I do believe it was Sun Tzu who said: "The greatest victory, is that which requires no battle." But if there is no battle then how can a victor exists? If there is no battle then defeat cannot be, and without loss there can be no win. It is a shame, yet truthful none the less.  

Gandhi spoke: "An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind." But surely there would be one eye remaining, unless the blind could lead the seeing into darkness, would you willingly ***** the final flame? I think not, for it is the light that must guide our path an that one eye must dutifully lead the blind to ascension.  

Alighieri claimed: "The Devil is not as black as he is painted..." Yet I'd been under the impression that the Devil's crimson was that of legend, and even his blackened soul runs red with guilty blood. But let us be honest, given the company Satan must keep in hell, could any of us cope any better? I myself would become a vile shell of a spirit, desperately reaching out to those pure few to taint them with miserable truth.

Three great men, each considered to be a master of his time and chosen art, whether it be war, peace or poetry. One real lesson can be learned: a blessed man can take a situation, truest only in their own mind, and make it a universal opinion. Eloquently put, a lie can become a truth, a dream can become a memory and an opinion can become fact.

With that in mind I close, perhaps not as eloquently as a great man, with this:

We shall never know peace without war, we shall not grasp joy without sorrow nor victory without defeat; but maybe, just maybe. We shall know ourselves without first knowing another.