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Pyrrhic victory
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A Pyrrhic victory is a win achieved at such a high cost that it's hardly worth the gain. It matters because it reminds us that not all victories are truly successful—sometimes the price paid for winning is so great that you end up worse off than if you'd lost.
AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.
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Encyclopedic overview
A political cartoon satirizing James G. Blaine's campaign in 1884 by noting his party's victory in Maine's early gubernatorial election. This was traditionally seen as a bellwether for future presidential victory but had come at great financial cost: "Another victory like this and our money's gone!" A Pyrrhic victory (/ˈpɪrɪk/ PIRR-ik) is a victory gained at such a cost to the victor that it is tantamount to defeat.
The phrase references a statement attributed to Pyrrhus of Epirus. After his victory against the Romans in the Battle of Asculum in 279 BC, Plutarch reports that Pyrrhus exclaimed "One more victory over the Romans and we are completely done for!"
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Pyrrhic victory” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.