But in practice, if often comes down to not suffering a loss as big as the huge gain you made a while ago.
The way to gain a good reputation is to endeavor to be what you desire to appear.
It is a clear gain to sacrifice pleasure in order to avoid pain.
It is the responsibility of Afghanistan's new government to gain better control over the country's administration and to resolutely fight the drug trade and corruption.
From 1997 through 1999, I had gained so much. People don't realize how something like weight gain can make you sad. Losing weight has changed my life. If you can take control of your life, you can lose weight.
Thought is the original source of all wealth, all success, all material gain, all great discoveries and inventions, and of all achievement.
There is always something I gain from watching a movie, whether it's a silly romantic comedy or an art film.
I gain weight and lose it again in inevitable cycles.
Throughout the years I have tried to hone my skills to gain mastery over the music in my head.
The rapture of pursuing is the prize the vanquished gain.
We learn, grow and become compassionate and generous as much through exile as homecoming, as much through loss as gain, as much through giving things away as in receiving what we believe to be our due.
Tragedy is a tool for the living to gain wisdom, not a guide by which to live.
Hope of ill gain is the beginning of loss.
Very few men are fortunate enough to gain distinction during their first term in Congress.
In the early days, I promoted the idea of spending time in libraries to gain facts that other investors didn't have. Not many people did that kind of research, so it worked.
If American men are obsessed with money, American women are obsessed with weight. The men talk of gain, the women talk of loss, and I do not know which talk is the more boring.
What makes something special is not just what you have to gain, but what you feel there is to lose.
You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, 'I lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.'
Year Up for me is a year in which the young adults that we serve have an opportunity to move up in their lives and gain the access and opportunity they need to realize their potential.
The happy medium - truth in all things - is no longer either known or valued; to gain applause, one must write things so inane that they might be played on barrel-organs, or so unintelligible that no rational being can comprehend them, though on that very account, they are likely to please.
An anxious unrest, a fierce craving desire for gain has taken possession of the commercial world, and in instances no longer rare the most precious and permanent goods of human life have been madly sacrificed in the interests of momentary enrichment.
Watch the functioning of your own mind in a calm and detached manner so you can gain insight into your own behavior.
If two friends ask you to judge a dispute, don't accept, because you will lose one friend; on the other hand, if two strangers come with the same request, accept because you will gain one friend.
Employ your time in improving yourself by other men's writings, so that you shall gain easily what others have labored hard for.
Refrain from asking what going to happen tomorrow, and everyday that fortune grants you, count as gain.
Dell's a company that has changed the IT landscape in making PCs and servers more affordable. There's enormous opportunities to make IT more accessible to tens of millions of companies, kind of democratizing the ability for companies to gain access to IT.
The end of labor is to gain leisure.
There is a trade off - as you grow older you gain wisdom but you lose spontaneity.
There is no change - I'm as deep or as shallow as I ever was. What's new is on-the-job experience. This is what you gain with years.
The consideration of change over the century is about loss, though I think that social change is gain rather than loss.
For me, that's always been one of the great charms of the first person: we gain access to a very personal, private kind of music.
In a globalised world, so many of us move around so much. You lose things, but you also gain things - or hope to gain them.
It seemed to be inadmissible to give in on such a fundamental point. This would have meant that any one who would have wanted to be a terrorist could gain eventually their freedom thanks to another kidnapping.
To mourn and bewail your ill-fortune, when you will gain a tear from those who listen, this is worth the trouble.
The Olympics are very important only if you gain a medal, and that's a very difficult achievement.
It's a lot easier to gain traction when there is such a great proliferation of Internet access. The velocity at which some of these startups are gaining traction is mind-boggling. Companies like ShoeDazzle, Stella & Dot, Gilt, Groupon - these companies are going from zero to hundreds of millions in revenue in three years.
