It is a socialist idea that making profits is a vice; I consider the real vice is making losses.
Those who can win a war well can rarely make a good peace and those who could make a good peace would never have won the war.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Winning a war often does not equate to the ability to establish lasting peace, and those skilled in peace negotiations may not possess the qualities needed to win a war.
This quote by Winston Churchill highlights the paradoxical nature of war and peace. It suggests that individuals or leaders who excel at achieving military victory may lack the diplomatic skills or mindset required to foster a sustainable and peaceful resolution. Conversely, those who are adept at creating peace may not have the warrior mentality necessary to succeed in conflict. This reflects the complex dynamics between aggression and diplomacy in leadership.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
During a discussion on the complexities of international relations.
More from Winston Churchill
All quotes βThe United States is like a gigantic boiler. Once the fire is lit under it, there's no limit to the power it can generate.
Politics is almost as exciting as war, and quite as dangerous. In war you can only be killed once, but in politics many times.
I will not pretend that if I had to choose between communism and Nazism I would choose communism.
Mountaintops inspire leaders but valleys mature them.
True genius resides in the capacity for evaluation of uncertain, hazardous, and conflicting information.
Similar quotes
I'm always astounded at the way we automatically look at what divides and separates us. We never look at what people have in common.
It may have been a comedy, or it may have been a tragedy. It cost one man his reason, it cost me a blood-letting, and it cost yet another man the penalties of the law. Yet there was certainly an element of comedy. Well, you shall judge for yourselves.
Alas," said the mouse, "the whole world is growing smaller every day. At the beginning it was so big that I was afraid, I kept running and running, and I was glad when I saw walls far away to the right and left, but these long walls have narrowed so quickly that I am in the last chamber already, and there in the corner stands the trap that I must run into." "You only need to change your direction," said the cat, and ate it up.
The certainty of a God giving meaning to life far surpasses in attractiveness the ability to behave badly with impunity. The choice would not be hard to make. But there is no choice and that is where the bitterness comes in. The absurd does not liberate; it binds.
Fly, dotard, fly! With thy wise dreams and fables of the sky.
It is a very good world to live in, To lend or to spend, or to live in; but to beg or to borrow, or to get a man's own, It is the very worst world that ever was known.