Quotes about strength
page 22

Mitt Romney photo

“We believe in a nation under God, a nation indivisible, a nation united, a nation with justice and liberty for all. And for that to happen, we're going to have to have a new president that will commit to getting America working again; that will commit to a strong military; that will commit to a nation under God that recognizes that we the American people were given our rights not by government, but by God himself.”

Mitt Romney (1947) American businessman and politician

campaign speech at Military Aviation Museum, Virginia Beach, , quoted in [2012-09-08, Ashley, Parker, In Romney’s Hands, Pledge of Allegiance Is Framework for Criticism, The New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/09/us/politics/romney-uses-pledge-of-allegiance-to-criticize-obama.html, 2012-09-18]
quoting and paraphrasing the Pledge of Allegiance
regarding a draft of the Democratic Party's national platform replacing the phrase "God-given potential" with "talent and drive"
2012

Pete Yorn photo
Winston S. Churchill photo

“It is, thank heaven, difficult if not impossible for the modern European to fully appreciate the force which fanaticism exercises among an ignorant, warlike and Oriental population. Several generations have elapsed since the nations of the West have drawn the sword in religious controversy, and the evil memories of the gloomy past have soon faded in the strong, clear light of Rationalism and human sympathy. Indeed it is evident that Christianity, however degraded and distorted by cruelty and intolerance, must always exert a modifying influence on men's passions, and protect them from the more violent forms of fanatical fever, as we are protected from smallpox by vaccination. But the Mahommedan religion increases, instead of lessening, the fury of intolerance. It was originally propagated by the sword, and ever since, its votaries have been subject, above the people of all other creeds, to this form of madness. In a moment the fruits of patient toil, the prospects of material prosperity, the fear of death itself, are flung aside. The more emotional Pathans are powerless to resist. All rational considerations are forgotten. Seizing their weapons, they become Ghazis—as dangerous and as sensible as mad dogs: fit only to be treated as such. While the more generous spirits among the tribesmen become convulsed in an ecstasy of religious bloodthirstiness, poorer and more material souls derive additional impulses from the influence of others, the hopes of plunder and the joy of fighting. Thus whole nations are roused to arms. Thus the Turks repel their enemies, the Arabs of the Soudan break the British squares, and the rising on the Indian frontier spreads far and wide. In each case civilisation is confronted with militant Mahommedanism. The forces of progress clash with those of reaction. The religion of blood and war is face to face with that of peace. Luckily the religion of peace is usually the better armed.”

The Story of the Malakand Field Force: An Episode of Frontier War (1898), Chapter III.
Early career years (1898–1929)

Hendrik Verwoerd photo
Fidel Castro photo

“You know my eyes are not very strong. So every day to make them stronger I force myself to look at the sun. I find it very hard. But do you know what I find harder? That is to look into the blue of your eyes.”

Fidel Castro (1926–2016) former First Secretary of the Communist Party and President of Cuba

Early in 1976, speaking to Margaret Trudeau, according to page 317 of Just Watch Me: The Life of Pierre Elliott Trudeau, 1968-2000 https://books.google.ca/books?id=ACC_G_kiR4cC&pg=PA317&lpg=PA317 by John English.

