It must be a peace without victory... Victory would mean peace forced upon the loser, a victor's terms imposed upon the vanquished. It would be accepted in humiliation, under duress, at an intolerable sacrifice, and would leave a sting, a resentment, a bitter memory upon which terms of peace would rest, not permanently, but only as upon quicksand. Only a peace between equals can last.
Address to the Senate, January 22, 1917.
![It must be a peace without victory... Victory would mean peace forced upon the loser, a victor's terms imposed upon the vanquished. It would be accepted in humiliation, under duress, at an intolerable sacrifice, and](http://cdn.myquotes.org/images/woodrow-wilson/it-must-be-a-peace-without-victory-victory-would-mean-peace-forced-upon-the-loser-a-victors-terms-imposed-upon.jpg)