If you're already in a fight, you want the first blow to be the last and you had better be the one to throw it.
Interpretation
Being proactive in difficult situations can lead to a resolution in your favor.
This quote by Garry Kasparov emphasizes the importance of taking the initiative in confrontational situations. It suggests that if you find yourself in conflict, you should act decisively and assertively to ensure you control the outcome, highlighting the value of courage and quick action in overcoming challenges.
In practice
In a team meeting discussing project challenges, you might say this quote to encourage proactive problem-solving.
There is no one that can share your responsibility. It it is your responsibility you must carry it on and you must be responsible for your actions. At the end of the day we all are being challenged, sooner or later, by our destiny. And it's up to us to make all the difference in this life. If not you, who else?
Setbacks and losses are both inevitable and essential if you're going to improve and become a good, even great, competitor. The art is in avoiding catastrophic losses in the key battles.
Botvinnik tried to take the mystery out of Chess, always relating it to situations in ordinary life. He used to call chess a typical inexact problem similar to those which people are always having to solve in everyday life.
One does not succeed by sticking to convention. When your opponent can easily anticipate every move you make, your strategy deteriorates and becomes commoditized.
I think that it's a vital moment now for Russian democracy to convince people that it's only our actions, our joined actions and protests that could force Kremlin to reconsider its plans to abolish presidential elections.
I learned that fighting on the chess board could also have an impact on the political climate in the country.
No profession or occupation is more pleasing than the military; a profession or exercise both noble in execution (for the strongest, most generous and proudest of all virtues is true valor) and noble in its cause. No utility either more just or universal than the protection of the repose or defense of the greatness of one's country. The company and daily conversation of so many noble, young and active men cannot but be well-pleasing to you.
Each man is good in the sight of the Great Spirit. It is not necessary for eagles to be crows. Now we are poor but we are free. No white man controls our footsteps. If we must die, we die defending our rights.
In order to fly, you have to give up the ground you are standing on.
It doesn't take a hero to order men into battle. It takes a hero to be one of those men who goes into battle.
Black men and women who refuse to live under oppression are dangerous to white society because they become symbols of hope to their brothers and sisters, inspiring them to follow their example.
There are no outdoor sports as graceful as throwing stones at a dictatorship.
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