quotations about losing
If a tie is like kissing your sister, losing is like kissing your grandmother with her teeth out.
GEORGE BRETT
attributed, The Ultimate Book of Quotations
It's hard to get recognition when your team is losing.
GILBERT ARENAS
interview, Jan. 15, 2005
One is always more vexed at losing a game of any sort by a single hole or ace, than if one has never had a chance of winning it.
WILLIAM HAZLITT
"On Great and Little Things", Literary Remains
A loser doesn't know what he'll do if he loses, but talks about what he'll do if he wins, and a winner doesn't talk about what he'll do if he wins, but knows what he'll do if he loses.
ERIC BERNE
What Do You Say After You Say Hello?
Winning may not be everything, but losing has little to recommend it.
DIANNE FEINSTEIN
Nine and Counting: The Women of the Senate
If losers can exploit what their adversaries teach them, yes, losers can become winners in the long term.
DAVID MITCHELL
Cloud Atlas
Except in a very few matches, usually with world-class performers, there is a point in every match (and in some cases it's right at the beginning) when the loser decides he's going to lose. And after that, everything he does will be aimed at providing an explanation of why he will have lost. He may throw himself at the ball (so he will be able to say he's done his best against a superior opponent). He may dispute calls (so he will be able to say he's been robbed). He may swear at himself and throw his racket (so he can say it was apparent all along he wasn't in top form). His energies go not into winning but into producing an explanation, an excuse, a justification for losing.
C. TERRY WARNER
Bonds That Make Us Free
Every time you win, it diminishes the fear a little bit. You never really cancel the fear of losing; you keep challenging it.
ARTHUR ASHE
Most private traders on a losing streak keep trying to trade their way out of a hole. A loser thinks a successful trade is just around the corner, and that his luck is about to turn. He keeps putting on more trades and increases his size, all the while digging himself a deeper hole in the ice. The sensible thing to do would be to reduce your trading size and then stop and review your system.
ALEXANDER ELDER
Come Into My Trading Room
A loss you know not is no loss.
JOHN DE BARROS
attributed, Day's Collacon
You know what makes a good loser? Practice.
ERNEST HEMINGWAY
attributed by his son, Papa, a Personal Memoir
I coulda had class! I coulda been a contender! I coulda been somebody! Instead of a bum which is what I am! Let's face it!... He gets the title shot outdoors in the ball park and whadda I get? A one-way ticket to Palookaville.
BUD SCHULBERG
On the Waterfront
Have you heard that it was good to gain the day? I also say it is good to fall, battles are lost in the same spirit in which they are won.
WALT WHITMAN
Song of Myself
In life the loser's score is always zero.
W. H. AUDEN
"Postscript: The Frivolous and the Earnest", The Dyer's Hand
All quitters are good losers.
BOB ZUPPKE
attributed, 1001 Motivational Messages and Quotations for Athletes and Coaches
You win some, you lose some.
AMERICAN PROVERB
In all failures, the beginning is certainly the half of the whole.
GEORGE ELIOT
Middlemarch
Losers never know why they are losing. They will mention injuries, the officiating, the weather and bad breaks.
GEORGE ALLEN
attributed, 1001 Motivational Messages and Quotations for Athletes and Coaches
The victor shall soon be the vanquished, if he relax his exertion; and ... the vanquished this year, may be the victor in the next, in spite of all competition.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN
address before the Wisconsin State Agricultural Society, Sep. 30, 1859
All men are mortal, and therefore all men are losers; our profoundest loyalty goes out to the failed.
JOHN UPDIKE
"The Boston Red Sox, as of 1986", Odd Jobs