Leadership Quote by Richard M. Nixon

Nixon’s line is a blunt little parable of survival, the kind of moral arithmetic American politics loves: defeat is an event, quitting is a choice, and character is measured in the gap between the two. It works because it turns failure from a verdict into a test of will. “Defeated” is passive voice - something that happens to you. “Quits” is active - something you do. The sentence quietly relocates blame and agency, which is exactly what a politician, especially Nixon, needed to master.

The intent is motivational, but the subtext is reputational. Nixon’s career was a long argument with humiliation: early electoral losses, relentless enemies, and a self-image built around siege and comeback. Read against that backdrop, the quote doubles as self-portrait and self-defense. It doesn’t deny defeat; it reframes it as raw material. The underlying message is not just “keep going,” but “if I continue, I’m still legitimate.”

Context matters because Nixon’s public story ultimately collides with the limits of this philosophy. Watergate makes “quitting” complicated: resignation was both surrender and containment, a choice that prevented deeper institutional damage while ending his presidency. That tension gives the quote its bite. It’s ruggedly American, yes, but also revealingly Nixonian: a creed of perseverance that can sound like integrity or stubbornness, depending on what, exactly, you’re refusing to let go of.