Know When to Fold'Em/Quotes

Teal'C: A true warrior... knows when to fold 'em.

—Stargate SG-1

If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Then give up. There's no use in being a damn fool about it.

—W. C. Fields

Hestiv: There's no honor in surrender, Admiral.
Pellaeon: There's no honor in wasting lives for nothing, either.
Hestiv: I know. But at least if you're dead you don't have to live with the shame of it.
Pellaeon: There are some in the Fleet who would call that a noble warrior attitude. Personally, I'd call it stupid. If we're destroyed -- if we all die -- the concepts and ideals of the New Order die with us. But if we surrender, we can keep those ideals alive. Then, if and when the New Republic self-destructs, we'll be positioned to rise again. Maybe then the galaxy will finally be ready to accept us.
Hestiv: Perhaps.
Pellaeon: There's no disgrace in backing out of a no-win situation, General. I saw Grand Admiral Thrawn do it more than once, forthrightly and without embarrassment, rather than waste his men and ships. That's no more or less what I'm proposing we do now.

—General Hestiv and Supreme Commander Pellaeon, Specter of the Past

Stuart: We're not giving up.
Snowbell: Why not? Giving up is fun -- and look at all the time you save! I'm telling you, Stuart, if more people gave up, there'd be fewer wars.

—Stuart Little 2

Quitters never win, winners never quit, but those who never win and never quit are idiots.

—Traditional

You want your freedom? Take it.
That's what I'm counting on.
I used to want you dead, but
Now I only want you gone.

—GLaDOS, Want You Gone (The ending song to Portal 2).

Grem: I am a Goblin Prince! I know when to fight!
Dies Horribly: I am a coward! I know when to RUN!

—Goblins 29 Apr 2011

He who fights and runs away, may live to fight another day

—An age-old adage

Know when to cut your losses. The outcome of this battle has been decided.

—Makarov, Fairy Tail

Stephen Falken: The whole point was to find a way to practice nuclear war without destroying ourselves. To get the computers to learn from mistakes we couldn't afford to make. Except, I never could get Joshua to learn the most important lesson.
David Lightman: What's that?
Stephen Falken: Futility. That there's a time when you should just give up.

—WarGames

Do not ally yourself with the Renrij if you yearn to be part of a mighty army, marching resolutely forth, for whom retreat is anathema. We will laugh at your suicidal idiocy as we slip into the reeds of the river, and watch the inevitable slaughter.

—The Ahzirr Trajijazaeri

You could give 'em a good rant before you run, you know. Lots of Heterodines have done it. They were always getting beat back, thwarted, foiled - 's why you rule Mechanicsburg and not the world.
Sometimes you just gotta know when to set a few time-delayed death-traps and run. Rebuild your power. Show 'em all another day. It happens.

—Franz Scortchmaw, the Great Dragon of Mechanicsburg , Girl Genius Vol.12 P.171

Maxim 68: Negotiating from a position of strength does not mean you shouldn’t also negotiate from a position near the exits.

—The Seventy Maxims of Maximally Effective Mercenaries