Next to a battle lost, the greatest misery is a battle gained.

About This Quote

Next to a battle lost, the greatest misery is a battle gained. (c) (Loose translation) When you win a war, you can mourn your fallen comrades, but when you lose it, the real suffering is the result of the victory itself. A bad defeat can be alleviated by having won in the end; but when you win it with ease and then lose it because you didn't fight hard enough, that's the kind of defeat that drives people insane with rage.

Some Similar Quotes

1. War is what happens when language fails. - Margaret Atwood

---

2. Never think that war, no matter how necessary, nor how justified, is not a crime. - Ernest Hemingway

---

3. The world is full enough of hurts and mischances without wars to multiply them. - J.r.r. Tolkien

---

4. If everyone fought for their own convictions there would be no war. - Leo Tolstoy

---

5. Wars are poor chisels for carving out peaceful tomorrows. - Anonymous

---

More Quotes By Arthur Wellesley

1. The only thing I am afraid of is fear.

---

2. Next to a battle lost, the greatest misery is a battle gained.

---

3. Being born in a stable does not make one a horse.

---

4. I don't know what effect these men will have upon the enemy, but, by God, they frighten me.

---

5. Nothing except a battle lost can be half so melancholy as a battle won.

---