Defeatist Quotes & Sayings

A defeatist attitude kills almost as many marriages as do affairs. — Gary L. Thomas

Defeatist thoughts handicap persons from elevating their mechanistic life to superior states. The majority of persons consider themselves defeated even before beginning the struggle or the Gnostic esoteric work. — Samael Aun Weor

A defeatist attitude was not in his gene pool. — DiAnn Mills

The single biggest surprise about arriving to the Senate is the defeatist attitude here. — Ted Cruz

A defeatist spirit must inevitably lead to disaster. — Eugene Znosko-Borovsky

Hate destroys, love builds: be a creator. Fear closes, love opens: be an advocate for life. Guilt stagnates, love permits: be a peaceful warrior. Anger takes away, love gives: be a foundation for life. A defeatist attitude makes its own bed while love has the power to design its very own house. — Madelaine Standing

We all get humiliated at some point or another during our lives. the trick is not to let it make you resentful or defeatist. — Jane Stanton Hitchcock

The Strategy of Safeguards requires us to take a very realistic - perhaps even fatalistic - look at ourselves. But while acknowledging the likelihood of temptation and failure may seem like a defeatist approach, it helps us identify, avoid, and surmount our likely stumbling blocks. — Gretchen Rubin

I have a lot of friends that take that position of extreme cynicism, and I just can't let myself go to that place. It's just too easy, and it's just too defeatist. — Conor Oberst

Don't be defeatist, dear, it's very middle class. — Maggie Smith

Those who focus their lives on uncovering the devil's plans without regard for heaven's plans can often develop a defeatist attitude toward the Christian life. — Peter Goodgame

I'm not going to take this defeatist attitude and listen to all this crap any more from all these people who have nothing except doomsday to predict. — Carroll Shelby

Far from being tortured, the prisoners [at Guantanamo] are being handled literally with kid gloves (or simulated kid-effect gloves). The U.S. military hands each jihadist his complimentary copy of the Koran as delicately as white-gloved butlers bringing His Lordship the Times of London. It's not just unbecoming to buy in to Muslim psychoses; in the end, it's self-defeating. And our self-defeat is their surest shot at victory...Even a loser can win when he's up against a defeatist. A big chunk of Western Civilization, consciously or otherwise, has given the impression that it's dying to surrender to somebody, anybody. Reasonably enough, the jihadists figure: hey, why not us? — Mark Steyn

Some say it is better to rule in hell than serve in heaven. That is a defeatist attitude. I intend to rule everywhere, not just in Hell.
- General Agamemnon
New Memoirs — Brian Herbert

The only thing between you and success is your thinking. Defeatist thoughts are the mother of inaction. — Iimani David

Let me be absolutely clear: I think it is defeatist to sort of say we want to leave the European Union. We're going to try and change the rules and change the way it works and change the objectives that it has in order to make it something that works for Britain. — Philip Hammond

That was it exactly - irony was defeatist, timid, the telltale of a generation too afraid to say what it meant, and so in danger of forgetting it had anything to say. — D.T. Max

resistance often lacks an overt political project and frequently reflects social practices that are informal, disorganised, apolitical, and atheoretical in nature. In some instances it can reduce itself to an unreflective and defeatist refusal to acquiesce to different forms of domination; on some occasions it can be seen as a cynical, arrogant, or even naive rejection of oppressive forms of moral and political regulation — Henry A. Giroux

You said electronic lock. I didn't know it was a TL-30X6." "I don't like your tone, Merlin. You sound very pessimistic. Maybe even defeatist." "Heller, listen to me. I brought my StrongArm safe cracker diamond-core drill bits, okay? But drilling through one of these, that's a five-hour job at least. That mother's made from inch-and-a-half-thick steel and cobalt-carbide matrix hardplate, okay?" "If you say so. — Joseph Finder

There's a difference between loyal opposition that has a different view, and those who are advocating a defeatist approach that sends the wrong message to our troops and the enemy. — Scott McClellan

And this year, when we end the cruel, defeatist practice of passing children who cannot read into fourth grade, and when our most diligent students begin to graduate from high school in 11 years, and get a head start on college costs with the dollars they earned through their hard work, others will take notice of Indiana yet again. — Mitch McConnell

