Quotes about strength
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“Be wary of strong drink. It can make you shoot at tax collectors — and miss.”

Robert A. Heinlein Time Enough for Love

Source: Time Enough for Love (1973)

Drink

“The world cries for men who are strong; strong in conviction, strong to lead, to stand, to suffer.”

Elisabeth Elliot (1926–2015) American missionary

Source: The Mark of a Man

Men, World, Suffering

“Be strong, live happy and love, but first of all
Him whom to love is to obey, and keep
His great command!”

John Milton book Paradise Lost

Source: Paradise Lost

Love, Happiness

“Shouts of dismay rose as the red flesh splattered against the table. It was only a tomato, but one would think I was pulping a decaying heart by the noise the big, strong FIB officers were making.”

Kim Harrison (1966) Pseudonym

Source: Dead Witch Walking

Thinking, Heart

“I have found my star. She is beauty and grace. Elegance and goodness. My laughter in winter. She is courageous and strong. Bold and tempting. Unlike any other in all the universe, and I cannot touch her. I dare not even try." [Zarek]”

Sherrilyn Kenyon book Dance with the Devil

Source: Dance with the Devil

Beauty, Star, Courage, Laughter

“If you weaken, I'll be strong. If you get lost, I'll be your way home. If you despair, I'll bring you joy. I will love you until the end of time.”

Karen Marie Moning (1964) author

Source: Iced

Love, Way, Home, Time

“I used to be strong, but now I am weak.
I used to be pretty, but now I look sick.”

E. Lockhart book We Were Liars

Source: We Were Liars

“Strong and independent? I’m neither. I’m just being pushed along by reality, whether I like it or not.”

Haruki Murakami book Kafka on the Shore

Source: Kafka on the Shore

Reality

“Laura felt a warmth inside her. It was very small, but it was strong. It was steady, like a tiny light in the dark, and it burned very low but no winds could make it flicker because it would not give up.”

Laura Ingalls Wilder book The Long Winter

Source: The Long Winter

Light

“The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, but to those who see it coming and jump aside.”

Hunter S. Thompson The Rum Diary

Source: 1990s, The Rum Diary (1998)

“That was when we smelled the rain. It was so strong it seemed like more than just a smell. When we stretched out our hands we could practically feel it rising up from the ground. I don’t know how a person could ever describe that scent.”

Barbara Kingsolver The Bean Trees

Source: The Bean Trees

Feeling, Personality

“Too much sun after a Syracuse winter does strange things to your head, makes you feel strong, even if you aren't.”

Laurie Halse Anderson Speak

Source: Speak

Feeling, Winter, Sun

“I’m not strong enough for this,” he whispered in her ear—like he didn’t want anyone to hear that coming out of his mouth. Ever. Running her hands up his powerful back, she held him just as hard. “But I am.”

Jessica Bird (1969) U.S. novelist

Source: The King

“I want someone who is fierce and will love me until death and knows that love is as strong as death, and be on my side forever and ever. I want someone who will destroy and be destroyed by me.”

Jeanette Winterson book Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit

Source: Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit

Love, Death

“Everything nourishes what is strong already”

Jane Austen book Pride and Prejudice

Source: Pride and Prejudice

“We're told that men are strong & brave, but I think women know how to endure, accept defeat & bear physical & mental agony much better than men.”

Lisa See book Shanghai Girls

Source: Shanghai Girls

Women, Men, Thinking

“The past does not only draw us back to the past. There are certain memories of the past that have strong steel springs and, when we who live in the present touch them, they are suddenly stretched taut and then they propel us into the future.”

Yukio Mishima book The Temple of the Golden Pavilion

Source: The Temple of the Golden Pavilion

Spring, Memory, Past, Future

“Hey I bruise," Hale said. "Also, you are freakishly strong.”

Ally Carter (1974) American writer

Source: Double Crossed: A Spies and Thieves Story

“Keep what you hold in your heart safe and strong.”

Cameron Dokey (1956) American writer

Heart

“The men in my family are strong because the women in my family kill and eat the weak ones.”

Robert Jordan (1948–2007) American writer

Women, Men, Family

“There's nothing like a head-strong woman to make you happy to be alive.”