Michele Simon photo
Lyndon B. Johnson photo

“So it is in that spirit that I declare this afternoon to the people of Cuba that those who seek refuge here in America will find it. The dedication of America to our traditions as an asylum for the oppressed is going to be upheld. I have directed the Departments of State and Justice and Health, Education, and Welfare to immediately make all the necessary arrangements to permit those in Cuba who seek freedom to make an orderly entry into the United States of America. Our first concern will be with those Cubans who have been separated from their children and their parents and their husbands and their wives and that are now in this country. Our next concern is with those who are imprisoned for political reasons. And I will send to the Congress tomorrow a request for supplementary funds of $12,600,000 to carry forth the commitment that I am making today. I am asking the Department of State to seek through the Swiss government immediately the agreement of the Cuban government in a request to the President of the International Red Cross Committee. The request is for the assistance of the Committee in processing the movement of refugees from Cuba to Miami. Miami will serve as a port of entry and a temporary stopping place for refugees as they settle in other parts of this country. And to all the voluntary agencies in the United States, I appeal for their continuation and expansion of their magnificent work. Their help is needed in the reception and the settlement of those who choose to leave Cuba. The Federal Government will work closely with these agencies in their tasks of charity and brotherhood. I want all the people of this great land of ours to know of the really enormous contribution which the compassionate citizens of Florida have made to humanity and to decency. And all States in this Union can join with Florida now in extending the hand of helpfulness and humanity to our Cuban brothers. The lesson of our times is sharp and clear in this movement of people from one land to another. Once again, it stamps the mark of failure on a regime when many of its citizens voluntarily choose to leave the land of their birth for a more hopeful home in America. The future holds little hope for any government where the present holds no hope for the people. And so we Americans will welcome these Cuban people. For the tides of history run strong, and in another day they can return to their homeland to find it cleansed of terror and free from fear. Over my shoulders here you can see Ellis Island, whose vacant corridors echo today the joyous sound of long ago voices. And today we can all believe that the lamp of this grand old lady is brighter today; and the golden door that she guards gleams more brilliantly in the light of an increased liberty for the people from all the countries of the globe. Thank you very much.”

Lyndon B. Johnson (1908–1973) American politician, 36th president of the United States (in office from 1963 to 1969)

1960s, Remarks at the signing of the Immigration Bill (1965)

Denis Diderot photo
Sir Alexander Cockburn, 12th Baronet photo
Nathanael Greene photo
John Godfrey Saxe photo

“Don't use strong drink, — pray let me advise, —
It 's bad for the stomach, and ruins the eyes;”

John Godfrey Saxe (1816–1887) American poet

"Polyphemus and Ulysses".

Orson Scott Card photo

“You think my apology means I'm weak. But it doesn't. It means I am trying to learn how to be strong.”

Orson Scott Card (1951) American science fiction novelist

Homecoming saga, The Memory Of Earth (1992)

“This faulty intuition as well as many modern applications of probability theory are under the strong influence of traditional misconceptions concerning the meaning of the law of large numbers and of a popular mystique concerning a so-called law of averages.”

William Feller (1906–1970) Croatian-American mathematician

Source: An Introduction To Probability Theory And Its Applications (Third Edition), Chapter X, Law Of large Numbers, p. 250.

Ramakrishna photo
Morrissey photo
Holly Knight photo
Winston S. Churchill photo

“When I was younger I made it a rule never to take strong drink before lunch. It is now my rule never to do so before breakfast.”

Winston S. Churchill (1874–1965) Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Reply to King George VI, on a cold morning at the airport. The King had asked if Churchill would take something to warm himself. As cited in Man of the Century (2002), Ramsden, Columbia University Press, p. 134 ISBN 0231131062
Post-war years (1945–1955)

Louis Antoine de Saint-Just photo

“The Revolution is frozen; all its principles are weakened; there remains only red caps worn by intriguers. The exercise of terror has made crime blasé, as strong liquors made the palace blasé.”

Louis Antoine de Saint-Just (1767–1794) military and political leader

Fragment 3 (1794). [Source: Saint-Just, Fragments sur les institutions républicaines]

Oliver Cromwell photo

“When I went there, I did not think to have done this. But perceiving the spirit of God so strong upon me, I would not consult flesh and blood.”

Oliver Cromwell (1599–1658) English military and political leader

On his forcible dissolution of parliament (April 1653) quoted in Flagellum: or the Life and Death Birth and Burial of Oliver Cromwell the Late Usurper (1663) by James Heath

George Salmon photo

“The delusion of invincibility can never grow up in the mind of anyone except one who has never met a strong antagonist.”

George Salmon (1819–1904) mathematician and Anglican theologian

The Infallibility of the Church (London: John Murray, 1888; 4th ed. 1914), p. 111 https://archive.org/stream/a607385500salmuoft#page/n143/mode/2up.

Rousas John Rushdoony photo
Koenraad Elst photo

“Negationism and history-distortion require a large-scale effort and a very strong grip on the media of information and education. As soon as the grip loosens, at least the most blatant of the negationist concoctions are bound to be exposed, and its propounders lose all credibility. In 1988, the schools in the Soviet Union decided to suspend the history exams because "the history books are full of lies anyway."”

