Probably the battle of Waterloo was won on the playing-fields of Eton, but the opening battles of all subsequent wars have been lost there.

Wars are won from a wink, a gesture, an event that transpired a millennium before the battle. Humanity has always been saved by small acts; the ones where someone gained a piece of their own puzzle, not the ones where a hero stood prodigious on a battlefield.

We lost the battle of spin, but we won the battle in the courtroom.

A battle won is a battle which we will not acknowledge to be lost.

It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.

The game is never lost till won.