Quotes about strength
page 7

“Thankfully I’m not most women. I don’t get off on danger. I get off on a man with strong moral fiber. The closest Barrons ever gets to fiber is walking down the cereal aisle at the grocery store.”

Karen Marie Moning (1964) author

Source: Bloodfever

Women

“For love is as strong as death.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Prince

Source: Clockwork Prince

Love, Death

“She is brave and strong and broken all at once. As she speaks it is as if her existence is no longer real to her in itself, more like a living epitaph to a life that was.”

Anna Funder (1966) Australian writer

Source: Stasiland: Stories from Behind the Berlin Wall

Life

“She didn't quite know what the relationship was between lunatics and the moon, but it must be a strong one, if they used a word like that to describe the insane.”

Paulo Coelho (1947) Brazilian lyricist and novelist

Source: Veronika Decides to Die

“Screw the Silent Brothers."
"No thanks. There's strong and silent, and then there's just freaky."
"Isabelle!”

Cassandra Clare The City of Lost Souls

Source: City of Lost Souls

“Dare to be strong and courageous. That is the road. Venture anything.”

Sherwood Anderson (1876–1941) writer

Courage

“And then it was all happening, what had started to happen at least twice before. Feelings so sweet and strong she could hardly bear it. Strange recognition, unexpected belonging…impossible knowing…”

L.J. Smith (1965) American author

Source: Night World, No. 2

Feeling

“stanchion, n.

I don't want to be the strong one, but I don't want to be the weak one either. Why does it feel like it's always one or the other? When we embrace, one of us is always holding the other a little tighter.”

David Levithan The Lover's Dictionary

Source: The Lover's Dictionary

Feeling

“The two important things that I did learn were that you are as powerful and strong as you allow yourself to be, and that the most difficult part of any endeavour is taking the first step, making the first decision.”

Robyn Davidson (1950) Australian writer

Source: Tracks

Decision, Learning, Parting

“Holding people away from you, and denying yourself love, that doesn't make you strong. if anything, it makes you weaker. Because you're doing it out of fear.”

Sarah Dessen book This Lullaby

Source: This Lullaby

Love, People, Fear

“A strong relationship is an honest relationship, and no honest relationship is all peaches and cream. Love is the key. Where love abides, anger is but a passing visitor.”

Jerry Spinelli (1941) American children's writer

Source: Today I Will: A Year of Quotes, Notes, and Promises to Myself

Love, Anger

“People who believe that they are strong-willed and the masters of their destiny can only continue to believe this by becoming specialists in self-deception.”

James Baldwin book Giovanni's Room

Source: Giovanni's Room

People

“I trusted her about as far as I could throw her. I was strong and she was small, but it still wasn't very far.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Slays

“It's a matter of taking the side of the weak against the strong, something the best people have always done.”

Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811–1896) Abolitionist, author

Attributed

People

“Tamaki: Having the courage to be able to admit what you love… enjoying what you love… and being true to yourself… Isn't that also what it means to be strong?”

Bisco Hatori (1975) Japanese manga artist

Source: Ouran High School Host Club, Vol. 7

Love, Courage

“How did you get me here? (Tory)
I have my evil Jedi ways. The Force is strong with this one. (Acheron)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Acheron

Way, Evil

“And I remembered with a pang what had happened to me the previous summer - that even Gallagher Girls aren't always as strong as they need to be.”

Ally Carter (1974) American writer

Source: United We Spy

Girl, Summer

“We should be inspired by people… who show that human beings can be kind, brave, generous, beautiful, strong-even in the most difficult circumstances.”

Rachel Corrie (1979–2003) American anti-war and human rights activist

People, Beauty

“Be smart, be strong, be proud, live honorably and with dignity, and just hold on.”

