When Buckner sent him a flag of truce at Fort Donelson, asking for the appointment of commissioners to consider terms of capitulation, he promptly replied: "No terms except an unconditional and immediate surrender can be accepted.

I propose to move immediately upon your works." Buckner replied that circumstances compelled him "to accept the ungenerous and unchivalrous terms which you propose." The man who, like Napoleon, can on the instant seize the most important thing and sacrifice the others, is sure to win.
Many a wasted life dates its ruin from a lost five minutes.

"Too late" can be read between the lines on the tombstone of many a man who has failed.

A few minutes often makes all the difference between victory and defeat, success and failure..