a battle one thinks one has lost.
Jean-Paul Sartre
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

A defeat is largely a matter of perception; believing you have lost can be as significant as the loss itself.

Jean-Paul Sartre's quote highlights the psychological aspect of defeat, suggesting that one's mindset and interpretation of events can shape their experience of success and failure. If a person believes they have lost, they may as well have lost, as their perception can dictate their resolve to continue fighting and striving for victory.

Themes

DefeatPerceptionMindsetBattleLoss

In practice

Example use cases

During a motivational speech about resilience and overcoming challenges.

More from Jean-Paul Sartre

If a victory is told in detail, one can no longer distinguish it from a defeat.
Jean-Paul SartreRead
All I want is' - and he uttered the final words through clenched teeth and with a sort of shame - 'to retain my freedom.' I should myself have thought,' said Jacques, 'that freedom consisted in frankly confronting situations into which one had deliberately entered, and accepting all one's responsibilities. But that, no doubt, is not your view.
Jean-Paul SartreRead
If you are lonely when you're alone, you are in bad company.
Jean-Paul SartreRead
A kiss without a moustache, they said then, is like an egg without salt; I will add to it: and it is like Good without Evil.
Jean-Paul SartreRead
I wanted pure love: foolishness; to love one another is to hate a common enemy: I will thus espouse your hatred. I wanted Good: nonsense; on this earth and in these times, Good and Bad are inseparable: I accept to be evil in order to become good.
Jean-Paul SartreRead
Night is falling: at dusk, you must have good eyesight to be able to tell the Good Lord from the Devil.
Jean-Paul SartreRead

Similar quotes

It 's no fish ye 're buying, it 's men's lives.
Walter ScottRead
The Buddha never intended to make desire itself the problem. When he said craving causes suffering, he was referring not to our natural inclination as living beings to have wants and needs, but to our habit of clinging to experience that must, by nature, pass away.
Tara BrachRead
Pride is the parent of destruction; pride eats the mind and the heart and the soul alive.
Anne RiceRead
I never felt any attraction towards violence. I never tried to express myself through violence. Violence is a language.
Elie WieselRead
Through some combination of culture and biology, our minds are intuitively receptive to religion.
Daniel KahnemanRead
I don't care whether animals are capable of thinking; all I care about is that they are capable of suffering!
Jeremy BenthamRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.