I can see no hope at present of such a vaccine being produced ... I have adopted a frankly defeatist attitude towards the problem of poliomyelitis and I hope that future developments will prove me wrong ... No means of controlling poliomyelitis is at present visible. — Frank Macfarlane Burnet

Having hope," writes Daniel Goleman in his study of emotional intelligence, "means that one will not give in to overwhelming anxiety, a defeatist attitude, or depression in the face of difficult challenges or setbacks." Hope is "more than the sunny view that everything will turn out all right"; it is "believing you have the will and the way to accomplish your goals. — Doris Kearns Goodwin

It's defeatist to harp on what might have been, and yet, it's hard to resist considering what might have been. — Christopher Reeve

What kind of defeatist talk is that?" "The type that's grounded in reality? — Christine S. Feldman

If he had said otherwise. To admit that a thermonuclear catastrophe would be the end of civilization and of the biosphere would be, in religious terms, profane and defeatist. All religions must, at their core, look forward to the end of this world and — Christopher Hitchens

Why must every relationship I have be so damned impossible? (Ravyn)
Hey now, defeatist talk from a catman like you? I'm the one who should be freaking out here. I mean, damn, you could give me fleas or something. (Susan) — Sherrilyn Kenyon

I guess we need to keep adjusting our dreams to fit reality, because life is not going to cooperate. Maybe this makes me a defeatist, but I'd prefer to think of myself as realist. — Cassia Leo

We must content ourselves with the mystery, the absurdity, the contradictions, the hostility, but also the generosity that our environment offers us. It's not much, but it's always better than the deadly, defeatist certainty of the paranoid. — Philip K. Dick

I literally make music for my wife and my friends. I don't feel beholden to my fans. I don't even really know who they are. But, I know that this whole thing started with me making stuff that I got off on, and I've gotta believe that that's how it's going to end, too. That's the only way it can go. There are a lot of artists who have gotten pretty caught up in that. That's why I like the defeatist attitude. Just assume that no one is going to like it and that no one cares, and you'll end up making something that you really like. — Ben Lee

I've been trying to write a book since before I was old enough to vote, and I've collected many rejection slips from publishers and magazines. I used to keep them all stuck to my refrigerator, with magnets, but an ex-girlfriend told me they were depressing, and defeatist, and suggested I take them down. A very wise suggestion on her part. — J.R. Moehringer

He didn't give a damn for the defeatist Kennedy, or indeed for that stuffed-shirt Chamberlain, whom Hitler had comprehensively hoodwinked. Nothing should stand in the way of a murder investigation, however lowly the victim. No doubt Joan's fate would seem unimportant in the greater scheme of things whenever the Luftwaffe got round to bombing London, but that was nothing to him. It was his job to seek out the truth behind her death, regardless. — Mark Ellis

No wonder such a big part of growing old is learning to lower one's expectations, only we call that maturity and wisdom so as not to sound too defeatist. When you are young you demand ecstasy; when you are old you settle for anything short of agony. — Jonathan Hull

Of course women can have it all - if they want it all. I won't hear any defeatist talk. If you just dwell on problems, you won't get anywhere fast. — Louise Mensch

Because he refused to adopt a defeatist attitude, he overcame the obstacles in his path. — James C. Dobson

Also, it was a bit hopeless," he said. "A bit defeatist."
"If by defeatist you mean honest, then I agree."
"I don't think defeatism is honest, " Dad answered. "I refuse to accept that. — John Green

The most defeatist thing I hear is, "I'm going to give it a couple of years." You can't set a clock for yourself. If you do, you are not a writer. You should want it so badly that you don't have a choice. You have to commit for the long haul. There's no shame in being a starving artist. Get a day job, but don't get too good at it. It will take you away from your writing. — Matthew Weiner

If we'd just been fighting their army without the general, we might, just MIGHT have had a chance. But with him ... ?' The big man shrugged, then stood to leave. 'But that's defeatist talk. And I've got a fyrd to help train. I'll see you tonight at dinner, Maggie. — Stuart Hill

Here are young women with more opportunities, more liberties than almost any women in history and at that moment we tell them they're short-changed silenced victims of a patriarchy? It's defeatist and demoralising. — Christina Hoff Sommers

To stop challenging someone from using anti-gay language simply because they persist in using anti-gay language strikes me as a defeatist approach. — Mallory Ortberg