He that falls obstinate in his courage-- "Si succiderit, de genu pugnat" ["If his legs fail him, he fights on his knees." -- Seneca, De Providentia, c.

2.] -- he who, for any danger of imminent death, abates nothing of his assurance; who, dying, yet darts at his enemy a fierce and disdainful look, is overcome not by us, but by fortune; he is killed, not conquered; the most valiant are sometimes the most unfortunate.

There are defeats more triumphant than victories.

Never could those four sister victories, the fairest the sun ever be held, of Salamis, Plataea, Mycale, and Sicily, venture to oppose all their united glories, to the single glory of the discomfiture of King Leonidas and his men, at the pass of Thermopylae.

Who ever ran with a more glorious desire and greater ambition, to the winning, than Captain Iscolas to the certain loss of a battle ?--[Diodorus Siculus, xv.