Koenraad Elst (1959) orientalist, writer

The great lies and distortions of Soviet historiography are now items in the gallery of ridicule.... Just like the Russians have thrown Soviet historiography into the dustbin, Indian negationism will also be thrown out in the near future.
1990s, Negationism in India, (1992)

Swami Vivekananda photo
Orson Scott Card photo
Väinö Linna photo

“The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics won, but racing to the line for a strong second place came feisty little Finland.”

Vanhala, the eternal comedian, summarizing the war after it ends, p. 466.
The Unknown Soldier

Brandon Boyd photo

“If you let them make you,
They'll make you paper mache.
At a distance, you're strong, until the wind comes
Then you crumble and blow away.”

Brandon Boyd (1976) American rock singer, writer and visual artist

Lyrics, Make Yourself (1999)

Rousas John Rushdoony photo

“But lo! the girl, like a frightened dove, that caught in the vast shadow of a hawk falls trembling on some man, no matter who he be, so doth she fling herself into his arms driven by strong fear.”
Ecce autem pavidae virgo de more columbae quae super ingenti circumdata praepetis umbra in quemcumque tremens hominem cadit, haud secus illa acta timore gravi mediam se misit.

Source: Argonautica, Book VIII, Lines 32–35

“It’s not about how strong you were back then, it is about how strong you are right here right now.”

Lauren Manning (1961) American banker

Unmeasured Strength (2011)

Vytautas Juozapaitis photo

“Lithuanian baritone Vytas Juozapaitis brings presence and a warm, strong voice to the title role. When we first see him, hair flying in mid-rape, he looks like Johnny Depp in Pirates of the Caribbean.”

Vytautas Juozapaitis (1963) Lithuanian opera singer

Richard Dyer, "Teatro's Don Giovanni a rousing production". Boston Globe (September 25, 2003)

Theresa Sparks photo
Hillary Clinton photo
Winston S. Churchill photo
Paul Krugman photo
Margaret Cho photo
William Cowper photo
W. Somerset Maugham photo
Fyodor Dostoyevsky photo

“For everyone strives to keep his individuality as apart as possible, wishes to secure the greatest possible fullness of life for himself; but meantime all his efforts result not in attaining fullness of life but self-destruction, for instead of self-realisation he ends by arriving at complete solitude. All mankind in our age have split up into units, they all keep apart, each in his own groove; each one holds aloof, hides himself and hides what he has, from the rest, and he ends by being repelled by others and repelling them. He heaps up riches by himself and thinks, ‘How strong I am now and how secure,’ and in his madness he does not understand that the more he heaps up, the more he sinks into self-destructive impotence. For he is accustomed to rely upon himself alone and to cut himself off from the whole; he has trained himself not to believe in the help of others, in men and in humanity, and only trembles for fear he should lose his money and the privileges that he has won for himself. Everywhere in these days men have, in their mockery, ceased to understand that the true security is to be found in social solidarity rather than in isolated individual effort. But this terrible individualism must inevitably have an end, and all will suddenly understand how unnaturally they are separated from one another. It will be the spirit of the time, and people will marvel that they have sat so long in darkness without seeing the light.”

Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1821–1881) Russian author

The Brothers Karamazov (1879–1880)

Paulo Coelho photo

“The weak are wicked. Goodness can only be expected from the strong.”

Paulo Coelho (1947) Brazilian lyricist and novelist

(15 July 2013) https://twitter.com/paulocoelho
Twitter

George Grove photo
Henry Adams photo
Francis Place photo
Frederick Douglass photo
Lal Bahadur Shastri photo
Carson Grant photo

“The Arts, especially film, transcend all cultural barriers, hopefully offering an avenue where all people can find a common place to meet, understand each other, and nurture a safe world for all our children to grow strong within.”

Carson Grant (1950) American actor

Kaminsky, Denise, Aug 2006, "Carson Grant: Actor/Artist- A Lifetime of Art", Denise's Interviews and Media News, p. 1
About his thought on the Arts

George William Curtis photo
Joyce Brothers photo
William Wordsworth photo

“Thou dost preserve the stars from wrong;
And the most ancient heavens, through Thee, are fresh and strong.”