James Frey book A Million Little Pieces

Variant: Be strong. Live honorably and with dignity. When you don't think you can, hold on.
Source: A Million Little Pieces

“This word: Thou shalt not be overcome, was said full clearly and full mightily, for assuredness and comfort against all tribulations that may come. He said not: Thou shalt not be tempested, thou shalt not be travailed, thou shalt not be afflicted; but He said: Thou shalt not be overcome. God willeth that we take heed to these words, and that we be ever strong in sure trust, in weal and woe. For He loveth and enjoyeth us, and so willeth He that we love and enjoy Him and mightily trust in Him; and all shall be well.
And soon after, all was close and I saw no more.”

Julian of Norwich book Revelations of Divine Love

The Sixteenth Revelation, Chapter 68
Source: Revelations of Divine Love

Love, God, Affliction

“I can awaken things inside you that have been sleeping all your life. You're strong enough to live in the dark, to glory in it. You can become a queen of the shadows. Why not take that power, Elena? Let me help you take it.”

L.J. Smith (1965) American author

Source: The Awakening / The Struggle

Life, Sleep, Help

“Besides, every couple needs to argue now and then. Just to prove that the relationship is strong enough to survive it.”

Nicholas Sparks book Safe Haven

Source: Safe Haven

“Scraps of Magic:
These are little scraps of magic & when you paste them together you get a memory of something fine & strong, she said. Sometimes it takes till you're 40 to see it though.”

Brian Andreas (1956) American artist

Memory, Past

“I don't forgive people because I'm weak, I forgive them because I am strong enough to know people make mistakes.”

Marilyn Monroe (1926–1962) American actress, model, and singer

People, Forgiveness

“I have a strong will to love you for eternity.”

Milan Kundera book Immortality

Source: Immortality

Love

“I get off on a man with strong moral fiber. The closest Barrons ever gets to fiber is walking down the cereal aisle at the grocery store.”

Karen Marie Moning (1964) author

Source: Bloodfever

“One can know worlds one has not experienced, choose a response to life that has never been offered, create an inwardness utterly strong and fruitful.”

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

Source: Reborn: Journals and Notebooks, 1947-1963

Life, World

“Fear and realisation of ignorance, strong medicines against stupid pride.”

Garth Nix book Abhorsen

Source: Sabriel

Stupidity, Fear

“I thought we had lost you. I thought we'd done something worse than let you die.' His old arms were tight and strong about me.

I was kind to the old man. I did not tell him they had.”

Robin Hobb book Assassin's Quest

Source: Assassin's Quest

“We swore sacred oaths to be strong and to save the planet and to be friends forever.”

Laurie Halse Anderson Wintergirls

Source: Wintergirls

“Weak emperors mean strong viceroys.”

Isaac Asimov book Foundation

Source: Foundation

“You’ll come back
To me…
It’s written in the stars, you see,
you’ll come back.
You’ll come back,
it’s a fact
that I am strong because I do
believe in you.”

Umberto Eco book The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana

Source: The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana

Star

“Through dangers untold and hardships unnumbered I have fought my way here to the castle beyond the Goblin City to take back the child you have stolen, for my will is as strong as yours and my kingdom as great. You have no power over me!”

Jim Henson (1936–1990) American puppeteer

Way

“Sometimes our strengths are also our weaknesses. Sometimes to be strong you have to first be weak. You have to share your burdens; you have to lean on other people while you face your problems and yourself.”

Glenn Beck (1964) U.S. talk radio and television host

Source: The Christmas Sweater

People, Problem

“You have no idea how strong my love is!”

Elizabeth Gilbert book Eat, Pray, Love

Source: Eat, Pray, Love

Love, Idea

“I am a strong believer in the tyranny, the dictatorship, the absolute authority of the writer.”

Philip Pullman (1946) English author

“I ran home in the moonlight with firm strides; for the sun-love made me strong.”

John Muir (1838–1914) Scottish-born American naturalist and author

Source: The Wild Muir: Twenty-Two of John Muir's Greatest Adventures

Love, Home, Sun

“The bird that would soar above the plane of tradition and prejudice must have strong wings. It is a sad spectacle to see the weaklings bruised, exhausted, fluttering back to earth.”

