Quotes

Abdullah II of Jordan photo

“It is also essential that our regions renew the source of our great strength: the mutual respect that binds and sustains us.”

Abdullah II of Jordan (1962) King of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan

Address to the European Parliament (2015)
Context: There are those living in Europe today who remember the ravages that struck the continent in the late 1930s and the World War that followed because of an aggressive, expansionist ideology based on hate and disregard for the very essence of humanity. Europe’s war became the World’s War. Today, we are fighting a similar war. A war against an expansionist ideology that feeds on hate; that is committing murder in the name of God and religion to justify evil actions that no religion tolerates — a war against terrorists who disrespect Islam’s values and humanity’s values.
Our victory now depends on our unity. Europe’s role is vital. Only by cooperation can our regions shut down the sources of terrorist support and defeat their purposes.
It is also essential that our regions renew the source of our great strength: the mutual respect that binds and sustains us. Young people, especially, must be inspired by values that reject violence, create peace and build inclusive society.

Abraham Joshua Heschel photo

“The rush of reason is an effort of limited strength.
Faith is not the miniature of thinking but its model, not its shadow but its root.”

Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907–1972) Polish-American Conservative Judaism Rabbi

"The Holy Dimension", p. 337
Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity: Essays (1997)
Context: Reason is not the measure of all things, not the all-inclusive power in the inner life of man. The powers of will and emotion, the realm of the subconscious lie beyond the scope of knowledge. The rush of reason is an effort of limited strength.
Faith is not the miniature of thinking but its model, not its shadow but its root. It is a spiritual force in man, not dealing with the given, concrete limited, but directed upon the transcendent. It is the spring of our creative actions.

Adlai Stevenson photo

“I believe in the infinite wisdom that envelops and embraces me and from which I take direction, purpose, strength.”

Adlai Stevenson (1900–1965) mid-20th-century Governor of Illinois and Ambassador to the UN

Essay in This I Believe : 2 (1952) edited by Edward R. Murrow, p. 142
Context: What do I believe? As an American I believe in generosity, in liberty, in the rights of man. These are social and political faiths that are part of me, as they are, I suppose, part of all of us. Such beliefs are easy to express. But part of me too is my relation to all life, my religion. And this is not so easy to talk about. Religious experience is highly intimate and, for me, ready words are not at hand. I am profoundly aware of the magnitude of the universe, that all is ruled by law, including my finite person. I believe in the infinite wisdom that envelops and embraces me and from which I take direction, purpose, strength.

Barbra Streisand photo

“To have ego means to believe in your own strength. And to also be open to other people's views. It is to be open, not closed.”

Barbra Streisand (1942) American singer, actress, writer, film producer, and director

Playboy interview (1977), as quoted in No Glass Slipper : Surviving and Conquering Painful Life Experiences (2006), p. 32
Context: To have ego means to believe in your own strength. And to also be open to other people's views. It is to be open, not closed. So, yes, my ego is big, but it's also very small in some areas. My ego is responsible for my doing what I do —  bad or good.

George Mason photo

“Why should we not provide against the danger of having our militia, our real and natural strength, destroyed?”

George Mason (1725–1792) American delegate from Virginia to the U.S. Constitutional Convention

June 14
Addresses to the Virginia Ratifying Convention (1788)
Context: No man has a greater regard for the military gentlemen than I have. I admire their intrepidity, perseverance, and valour. But when once a standing army is established, in any country, the people lose their liberty. When against a regular and disciplined army, yeomanry are the only defence — yeomanry, unskillful & unarmed, what chance is there for preserving freedom? Give me leave to recur to the page of history, to warn you of your present danger. Recollect the history of most nations of the world. What havock, desolation, and destruction, have been perpetrated by standing armies? An instance within the memory of some of this house, — will shew us how our militia may be destroyed. Forty years ago, when the resolution of enslaving America was formed in Great Britain, the British parliament was advised by an artful man, [Sir William Keith] who was governor of Pennsylvania, to disarm the people. That it was the best and most effectual way to enslave them. But that they should not do it openly; but to weaken them and let them sink gradually, by totally difusing and neglecting the militia. [Here MR. MASON quoted sundry passages to this effect. ] This was a most iniquitous project. Why should we not provide against the danger of having our militia, our real and natural strength, destroyed?