Wendelin Van Draanen Flipped

Source: Flipped (2001)

Happiness

“But you have to learn to bend a little,” said Clary with a yawn. Despite the story’s content, the rhythm of Jace’s voice had made her sleepy. “Or you’ll break.” “Not if you're strong enough,” said Jace firmly.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Bones

Source: City of Bones

Learning

“Love is the voice under all silences, the hope which has no opposite in fear; the strength so strong mere force is feebleness: the truth more first than sun, more last than star…”

E.E. Cummings (1894–1962) American poet

"being to timelessness as it's to time" (1958)

Love, Truth, Fear, Hope

“Other men are strong like bricks - firm, unyielding, but if you pound on them long enough, they crack. You… you're strong like the wind. Always there, so willing to bend, but never apologetic for the times when you must be firm.”

Brandon Sanderson (1975) American fantasy writer

Source: The Well of Ascension

Men, Time

“Her burdens were her own and burdens were for shoulders strong enough to bear them.”

Margaret Mitchell book Vom Winde verweht (1937 German edition)

Variant: Burdens are for shoulders strong enough to carry them.
Source: Gone with the Wind

“It was mortifying to find how strong the habit of idle speech may become in one’s self. One need not always be saying something in this noisy world.”

Sarah Orne Jewett (1849–1909) American novelist, short story writer and poet

Source: The Country of the Pointed Firs and Other Stories

World

“This world… belongs to the strong, my friend! The ritual of our existence is based on the strong getting stronger by devouring the weak.”

Ken Kesey book One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Source: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

World

“The bird that would soar above the plain of tradition and prejudice must have strong wings.”

Douglas Adams The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy pentalogy

Source: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Bird

“Shame isn't a strong enough word for what I feel.
"You could live a hundred lifetimes and not deserve him, you know," Haymitch says.”

Suzanne Collins book Catching Fire

Source: Catching Fire

Feeling

“Never violate a woman, nor harm a child. Do not lie, cheat or steal. These things are for lesser men. Protect the weak against the evil strong. And never allow thoughts of gain to lead you into the persuit of evil.”

David Gemmell book White Wolf

Source: White Wolf

Men, Lie, Evil, Cheating

“3. There are bears and there are small dogs. Be strong like bear! If they take out your teeth, sit on the dogs. Bears always forget they can just sit on the dogs. Sit on the dogs.”

Dave Eggers You Shall Know Our Velocity

Source: You Shall Know Our Velocity

Dogs, Forgetting

“If one is strong, one loves the more strongly.”

Henry James book The Portrait of a Lady

Source: The Portrait of a Lady

Love

“The future is now. It's time to grow up and be strong. Tomorrow may well be too late.”

Neil LaBute (1963) Film director, playwright, screenwriter

Source: Reasons to Be Pretty

Time, Future

“Whoever invented marriage was an ingenious tormentor. It is an institution committed to the dulling of the feelings. The whole point of marriage is repetition. The best it aims for is the creation of strong, mutual dependencies.”

Susan Sontag (1933–2004) American writer and filmmaker, professor, and activist

Source: Reborn: Journals and Notebooks, 1947-1963

Marriage, Feeling, Dependency

“Weak is he who permits his thoughts to control his actions; strong is he who forces his actions to control his thoughts.”

Og Mandino (1923–1996) American author

“He who conquers others is strong; he who conquers himself is mighty" - Lao-tsu
One who can control his thoughts has conquered himself.”

Boyd K. Packer (1924–2015) American Mormon leader

“He was a killer, a thing that preyed, living on the things that lived, unaided, alone, by virtue of his own strength and prowess, surviving triumphantly in a hostile environment where only the strong survive.”

Jack London book Call of the Wild

Source: The Call of the Wild (1903)

Hostility

“If fate is a millstone, we are the grist. There is nothing we can do. So I wish for strength. If I cannot protect them from the wheel, then give me a strong blade, and enough strength, to shatter fate”

Tite Kubo (1977) Japanese manga artist

Fate

“The block of granite which was an obstacle in the pathway of the weak becomes a stepping-stone in the pathway of the strong.”

