“Some people think that friendliness is a sign of weakness, when in reality it is a sign of strength.”

Last update March 25, 2023. History

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Tenzin Gyatso photo

“Compassion and tolerance are not a sign of weakness, but a sign of strength.”

Tenzin Gyatso (1935) spiritual leader of Tibet

As quoted in Words Of Wisdom: Selected Quotes by His Holiness the Dalai Lama (2001) edited by Margaret Gee, p. 71.

Swami Vivekananda photo
Sting photo

“Dissent is a legitimate and essential right in any democracy and modern politicians must accept this fact with tolerance. A sense of proportion — and a sense of humour — is a sign of strength, not a sign of weakness.”

Sting (1951) English musician

Joining with Amnesty International in condemning the Russian authorities’ treatment of Pussy Riot, a Russian punk rock protest band. "Sting condemns Russia's treatment of Pussy Riot musicians ahead of Moscow concert" Amnesty International (25 July 2012) http://www.amnesty.org/en/news/sting-condemns-russias-treatment-pussy-riot-musicians-ahead-moscow-concert-2012-07-25

Lupe Fiasco photo
Laurie Halse Anderson photo
Camille Paglia photo

“The money is a confession of weakness. They have to buy women's attention. It's not a sign of power; it's a sign of weakness.”

Camille Paglia (1947) American writer

As quoted in Sexuality and Gender (2002) by Christine R. Williams and Arlene Stein, p. 213
Context: The feminist line is, strippers and topless dancers are degraded, subordinated, and enslaved; they are victims, turned into objects by the display of their anatomy. But women are far from being victims — women rule; they are in total control … the feminist analysis of prostitution says that men are using money as power over women. I'd say, yes, that's all that men have. The money is a confession of weakness. They have to buy women's attention. It's not a sign of power; it's a sign of weakness.

Buzz Aldrin photo

“But failure is not a sign of weakness. It is a sign that you are alive and growing.”

Buzz Aldrin (1930) American astronaut

https://twitter.com/TheRealBuzz/status/1072303630835953664

Arthur Miller photo

“My argument with so much of psychoanalysis, is the preconception that suffering is a mistake, or a sign of weakness, or a sign even of illness, when in fact, possibly the greatest truths we know have come out of people's suffering”

Arthur Miller (1915–2005) playwright from the United States

1963 interview, used in The Century of the Self (2002)
Context: My argument with so much of psychoanalysis, is the preconception that suffering is a mistake, or a sign of weakness, or a sign even of illness, when in fact, possibly the greatest truths we know have come out of people's suffering; that the problem is not to undo suffering or to wipe it off the face of the earth but to make it inform our lives, instead of trying to cure ourselves of it constantly and avoid it, and avoid anything but that lobotomized sense of what they call "happiness." There's too much of an attempt, it seems to me, to think in terms of controlling man, rather than freeing him. Of defining him rather than letting him go. It's part of the whole ideology of this age, which is power-mad.

Seneca the Younger photo

“All savageness is a sign of weakness.”
Omnis enim ex infirmitate feritas est.

De Vita Beata (On the Happy Life): cap. 3, line 4
Alternate translation: All cruelty springs from weakness. (translator unknown)
As quoted in Caxtoniana: A Series of Essays on Life, Literature, and Manners (1864), Harper & brothers, Sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton, p. 174 (in the essay The Sympathetic Temperment).
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