Stanza 7. http://books.google.com/books?id=pzgJAAAAQAAJ&q=%22Thou+dost+preserve+the+stars+from+wrong+And+the+most+ancient+heavens+through+Thee+are+fresh+and+strong%22&pg=PA73#v=onepage
Ode to Duty http://www.bartleby.com/145/ww271.html (1805)

John P. Kotter photo

“We keep a change in place by helping to create a new, supportive, and sufficiently strong organizational culture.”

John P. Kotter (1947) author of The heart of Change

Step 8, p. 161
The Heart of Change, (2002)

David Cameron photo
Bram van Velde photo
Robert A. Heinlein photo
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow photo

“Alliances are always weaker in peacetime; alliances tend to become hard and fast and strong when things are going badly… but when things are going well, cooperation is hard to achieve.”

Oskar Morgenstern (1902–1977) austrian economist

Source: National Security: Political, Military, Economic Strategies Decade Ahead, (1963), p. 678.

Letitia Elizabeth Landon photo

“Few are the beliefs, still fewer the superstitions of to-day. We pretend to account for everything, till we do not believe enough for that humility so essential to moral discipline. But the dark creed of the fatalist still holds its ground — there is that within us, which dares not deny what, in the still depths of the soul, we feel to have a mysterious predominance. To a certain degree we controul our own actions — we have the choice of right or wrong; but the consequences, the fearful consequences, lie not with us. Let any one look upon the most important epochs of his life; how little have they been of his own making — how one slight thing has led on to another, till the result has been the very reverse of our calculations. Our emotions, how little are they under our own controul! how often has the blanched lip, or the flushed cheek, betrayed what the will was strong to conceal! Of all our sensations, love is the one which has most the stamp of Fate. What a mere chance usually leads to our meeting the person destined to alter the whole current of our life. What a mystery even to ourselves the influence which they exercise over us. Why should we feel so differently towards them, to what we ever felt before? An attachment is an epoch in existence — it leads to casting off old ties, that, till then, had seemed our dearest; it begins new duties; often, in a woman especially, changes the whole character; and yet, whether in its beginning, its continuance or its end, love is as little within our power as the wind that passes, of which no man knows whither it goeth or whence it comes.”

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

No.14. The Bride of Lammermuir — LUCY ASHTON.
Literary Remains

Georgy Zhukov photo
Jacoba van Heemskerck photo

“On the whole [the alignment of a series of stained glass windows with the interior of a villa in The Hague] I have thought about all the time... I want to focus more on the architecture of the interior in general and that should we do together [with architect Buys]... Now I was already thinking, the enormous color effect that the window will generate - and that will certainly become powerful - must be accompanied with strong colors - the hall -, otherwise the window itself will be too much isolated. For instance the staircase, could it be painted in strong colors and not [in] oak.... deep ultramarine blue or green, with a beautiful colorful carpet.... I feel I must make designs for carpets, to create in that way a beautiful unity with the stained glass as a whole.”

Jacoba van Heemskerck (1876–1923) Dutch painter

translation from Dutch, Fons Heijnsbroek, 2018
version in original Dutch / citaat van Jacoba van Heemskerck, in het Nederlands: Over het geheel [de afstemming van een serie aan Jacoba opgedragen glasramen met het interieur van een villa in Den Haag] heb ik steeds loopen denken.. ..ik wil mij veel meer op de architectuur van het binnenhuis in het algemeen toeleggen en dat moeten wij samen doen [met architect Buys].. .Nu heb ik al gedacht het enorme kleur-effekt dat het raam zal maken en dat zal zeker machtig werken, moet gedragen worden door sterke kleuren - de hal - anders staat het teveel alleen; zou de trap b.v. in de verf een sterke kleur kunnen krijgen en niet [in] eikenhout.. ..diep ultramarijn blauw of groen en dan een prachtige kleurige loper.. ..ik voel dat ik ontwerpen voor tapijten moet maken om zoo met het glas in lood een mooi geheel te hebben.
Quote in een brief van Jacoba aan architect J. Buys, 28 April 1920 in archief N.D.B., Amsterdam; as cited by Herbert Henkels, in Jacoba van Heemskerck, kunstenares van het Expressionisme, Haags Gemeentemuseum The Hague, 1982, p. 42
1920's

Rudy Giuliani photo

“There are many qualities that make a great leader but having strong beliefs, being able to stick with them through popular and unpopular times, is the most important characteristic of a great leader.”