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish philosopher, satirical writer, essayist, historian and teacher

“Human beings are remarkable - at what we can learn to live with. If we couldn't get strong from what we lose, and what we miss, and what we want and can't have, then we couldn't ever get strong enough, could we? What else makes us strong?”

John Irving book The Hotel New Hampshire

Source: The Hotel New Hampshire

Learning

“He was contemplation and enthusiasm. Ambition and strong coffee.”

E. Lockhart book We Were Liars

Variant: He was contemplation and enthusiasm. Ambition and strong coffee. I could have looked at him forever.
Source: We Were Liars

Coffee

“Hold on to that new, enlarge vision of victory that God has given you. Start expecting things to change in your favor. Dare to boldly declare that you are standing strong against the forces of darkness.”

Joel Osteen (1963) American televangelist and author

Source: Your Best Life Now: 7 Steps to Living at Your Full Potential

God, Change, Victory

“You can't grow strong without resistance.”

Rick Warren (1954) Christian religious leader

“In his wolf-skin he was as strong as any of them, but he was a gentle person in many ways. He'd feel so bad about failing he'd probably step aside for someone else without a fight.”

Annette Curtis Klause Blood and Chocolate

Source: Blood and Chocolate

Way, Feeling, Wolf, Fight

“The heads of strong old age are beautiful / Beyond all grace of youth”

Robinson Jeffers (1887–1962) American poet

Youth, Age, Beauty

“Once, poets were magicians. Poets were strong, stronger than warriors or kings — stronger than old hapless gods. And they will be strong once again.”

Greg Bear (1951) American writer best known for science fiction

God

“He loved her, and he would love her until the day he was too old for loving--but he could not have her. So he tasted the deep pain that is reserved only for the strong, just as he had tasted for a little while the deep happiness.”

F. Scott Fitzgerald book Winter Dreams

Source: Winter Dreams

Love, Pain, Happiness

“It is the things you cannot see coming that are strong enough to kill you.”

Jodi Picoult My Sister's Keeper

Source: My Sister's Keeper

“You gain power by pretending to be weak. By contrast, you make people feel strong. You save people by letting them save you.”

Chuck Palahniuk book Choke

Source: Choke

People, Feeling

“Reality in strong doses frightens.”

Victor Hugo (1802–1885) French poet, novelist, and dramatist

Source: The Toilers of the Sea

Reality

“The culture we have does not make people feel good about themselves. And you have to be strong enough to say if the culture doesn't work, don't buy it. Create your own.”

Mitch Albom Tuesdays with Morrie

Source: Tuesdays with Morrie

People, Feeling

“I am fascinated by what is beautiful, strong, healthy, what is living. I seek harmony.”

Leni Riefenstahl (1902–2003) German film director, photographer, actress and dancer

Beauty

“Like all really strong-minded women, on whom everybody flops, she adored being bossed about. It was so restful.”

Stella Gibbons book Cold Comfort Farm

Source: Cold Comfort Farm

Women

“She thought she was independent and strong, but she got one small taste of love and she was hungrier than anyone. She was ravenous.”

Ann Brashares book Girls in Pants: The Third Summer of the Sisterhood

Source: Girls in Pants: The Third Summer of the Sisterhood

Love

“Weak people believe what is forced on them. Strong people what they wish to believe, forcing that to be real.”

Gene Wolfe (1931–2019) American science fiction and fantasy writer

Source: Shadow & Claw

People

“Darkness approaches from outside.
I feel no light inside me strong enough to resist it.”

Christopher Pike book The Last Vampire

Source: The Last Vampire

Feeling, Light

“Every couple needs to argue now and then. Just to prove that the relationship is strong enough to survive. Long-term relationships, the ones that matter, are all about weathering the peaks and the valleys.”

Nicholas Sparks book Safe Haven

Source: Safe Haven

Weather, Relationship, For Wife

“The man who is honest and good ought to be exactly like a man who smells strong, so that the bystander as soon as he comes near him must smell whether he choose or not.”

