Defeatism is the wretchedest of policies.

“We began our life together at a moment of natural self-pity and defeat that left an inimitable impression on both of us. The rejection…

— Pat Conroy

You defeat defeatism with confidence.

— Vince Lombardi

“A battle is won by the side that is absolutely determined to win. Why did we lose the battle of Austerlitz? Our casualties were…

— Leo Tolstoy

“In 1965, a psychologist named Martin Seligman started shocking dogs. He was trying to expand on the research of Pavlov--the guy who could make…

— David McRaney

“If I felt less, I could do more.”

— Charles Dickens

One of the more serious temptations which stifles boldness and zeal is a defeatism, which turns us into querulous and disillusioned pessimists, sourpusses.

— Pope Francis

I've learned that next to the atomic bomb, the greatest danger is defeatism, despair, and inadequate awareness of what human beings possess. I feel…

— Norman Cousins

“Defeat is a result of people not being bold enough to grab their win.”

— Anas Hamshari

Defeatism about the past is a grievous error; defeatism about the future is a crime!

— Philip Noel-Baker, Baron Noel-Baker

What I don't like is a conformist attitude, a certain defeatism; that can't be allowed at Barcelona.

— Joan Laporta

While a lot of people want to join the left to react against the mainstream or right, I in many ways react against the…

— Rebecca Solnit

“We are swimming upstream against a great torrent of disorganization...In this, our main obligation is to establish arbitrary enclaves of order and system...It is…

— Norbert Wiener

“Seeing the mud around a lotus is pessimism, seeing a lotus in the mud is optimism.”

— Amit Kalantri

In the closed circle of the war cabinet, pounded by terrible report after terrible report, there had been uncertainty about whether he could fend…

— Jon Meacham

We have seen too much defeatism, too much pessimism, too much of a negative approach. The answer is simple: if you want something very…

— Margo Jones