Kate Chopin book The Awakening

Source: The Awakening (1899)

Sadness, Bird

“It gets so tiring, this strong-picking-on-the-weak stuff. It was the story of my life -literally- and it seemed to be a big part of the outside world too. I was sick of it, sick of guys like these, stupid and bullying.”

James Patterson (1947) American author

Source: The Angel Experiment

Life, Stupidity, World, Guy

“I know it's not good to be weak and helpless. But I don't think it's good to be too strong either. In our society, they talk about survival of the fittest. But we're not animals. We're human.”

Natsuki Takaya (1973) Manga artist

Thinking, Animals

“The thinnest slice would be teeming with memories of a love so strong it turned you inside out and left you gasping, and would be an identical match to a slice stored in the heart of a soul mate.”

Jodi Picoult (1966) Author

Love, Soul, Memory, Heart

“The strong live off the weak and the clever live off the strong.”

Neil Strauss book The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists

Source: The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists

“There comes an hour when protest no longer suffices; after philosophy there must be action; the strong hand finishes what the idea has sketched.”

Victor Hugo book Les Misérables

Source: Les Misérables

Idea

“A dominant wolf's desire to protect was a strong instinct--Samuel was very dominant. Give him an inch, and he'd take over the world--my life, if I let him." ~Mercy”

Patricia Briggs book Blood Bound

Source: Blood Bound

Life, World, Wolf

“He was all silver and ashes, not like Will's strong colors of blue and black and gold.”

Cassandra Clare (1973) American author

Source: The Infernal Devices: Clockwork Angel

Color

“But to admire a strong person
and to live under that strong person’s thumb are
two different things.”

George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish playwright

Personality

“We are like water, aren’t we? We can be fluid, flexible when we have to be. But strong and destructive, too.” And something else, I think to myself. Like water, we mostly follow the path of least resistance.”

Wally Lamb (1950) american novelist

Source: We Are Water

Thinking, Water

“Maybe the Merlin was right. Maybe its better to look stupid but strong, than it is to look smart but weak, I don't know. I'm not sure I want to believe that the world stage bears that strong a resemblance to high school.”

Jim Butcher Turn Coat

Source: Turn Coat

Stupidity, World, School

“I want my people to be protected, strong, and not to be driven into corners until they either become killers or are killed!”

Cassandra Clare (1973) American author

Source: Vampires, Scones, and Edmund Herondale

People

“truth is that which makes a people certain, clear, and strong.”

Martin Heidegger (1889–1976) German philosopher

People, Truth

“Strong relationships are not rocked by a truth that is grounded by resolute monogamy.”

Jessica Bird (1969) U.S. novelist

Truth

“Who wants to recover? It took me years to get that tiny. I wasn't sick; I was strong.”

Laurie Halse Anderson Wintergirls

Source: Wintergirls

“She was so tired of being strong.”

Kristin Hannah book The Nightingale

Source: The Nightingale

“Don't use such strong words. It'll only make you look weak.”

Tite Kubo (1977) Japanese manga artist

Source: Bleach, Volume 01

“Grow strong, my comrade … that you may stand
Unshaken when I fall; that I may know
The shattered fragments of my song will come
At last to finer melody in you;
That I may tell my heart that you begin
Where passing I leave off, and fathom more.”

Will Durant (1885–1981) American historian, philosopher and writer

Source: The Story of Philosophy: The Lives and Opinions of the World's Greatest Philosophers

Heart

“Don't wait for extraordinary opportunities. Seize common occasions and make them great. Weak men wait for opportunities; strong men make them.”

Orison Swett Marden (1850–1924) American writer

Men, Waiting

“By morning she was dead. She had not died of starvation or committed suicide by any conventional means. She had simply willed herself to die, and being a strong-willed woman, she had succeeded. She had missed dying on her birthday by two days.”