Marcus Aurelius book Meditations

XI, 15
Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book XI
Source: The Apology, Phaedo & Crito of Plato/Golden Sayings of Epictetus/Meditations of Marcus Aurelius

“Character is higher than intellect…A great soul will be strong to live, as well as strong to think.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet

1830s, The American Scholar http://www.emersoncentral.com/amscholar.htm (1837) <br class="br">Context: Character is higher than intellect... A great soul will be strong to live, as well as strong to think.

Soul, Thinking

“No one is ever quite as strong or as weak as you'd think.”

Deb Caletti (1963) American writer

Source: The Six Rules of Maybe

Thinking

“May you grow up to be righteous, may you grow up to be true. May you always know the truth and see the lights surrounding you. May you always be courageous, stand upright and be strong. May you stay forever young.”

Bob Dylan (1941) American singer-songwriter, musician, author, and artist

Truth, Courage, Light

“If you’re concerned about your health, you should probably avoid products that make health claims. Why? Because a health claim on a food product is a strong indication it’s not really food, and food is what you want to eat”

Michael Pollan (1955) American author, journalist, activist, and professor of journalism

Source: In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto

Health, Food

“The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong at the broken places. But those that will not break it kills. It kills the very good and the very gentle and the very brave impartially. If you are none of these you can be sure it will kill you too but there will be no special hurry.”

Ernest Hemingway book A Farewell to Arms

Source: A Farewell to Arms (1929), Ch. 34

World

“The chains of habit are too weak to be felt until they are too strong to be broken.”

Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) English writer

“You can not entertain weak, harmful, negative thoughts ten hours a day and expect to bring about beautiful, strong and harmonious conditions by ten minutes of strong, positive, creative thought.”

Charles F. Haanel book The Master Key System

Source: The Master Key System

Beauty

“… our impulses are too strong for our judgement sometimes”

Thomas Hardy (1840–1928) English novelist and poet

Source: Tess of the D'Urbervilles

“a man would know the women he was meant to be with because she made him weak. Till he claimed her and she made him strong.”

Kresley Cole American writer

Source: If You Deceive

Women

“There are things of which I may not speak;
There are dreams that cannot die;
There are thoughts that make the strong heart weak,
And bring a pallor into the cheek,
And a mist before the eye.”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882) American poet

Dreams, Heart

“She couldnt let that happen again. She would have to be strong. Fearless. Gird
herself with righteous armor.
She jumped when the door clicked shut. Oh great, that was real fearless of her.”

Kerrelyn Sparks (1955) American writer

Source: Vampire Mine

“Death didn't bother me much. Strong Christian and all that. Method of death did. Being eaten alive. One of my top three ways not to go out.”

Laurell K. Hamilton book The Laughing Corpse

Source: The Laughing Corpse

Death, Way

“He bent down to her; their mouths met again, and the shock of sensation was so strong, so overpowering, that she shut her eyes against it as if she could hide in the darkness. He murmured and gathered her against him.”

Cassandra Clare (1973) American author

“That's what gets me through the day. Knowing that I could do it. That I'm strong enough to do it and I can get it done.”

Ned Vizzini book It's Kind of a Funny Story

Source: It's Kind of a Funny Story

“Sometimes when I'm alone, I take the pearl from where it lives in my pocket and try to remember the boy with the bread, the strong arms that warded off nightmares on the train, the kisses in the arena. To make myself put a name to the thing I've lost. But what's the use? It's gone. He's gone. Whatever existed between us is gone. All that's left is my promise to kill Snow. I tell myself this ten times a day.”

Suzanne Collins book Mockingjay

Katniss (p. 195)
Source: The Hunger Games trilogy, Mockingjay (2010)

Boy, Kiss, Time, Training

“You don't know how strong something is until you actually test it.”

Nicholas Sparks book The Longest Ride

Source: The Longest Ride

“I learned that it is the weak who are cruel, and that gentleness is to be expected only from the strong.”

Leo Rosten (1908–1997) American writer

Source: Captain Newman, M. D (1962), p. 328; this is also sometimes attributed to Leo Buscaglia, who often quoted it in his addresses and in his book Living, Loving and Learning (1982).

Learning