These, and all others in universal history who have been of their type
of thought, have conquered because the eternal inspired them, and thus
this inspiration ever and of necessity prevails over him who is not
inspired. It is not the might of arms nor the fitness of weapons
that wins victories, but the power of the soul. He who sets himself
a limited goal for his sacrifices, and who can dare no further than a
certain point, surrenders resistance as soon as the danger reaches a
crisis where he cannot yield or dodge. He who has set himself no limit
whatsoever, but who hazards everything, even life--the highest
boon that can be lost on earth--never ceases to resist, and, if his
opponent has a more limited goal, he indubitably conquers. A people
that is capable, though it be only in its highest representatives and
leaders, of keeping firmly before its vision independence, the face
from the spirit world, and of being inspired with love for it, as
were our remotest forefathers, surely conquers a people that, like the
Roman armies, is used merely as a tool for foreign dominion and for
the subjugation of independent nations; for the former have everything
to lose, the latter have merely something to gain. But even a whim can
prevail over the mental attitude which regards war as a game of hazard
for temporal gain or loss, and which, even before the game starts, has
fixed the limit of the stake.
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