Rudy Giuliani (1944–2001) American businessperson and politician, former mayor of New York City

Speech before the 2004 Republican National Convention in New York. August 30, 2004. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3613480.stm

Pierre Trudeau photo

“Our hopes are high. Our faith in the people is great. Our courage is strong. And our dreams for this beautiful country will never die.”

Pierre Trudeau (1919–2000) 15th Prime Minister of Canada

Farewell speech to the Liberal Party http://www.primeministers.ca/trudeau/bio_9.php?context=b (14 June 1984)

Abd al-Karim Qasim photo
Letitia Elizabeth Landon photo
Katherine Philips photo
Isadora Duncan photo
William Styron photo

“When I was first aware that I had been laid low by the disease, I felt a need, among other things, to register a strong protest against the word “depression.” Depression, most people know, used to be termed “melancholia,” a word which appears in English as early as the year 1303 and crops up more than once in Chaucer, who in his usage seemed to be aware of its pathological nuances. “Melancholia” would still appear to be a far more apt and evocative word for the blacker forms of the disorder, but it was usurped by a noun with a bland tonality and lacking any magisterial presence, used indifferently to describe an economic decline or a rut in the ground, a true wimp of a word for such a major illness. It may be that the scientist generally held responsible for its currency in modern times, a Johns Hopkins Medical School faculty member justly venerated — the Swiss-born psychiatrist Adolf Meyer — had a tin ear for the finer rhythms of English and therefore was unaware of the semantic damage he had inflicted by offering “depression” as a descriptive noun for such a dreadful and raging disease. Nonetheless, for over seventy-five years the word has slithered innocuously through the language like a slug, leaving little trace of its intrinsic malevolence and preventing, by its very insipidity, a general awareness of the horrible intensity of the disease when out of control.
As one who has suffered from the malady in extremis yet returned to tell the tale, I would lobby for a truly arresting designation. “Brainstorm,” for instance, has unfortunately been preempted to describe, somewhat jocularly, intellectual inspiration. But something along these lines is needed. Told that someone’s mood disorder has evolved into a storm — a veritable howling tempest in the brain, which is indeed what a clinical depression resembles like nothing else — even the uninformed layman might display sympathy rather than the standard reaction that “depression” evokes, something akin to “So what?” or “You’ll pull out of it” or “We all have bad days.””

The phrase “nervous breakdown” seems to be on its way out, certainly deservedly so, owing to its insinuation of a vague spinelessness, but we still seem destined to be saddled with “depression” until a better, sturdier name is created.
Source: Darkness Visible (1990), IV

Leo Tolstoy photo
Tommy Robinson photo

“We need strong leadership, not cowards who are begging petrol dollars and wanting a block Islamic vote. We need a leader not an appeaser. I'd rather die on my feet than live on my knees. Stand up for what u believe. Never be intimidated by anyone #english #nosurrender.”

Tommy Robinson (1982) English right-wing activist

Tweet quoted in "Woolwich Beheading: EDL Leader Tommy Robinson Tweets Own Death Threats", Internation Business Times (23 May 2013) http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/tommy-robinson-edl-death-threats-woolwich-terrorism-470472
2013

Abby Stein photo
Theodore L. Cuyler photo
Nicolae Paulescu photo
Fritjof Capra photo
Timothy Geithner photo

“We believe in a strong dollar … Chinese financial assets are very safe.”

Timothy Geithner (1961) American central banker and politician

Peking University, May 31, 2009 http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idINPEK12423320090601?rpc=44

Theodore L. Cuyler photo
Honoré de Balzac photo
Taryn Terrell photo
Bode Miller photo

“Anyone who isn’t strong is left in a corner, no one asks for their autograph, they are abandoned in the cold shadows. Those who win, however, become icons.”

Bode Miller (1977) American alpine ski racer

Interview with Gazzetta dello Sport, 16 Feb. 2006 http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11385083/

Jeremy Corbyn photo

“If you do what you believe in, you’re strong. It’s when you don’t do what you believe in that you’re weak. And we are strong.”