John Berendt Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil

Source: Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil

Birthday, Suicide, Dead

“If we are strong enough in our souls we can rip away the veil and look that naked, terrible beauty right in the face; let God consume us, devour us, unstring our bones. Then spit us out reborn.”

Donna Tartt book The Secret History

Source: The Secret History

God, Beauty, Soul

“She was bored. She loved, had capacity to love, for love, to give and accept love. Only she tried twice and failed twice to find somebody not just strong enough to deserve it, earn it, match it, but even brave enough to accept it.”

William Faulkner book The Town

Source: The Town

Love

“Formerly, when religion was strong and science weak, men mistook magic for medicine; now, when science is strong and religion weak, men mistake medicine for magic.”

Thomas Szasz (1920–2012) Hungarian psychiatrist

"Science and Scientism", p. 115.
The Second Sin (1973)

Men, Religion, Science

“Offended people still may experience miracles, words of utterance, strong preaching, and healing in their lives. But these are gifts of the Spirit, not fruits. We will be judged according to fruit, not gifting. A gift is given. Fruit is cultivated.”

John Bevere (1959) American author

Source: The Bait Of Satan: Living Free from the Deadly Trap of Offense

People

“Women scheme when they are weak, they lie out of fear. Men scheme when they are strong, they lie out of arrogance.”

Julian Barnes book Flaubert's Parrot

Source: Flaubert's Parrot

Women, Men, Lie, Fear

“White Fang knew the law well: to oppress the weak and obey the strong.”

Jack London Index:London - White Fang, 1906.djvu

Source: White Fang

Law

“Propriety's never been Adrian's strong suit.”

Richelle Mead book The Indigo Spell

Source: The Indigo Spell

“I think men who can cry are strong men”

James Frey book A Million Little Pieces

Source: A Million Little Pieces

Men, Thinking, Cry

“Well, for one thing, the culture we have does not make people feel good about themselves. We're teaching the wrong things. And you have to be strong enough to say if the culture doesn't work, don't buy it. Create your own. Most people can't do it.”

Mitch Albom Tuesdays with Morrie

Source: Tuesdays with Morrie

People, Feeling

“I knew I was strong, and maybe like they said, "crazy." But I had this feeling inside of me that something real was there.”

Charles Bukowski book Ham on Rye

Source: Ham on Rye

Feeling

“CNN found that Hillary Clinton is the most admired woman in America. Women admire her because she's strong and successful. Men admire her because she allows her husband to cheat and get away with it.”

Jay Leno (1950) American comedian, actor, writer, producer, voice actor and television host

Women, Men, Success, Cheating

“Would I be as strong as that once I did that thing Christophe was talking about? Blooming? Would I smell like a bakery item? Or was that just him? Did he use pie filling for cologne?”

Lilith Saintcrow book Strange Angels

Source: Strange Angels

“No deep and strong feeling, such as we may come across here and there in the world, is unmixed with compassion. The more we love, the more the object of our love seems to be a victim.”

Borís Pasternak book Doctor Zhivago

Source: Doctor Zhivago

Love, World, Feeling

“Sometimes you build up these walls, you build and you build and you build up these walls and you think they’re so strong, but then someone can come along and tip them over with only his fingers, or the weight of his breath.”

Deb Caletti (1963) American writer

Source: Wild Roses

Thinking

“A good man is as strong as the right woman needs him to be.”

Gregory David Roberts book Shantaram

Source: Shantaram

“Peace fell upon her spirit. Strong comfort and assurance bathed her whole being. Life was so solid and splendid, and so good.”

Thomas Wolfe book You Can't Go Home Again

Source: You Can't Go Home Again

Life, Peace

“Choose rather to be strong in soul than in body.”

Pythagoras (-585–-495 BC) ancient Greek mathematician and philosopher

"Pythagorean Ethical Sentences From Stobæus" (1904)
Choose rather to be strong of soul than strong of body.
As quoted in Florilegium, I.22, as translated in Dictionary of Quotations (1906) by Thomas Benfield Harbottle, p. 396
Florilegium

Soul, Powerful

“Men are strong so long as they represent a strong idea, they become powerless when they oppose it.”

Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) Austrian neurologist known as the founding father of psychoanalysis

Men, Idea

“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 (1896–1940) American novelist and screenwriter

Source: All the Sad Young Men

Pain, Happiness

“What am I supposed to do,
Sit around and wait for you?
Well I can't do that,
And there's no turning back.
I need time to move on,
I need love to feel strong.
Cause I've got time to think it through,
And maybe I'm too good for you!”

Cher (1946) American singer and actress

Love, Feeling, Thinking, Time

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

Kate Chopin book The Awakening

Source: The Awakening

Bird

“Most reckless things are beautiful in some way, and recklessness is what makes experimental art beautiful, just as religions are beautiful because of the strong possibilities that they are founded on nothing.”

John Ashbery (1927–2017) poet from the United States

Religion, Beauty, Art, Way

“I feel strong. Not strong enough to face myself, but strong enough to keep going.”

James Frey book A Million Little Pieces

Source: A Million Little Pieces

Feeling

“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.”

John Irving book The Hotel New Hampshire

Source: The Hotel New Hampshire

“But the spirit of Eve is strong in all her daughters.”

Louisa May Alcott (1832–1888) American novelist

Daughters

“Strong women are absolutely unpredictable.”

Anne Rice book The Vampire Lestat

Source: The Vampire Lestat

Women

“Ascente cha ores ri ve breazza."
"Turn your ear to the wind," she interpreted. "Stand strong.”

Mary E. Pearson book The Kiss of Deception

Source: The Kiss of Deception

“A truly strong person does not need the approval of others any more than a lion needs the approval of sheep.”

Vernon Howard (1918–1992) American writer

Personality

“Those who have a strong sense of love and belonging have the courage to be imperfect.”

Brené Brown (1965) US writer and professor

Love, Courage, Sense

“I always run into strong women who are looking for weak men to dominate them.”

Andy Warhol (1928–1987) American artist

Women, Men

“It was so much easier to be angry. Being angry made him feel strong, even though-- and this contradiction did nothing to diminish his anger-- he was angry only because his position was so weak.”

Lev Grossman The Magicians

Source: The Magicians

Feeling, Anger

“Another of these strong silent men. The world is full of us.”

P.G. Wodehouse (1881–1975) English author

Men, World

“Q: So, why do you write these strong female characters?
A: Because you’re still asking me that question.”

Joss Whedon (1964) American director, writer, and producer for television and film

"American Rhetoric: Joss Whedon - Equality Now Address" (15 May 2006) http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/josswhedonequalitynow.htm

Question

“I learned the lesson that great men cultivate love, and that only little men cherish a spirit of hatred. I learned that assistance given to the weak makes the one who gives it strong; and that oppression of the unfortunate makes one weak.”

Booker T. Washington book Up from Slavery

Source: 1900s, Up From Slavery (1901), Chapter XI: Making Their Beds Before They Could Lie On Them
Source: Up from Slavery

Love, Men

“The oppressor has always indoctrinated the weak with this interpretation of the crimes of the strong.”

Carter G. Woodson book The Mis-Education of the Negro

Source: The Mis-Education of the Negro (1933), Chapter XVIII: The Study of the Negro
Context: The chief reason why so many give such a little attention to the background of the Negro is the belief that this study is unimportant. They consider as history only such deeds as those of Mussolini who after building up an efficient war machine with the aid of other Europeans would now use it to murder unarmed and defenseless Africans who have restricted themselves exclusively to attending to their own business. If Mussolini succeeds in crushing Abyssinia he will be recorded in "history" among the Caesars, and volumes written in praise of the conqueror will find their way to the homes and libraries of thousands of miseducated Negroes. The oppressor has always indoctrinated the weak with this interpretation of the crimes of the strong.

“Strong convictions precede great actions.”

Louisa May Alcott (1832–1888) American novelist