Theodore Roosevelt photo

“Our nation, glorious in youth and strength, looks into the future with eager eyes and rejoices as a strong man to run a race.”

Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American politician, 26th president of the United States

Letter to John Hay, American Ambassador to the Court of St. James, London, written in Washington, DC http://www.trsite.org/content/pages/speaking-loudly (June 7, 1897)
1890s
Context: Is America a weakling, to shrink from the work of the great world powers? No! The young giant of the West stands on a continent and clasps the crest of an ocean in either hand. Our nation, glorious in youth and strength, looks into the future with eager eyes and rejoices as a strong man to run a race.

“Honor is a man's reputation for strength, courage and mastery within the context of an honor group comprised primarily of other men.”

Jack Donovan (1974) American activist, editor and writer

Pg 57
The Way of Men (2012)
Context: Honor is a man's reputation for strength, courage and mastery within the context of an honor group comprised primarily of other men. Stated as a masculine virtue: Honor is concern for one's reputation for strength, courage and mastery within the context of an honor group comprised primarily of other men.

Naomi Klein photo

“So, if consumers are like roaches, then marketers must forever be dreaming up new concoctions for industrial-strength Raid.”

Naomi Klein (1970) Canadian author and activist

Source: No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies 1999, Chapter One, "No Space"

Elizabeth Bibesco photo

“Life more often teaches us how to perfect our weaknesses than how to develop our strengths.”

Elizabeth Bibesco (1897–1945) writer, actress; Romanian princess

Haven (1951)

Beverly Sills photo
Nicolas Chamfort photo
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman photo

“My greatest strength is the love for my people, my greatest weakness is that I love them too much.”

Sheikh Mujibur Rahman (1920–1975) Bengali revolutionary, founder ("father") of Bangladesh

Interview with Sir David Frost on the BBC, 1972.
Quote, Other

John F. Kennedy photo

“The strength of the alliance on which our security depends is dependent in turn on our willingness to meet our commitments to them.”

John F. Kennedy (1917–1963) 35th president of the United States of America

1961, Berlin Crisis speech

Pope Benedict XVI photo

“It is our weakness that calls forth the grace of God. You show your weakness, He gives us strength.”

Pope Benedict XVI (1927) 265th Pope of the Catholic Church

Source: Movie The Two Popes, Pope Benedict as Anthony Hopkins

Maria Weston Chapman photo

“Grudge no expense — yield to no opposition — forget fatigue — till, by the strength of prayer and sacrifice, the spirit of love have overcome.”

Maria Weston Chapman (1806–1885) American abolitionist

In Liberator, August 13, 1836, as quoted in [Thomsett, Michael C., Thomsett, Linda Rose, A Speaker's Treasury of Quotations: Maxims, Witticisms and Quips for Speeches and Presentations, https://books.google.com/books?id=igYyBgAAQBAJ, 17 March 2009, McFarland, 978-0-7864-2945-5, 75]

Chester W. Nimitz photo

“The U. S.'s major strength factor and weapon is its economy. If you cripple it, you cripple the military.”

Chester W. Nimitz (1885–1966) United States Navy fleet admiral

As quoted in "According to Plan" in TIME magazine (13 March 1950) http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,812125,00.html

Gary Locke photo

“The strength of America is our diversity of people, ethnicities, cultures, languages, religions — this is the secret sauce of our dynamism and resilience.”

Gary Locke (1950) American politician

"Gary Locke keynotes anti-hate summit" in Northwest Asian Weekly https://nwasianweekly.com/2021/10/gary-locke-keynotes-anti-hate-summit/ (29 October 2021)

Sophrony (Sakharov) photo

“Stand on the edge of the abyss and when you feel that it is beyond your strength, break off and have a cup of tea.”

Sophrony (Sakharov) (1896–1993) Russian monk, theologian and writer

In conversation with Archimandrite Ephraim of Vatopedi, 20 September 1992
Others
Source: [PEMPTOUSIA: A Conversation with Elder Sophrony, 12 July 2015, https://pemptousia.com/2015/07/a-conversation-with-the-elder-sophrony/, 11 July 2021]

Mwanandeke Kindembo photo