Jeremy Corbyn (1949) British Labour Party politician

I'll never forget what Jeremy Corbyn whispered in my ear at a campaign event last week http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/jeremy-corbyn-labour-manifesto-policies-what-was-in-whispered-in-my-ear-campaign-rally-a7738776.html, article by Harriet Williamson, in The Independent (16 May 2017).
2000s

Georgy Zhukov photo
Louis Althusser photo
John Muir photo
Willem de Sitter photo
Richard Hovey photo

“How loving is the Lord God and how strong withal!”

Richard Hovey (1864–1900) American writer

"Benzaquen", p. 109.
Along the Trail (1898)

Thomas Jefferson photo

“I observe an idea of establishing a branch bank of the United States in New Orleans. This institution is one of the most deadly hostility existing against the principles and form of our Constitution. The nation is at this time so strong and united in its sentiments that it cannot be shaken at this moment. But suppose a series of untoward events should occur sufficient to bring into doubt the competency of a republican government to meet a crisis of great danger, or to unhinge the confidence of the people in the public functionaries; an institution like this, penetrating by its branches every part of the union, acting by command and in phalanx may, in a critical moment, upset the government. I deem no government safe which is under the vassalage of any self-constituted authorities, or any other authority than that of the nation or its regular functionaries. What an obstruction could not this Bank of the United States, with al its branch banks, be in time of war! It might dictate to us the peace we should accept, or withdraw its aids. Ought we then to give further growth to an institution so powerful, so hostile?”

Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) 3rd President of the United States of America

Letter to Albert Gallatin (13 December 1803) http://etext.virginia.edu/jefferson/biog/lj34.htm ME 10:437 : The Writings of Thomas Jefferson "Memorial Edition" (20 Vols., 1903-04) edited by Andrew A. Lipscomb and Albert Ellery Bergh, Vol. 10, p. 437
1800s, First Presidential Administration (1801–1805)

John Gray photo
Ilia Chavchavadze photo

“Ah here, O mother is they task,
Thy sacred duty to thy land:
Endow thy sons with spirits strong,
With strength of heart and honor bright;
Inspire them with fraternal love,
To strive for freedom and for right.”

Ilia Chavchavadze (1837–1907) Georgian poet and politician; a saint of Georgian Orthodox Church

Source: Anthology of Georgian Poetry (1948), Lines to a Georgian Mother, p. 59

Jean Vanier photo

“The strong need the weak in order to become more human, more compassionate.”

Jean Vanier (1928–2019) Canadian humanitarian

Jean Vanier: Philosopher.. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/jean-vanier-philosopher-who-dislikes-the-religion-of-success-wins-12m-templeton-prize-for-promoting-spiritual-awareness-10101621.html The Independent, 11 March 2015
From interviews and talks

Isaac Leib Peretz photo
Edgar Degas photo
George Fitzhugh photo

“The bestowing upon men equality of rights, is but giving license to the strong to oppress the weak. It begets the grossest inequalities of condition.”

George Fitzhugh (1806–1881) American activist

Source: Sociology For The South: Or The Failure Of A Free Society (1854), p. 233

Lorenzo Snow photo
David Hume photo
Kim Wilde photo
Will Eisner photo
Frank Wilczek photo
Mahatma Gandhi photo

“The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.”

Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) pre-eminent leader of Indian nationalism during British-ruled India

"Interview to the Press" in Karachi about the execution of Bhagat Singh (23 March 1931); published in Young India (2 April 1931), reprinted in Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi Online Vol. 51. Gandhi begins by making a statement on his failure "to bring about the commutation of the death sentence of Bhagat Singh and his friends." He is asked two questions. First: "Do you not think it impolitic to forgive a government which has been guilty of a thousand murders?" Gandhi replies: "I do not know a single instance where forgiveness has been found so wanting as to be impolitic." In a follow-up question, Gandhi is asked: "But no country has ever shown such forgiveness as India is showing to Britain?" Gandhi replies: "That does not affect my reply. What is true of individuals is true of nations. One cannot forgive too much. The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong."
1930s