“The green reed which bends in the wind is stronger than the mighty oak which breaks in a storm.”

— Confucius

Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "The green reed which bends in the wind is stronger than the mighty oak which breaks in a storm." by Confucius?

Confucius 269

Chinese teacher, editor, politician, and philosopher -551–-479 BC

Related quotes

“He’s stronger than this. He’s always been stronger… (Vane)
Even the mightiest oak can be felled by a whisper of a wind if it comes on the heels of a powerful enough storm. (Carson)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Bad Moon Rising

“The cold north wind which bows to earth
The lightness of the willow's birth
Bends not the mountain cedar trees;
Folding their branches from the breeze,
They stand as if they could defy
The utmost rage of storm and sky.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1802–1838) English poet and novelist

Canto I
The Troubadour (1825)

“Know that the slender shrub which is seen to bend, conquers when it yields to the storm.”

Pietro Metastasio (1698–1782) Italian poet and librettist (born 3 January 1698, died 12 April 1782)

Sai, che piegar si vede
Il docile arboscello,
Che vince allor che cede
Dei turbini al furor.
Il Trionfo di Clelia (1762), Act I, scene 8.

“Image: An Oak Tree. The oak that resists the wind loses its branches one by one, and with nothing left to protect it, the trunk fi nally snaps. The oak that bends lives long er, its trunk grow ing wider, its roots deeper and more tenacious.”

Robert Greene book The 48 Laws of Power

Source: The 48 Laws of Power

“Break a vase, and the love that reassembles the fragments is stronger than that love which took its symmetry for granted when it was whole.”

Derek Walcott (1930–2017) Saint Lucian–Trinidadian poet and playwright

“You are a weak reed, Recruit Green!”

Garth Nix (1963) Australian fantasy writer

Helve shouted. "Weak reeds make for badly woven baskets! This platoon will not be a badly woven basket!"
Source: The Keys to the Kingdom series, Sir Thursday (2006), p. 156.