Quotes

Ovid photo

“Resist beginnings; the remedy comes too late when the disease has gained strength by long delays.”
Principiis obsta; sero medicina paratur Cum mala per longas convaluere moras.

Source: Remedia Amoris (The Cure for Love), Lines 91–92

Grady Booch photo

“Perhaps the greatest strength of an object-oriented approach to development is that it offers a mechanism that captures a model of the real world.”

Grady Booch (1955) American software engineer

Grady Booch (1986) Software Engineering with Ada p. 220. cited in: David J. Gilmore et al. (1994) User-Centred Requirements for Software Engineering Environments. p. 108

Ptahhotep photo
Abraham Pais photo

“It is perhaps better to say that Bohr's strength lay in his formidable intuition and insight rather than erudition.”

Abraham Pais (1918–2000) American Physicist

Testimony in Niels Bohr : His Life and Work as Seen by His Friends and Colleagues (1967) edited by Stefan Rozental, p. 218; later in his own work, Niels Bohr's Times : In Physics, Philosophy, and Polity (1991)
Context: The first thing Bohr said to me was that it would only then be profitable to work with him if I understood that he was a dilettante. The only way I knew to react to this unexpected statement was with a polite smile of disbelief. But evidently Bohr was serious. He explained how he had to approach every new question from a starting point of total ignorance. It is perhaps better to say that Bohr's strength lay in his formidable intuition and insight rather than erudition.

Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan photo

“Intuition is a positive feeling of calm and confidence, joy and strength. Intuition is profoundly satisfying . It is peace, power and joy.”

Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan (1888–1975) Indian philosopher and statesman who was the first Vice President and the second President of India

Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Context: Intuition is a distinct form of experience. Intuition is of a self-certifying character (svatassiddha). It is sufficient and complete. It is self-established (svatasiddha), self-evidencing (svāsaṃvedya), and self-luminous (svayam-prakāsa). Intuition entails pure comprehension, entire significance, complete validity. It is both truth-filled and truth-bearing Intuition is its own cause and its own explanation. It is sovereign. Intuition is a positive feeling of calm and confidence, joy and strength. Intuition is profoundly satisfying. It is peace, power and joy.

Eric Garcetti photo

“America’s diversity is our greatest strength. Diversity is not easy. Diversity is a leap of faith that embraces all faiths.”

Eric Garcetti (1971) American politician

2016, Los Angeles 2024 Summer Olympics bid
Context: Please don’t doubt us. America’s diversity is our greatest strength. Diversity is not easy. Diversity is a leap of faith that embraces all faiths. And that’s why I believe L. A. is a perfect choice for the 2024 Games, because the face of our city reflects the face of the Olympic Movement itself.

George Orwell photo

“One cannot see the modern world as it is unless one recognizes the overwhelming strength of patriotism, national loyalty.”

The Lion and the Unicorn (1941), Part I: England Your England
"The Lion and the Unicorn" (1941)
Context: One cannot see the modern world as it is unless one recognizes the overwhelming strength of patriotism, national loyalty. In certain circumstances it can break down, at certain levels of civilization it does not exist, but as a positive force there is nothing to set beside it. Christianity and international Socialism are as weak as straw in comparison with it. Hitler and Mussolini rose to power in their own countries very largely because they could grasp this fact and their opponents could not.

Nikos Kazantzakis photo

“A slave's soul has no worth, my brothers; it lacks strength
to tread on this great earth with gallantry and freedom.”

Nikos Kazantzakis (1883–1957) Greek writer

Egyptian high priest, Book X, line 90
The Odyssey : A Modern Sequel (1938)
Context: A slave's soul has no worth, my brothers; it lacks strength
to tread on this great earth with gallantry and freedom.
I pity the poor slaves, they're nought but airy mist,
a light breeze scatters them, a fragrance knocks them down;
it's only just they crawl on the earth on hands and knees.
Today I'll write a hymn to God and pray for this great grace.

Ronald Reagan photo

“Not in spite of but because of our polyglot background, we have had all the strength in the world. That is the American way.”

Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) American politician, 40th president of the United States (in office from 1981 to 1989)

While signing the Bill Providing Restitution for the Wartime Internment of Japanese-American Civilians, quoting himself at the funeral of Kazuo Masuda in December 1945 (10 August 1988) http://history.wisc.edu/archdeacon/404tja/redress.html
1980s, Second term of office (1985–1989)
Context: Blood that has soaked into the sands of a beach is all of one color. America stands unique in the world: the only country not founded on race but on a way, an ideal. Not in spite of but because of our polyglot background, we have had all the strength in the world. That is the American way.

Phaedrus photo
Bram van Velde photo

“Because it's an adventure out of all proportion. You have to devote all your strength to it and it's never enough.”

Bram van Velde (1895–1981) Dutch painter

two short quotes, 24 August 1970; p. 78
1970's, Conversations with Samuel Beckett and Bram van Velde (1970 - 1972)

George Washington photo

“Make sure you are doing what God wants you to do—then do it with all your strength.”

George Washington (1732–1799) first President of the United States

This saying is not found in any source before 2010, when it was posted by The Ignorant Fisherman at Free Republic http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/bloggers/2451682/posts on 15 February. The language is not that of Washington or his time.
Misattributed, Spurious attributions

Denis Diderot photo

“To say that man is a compound of strength and weakness, light and darkness, smallness and greatness, is not to indict him, it is to define him.”

Denis Diderot (1713–1784) French Enlightenment philosopher and encyclopædist

As quoted in The Anchor Book of French Quotations with English Translations (1963) by Norbert Gutermam
Pensées Philosophiques (1746)

Shahrukh Khan photo

“My strength to work in such situations comes from my family and people who love to watch me.”

Shahrukh Khan (1965) Indian actor, producer and television personality

From interview with Amrita Mulchandani

Anne Brontë photo

“It is never too late to reform, as long as you have the sense to desire it, and the strength to execute your purpose.”

Source: The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1848), Ch. XLII : A Reformation; Helen to Ralph

Isa Bowman photo

“He had a curiously womanish face, and, in direct contradiction to his real character, there seemed to be little strength in it.”

Isa Bowman (1874–1958) British actress

Page 9.
The Story of Lewis Carroll (1899)

Oliver Goldsmith photo
J.C. Ryle photo

“Assurance of hope is more than life. It is health, strength, power, vigor, activity, energy, manliness, beauty.”

J.C. Ryle (1816–1900) Anglican bishop

Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 16.

Marcus Annaeus Lucanus photo

“Thus each by his fears adds strength to rumour, and all dread the unconfirmed dangers invented by themselves.”
Sic quisque pavendo dat vires famae, nulloque auctore malorum quae finxere timent.

Book I, line 484 (tr. J. D. Duff).
Pharsalia

Carl von Clausewitz photo

“Strength of character does not consist solely in having powerful feelings, but in maintaining one’s balance in spite of them.”

Source: On War (1832), Book 1, Chapter 3.
Context: Strength of character does not consist solely in having powerful feelings, but in maintaining one’s balance in spite of them. Even with the violence of emotion, judgment and principle must still function like a ship’s compass, which records the slightest variations however rough the sea.