There is no mistake; there has been no mistake; and there shall be no mistake.
Duke Of WellingtonRead
Nothing except a battle lost can be half so melancholy as a battle won.
Interpretation
Winning a battle brings its own sadness and reflection despite the apparent victory.
The quote by the Duke of Wellington suggests that even in victory, there can be deep sorrow and contemplation. While a lost battle is undoubtedly tragic, the pain associated with winning can stem from the realization of loss, sacrifice, and the heavy burdens that come with success. It highlights the complexity of human emotion in the face of achievements, where victory does not always equate to happiness.
In practice
In a discussion about the burdens of leadership during a team victory celebration.
There is no mistake; there has been no mistake; and there shall be no mistake.
All the business of war, and indeed all the business of life, is to endeavour to find out what you don't know by what you do; that's what I called 'guess what was at the other side of the hill'.
The whole art of war consists in getting at what is on the other side of the hill.
Next to a battle lost, the greatest misery is a battle gained.
Next to a lost battle, nothing is so sad as a battle that has been won.
Be discreet in all things, and so render it unnecessary to be mysterious about any.
Time rises and rises, and when it reaches the level of your eyes you drown.
If a man is not good, what has he to do with the rules of propriety? If he is not good, what has he to do with music?
Our churches are filled with Christians who are idling in intellectual neutral. As Christians, their minds are going to waste. One result of this is an immature, superficial faith. People who simply ride the roller coaster of emotional experience are cheating themselves out of a deeper and richer Christian faith by neglecting the intellectual side of that faith.
He wondered how he could ever have thought of the planets, even of the Earth, as islands of life and reality floating in a deadly void. Now with a certainty which never after deserted him, he saw the planets - as mere holes or gaps in the living heaven - excluded and rejected wastes of heavy matter and murky air, formed not by addition to, but by subtraction from, the surrounding brightness.
Many feel that in today's climate some of those in authority are exercising, in effect, a self-serving, 'ends justify the means' mindset as well, and that, in turn, empowers them to do the same.
The majority have no other reason for their opinions than that they are the fashion.
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