“Strength grows from building other strength, not from trampling on weakness.”
as quoted by Dayton Duncan, Geoffrey C. Ward "Lachryma Montis," The West, Episode Eight (1996) referring to his old ranch house near Petaluma, California
“What you call weakness comes from the strength of friendship.”
Bk. 2, Pt.. 5, Ch. 2: The Mother, p. 522
The Second Sex (1949)
Context: The curse which lies upon marriage is that too often the individuals are joined in their weakness rather than in their strength, each asking from the other instead of finding pleasure in giving. It is even more deceptive to dream of gaining through the child a plenitude, a warmth, a value, which one is unable to create for oneself; the child brings joy only to the woman who is capable of disinterestedly desiring the happiness of another, to one who without being wrapped up in self seeks to transcend her own existence.
Essay 1, Section 13
On the Genealogy of Morality (1887)
Un Art de Vivre (The Art of Living) (1939), The Art of Growing Old
“A lot of what we experience as strength comes from knowing what to do with weakness.”
Source: Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America
