You can destroy something but you can rebuild it. Defeat implies that the "destruction" is the end all, be all. The quote is simply saying if something shattered into a thousand pieces, it's not the end; you can put all those pieces back together.
The definition of "Destroy" is to put an end to the existence of something. What you're talking about is breaking, something that is broken can be fixed (put back together). But if you LITERALLY "Destroy" something it can't be fixed