Precarious

"Still, if you will not fight for the right when you can easily win without bloodshed, if you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not so costly, you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance for survival. There may be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no chance of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves."
--Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
Source: The Gathering Storm, bk.I ch.19 p.348 (Houghton Mifflin, 1948)