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“A lot of what we experience as strength comes from knowing what to do with weakness.”

Barbara Ehrenreich book Nickel and Dimed

Source: Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America

“There are two ways of exerting one's strength: one is pushing down, the other is pulling up.”

Booker T. Washington (1856–1915) African-American educator, author, orator, and advisor

As quoted in The Great Quotations (1971) edited by George Seldes, p. 366

“There is not an ounce of our former strength which is not doing some sort of job, right now.”

Henry S. Haskins (1875–1957)

Source: Meditations in Wall Street (1940), p. 38

“But one cannot weep for the entire world. It is beyond human strength. One must choose.”

Jean Anouilh (1910–1987) French playwright

On ne peut pleurer pour le monde entier : C'est au-delà des forces humaines. Il faut choisir ! <br class="br"> Cecile or The School for Fathers http://books.google.com/books?id=MeWmNXPF2T0C&q=&quot;But+one+cannot+weep+for+the+entire+world+it+is+beyond+human+strength+One+must+choose&quot;&pg=PA186#v=onepage (1954)

“Climbing to the top demands strength, whether to the top of Mount Everest or to the top of your career.”

A. P. J. Abdul Kalam book Wings of Fire

Source: Wings of Fire, p. 90.

“Worry never robs tomorrow of its sorrow, but only saps today of its strength.”

A. J. Cronin (1896–1981) Scottish novelist and physician

As quoted in Today's Gift : Daily Meditations for Families (1985) by Hazelden Publishing, p. 11

“As long as his strength permits, the poor mortal must always climb new mountains.”

Fausto Cercignani (1941) Italian scholar, essayist and poet

Examples of self-translation (c. 2004), Quotes - Zitate - Citations - Citazioni

“Indeed, the crowning proof of their valour and their strength is that they keep up their superiority without harm to others.”

Tacitus book Germania

Source: Germania (98), Chapter 35

“The whole concept of salvation through belief offers strength to those who doubt themselves.”

Peter F. Hamilton (1960) English novelist

Athene, mother of Syrinx, resident of Eden habitat
The Night's Dawn Trilogy (1996-1999), The Neutronium Alchemist (1997)

“Man is weak and when he makes strength his profession he is even weaker.”

Antonio Porchia (1885–1968) Italian Argentinian poet

El hombre es débil y cuando ejerce la profesíon de fuerte es más débil.
Voces (1943)

“Faulkner, more than most men, was aware of human strength as well as of human weakness.”

John Steinbeck (1902–1968) American writer

Nobel Prize acceptance speech (1962)
Context: Humanity has been passing through a gray and desolate time of confusion. My great predecessor, William Faulkner, speaking here, referred to it as a tragedy of universal fear so long sustained that there were no longer problems of the spirit, so that only the human heart in conflict with itself seemed worth writing about.
Faulkner, more than most men, was aware of human strength as well as of human weakness. He knew that the understanding and the resolution of fear are a large part of the writer's reason for being.
This is not new. The ancient commission of the writer has not changed. He is charged with exposing our many grievous faults and failures, with dredging up to the light our dark and dangerous dreams for the purpose of improvement.

“Organized religion is a sham and a crutch for weak-minded people who need strength in numbers.”

Jesse Ventura (1951) American politician and former professional wrestler

Interview in Playboy (November 1999)
Context: Organized religion is a sham and a crutch for weak-minded people who need strength in numbers. It tells people to go out and stick their noses in other people's business. I live by the golden rule: Treat others as you'd want them to treat you. The religious right wants to tell people how to live.

“An artist whose integrity sustains his strength to make no compromise with expediency is never degraded.”

David Bomberg (1890–1957) painter

David Bomberg "The Bomberg Papers", ed. Patrick Swift, X: A Quarterly Review, Vol 1, No 3, June 1960
Context: Speaking generally Art endevours to reveal what is true and needs to be free. All things said regarding Art are subject to contradiction. An artist whose integrity sustains his strength to make no compromise with expediency is never degraded. His life work will resemble the integrating character of the primaries in the Spectrum. At the beginning, of the middle period, and at the end… I approach drawing solely for structure. I am perhaps the most unpopular artist in England – and only because I am draughtsman first and painter second. Drawing demands a theory of approach, until good drawing becomes habit – it denies all rules. It requires high discipline… Drawing demands freedom, freedom demands liberty to expand in space – this is progress. By the extension of democracy – good draughtsmanship is – Democracy’s visual sign. To draw with integrity replaces bad habits with good, youth preserved from corruption. The hand works at high tension and organises as it simplifies, reducing to barest essentials, stripping all irrelevant matter obstructing the rapidly forming organisation which reveals the design. This is drawing.

“Gathering strength, gaining breath, — naught can sever
Me from the Spirit of Life!”

Margaret Fuller (1810–1850) American feminist, poet, author, and activist

Dryad Song (1900)
Context: Chance cannot touch me! Time cannot hush me!
Fear, Hope, and Longing, at strife,
Sink as I rise, on, on, upward forever,
Gathering strength, gaining breath, — naught can sever
Me from the Spirit of Life!

“Strong in thy strength I bend no suppliant knee,
Invoke no miracle, no Muse but thee.”

Joel Barlow The Columbiad

Book I
The Columbiad (1807)
Context: Almighty Freedom! give my venturous song
The force, the charm that to thy voice belong;
Tis thine to shape my course, to light my way,
To nerve my country with the patriot lay,
To teach all men where all their interest lies,
How rulers may be just and nations wise:
Strong in thy strength I bend no suppliant knee,
Invoke no miracle, no Muse but thee.