Search

Topics

Quotes

“Do not dash if you only have the strength to walk, and do not waste your time pushing on the walls that will not give. More importantly, don't shove where a pat would be sufficient.”

Brandon Sanderson Elantris

Source: Elantris

“The strength of the Constitution lies entirely in the determination of each citizen to defend it. Only if every single citizen feels duty bound to do his share in this defense are the constitutional rights secure.”

Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity

“The only book that is worth writing is the one we don’t have the courage or strength to write. The book that hurts us (we who are writing), that makes us tremble, redden, bleed”

Hélène Cixous (1937) French philosopher and writer

“I think a hero is an ordinary individual who finds the strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles. They are the real heroes, and so are the families and friends who have stood by them.”

Christopher Reeve (1952–2004) actor, director, producer, screenwriter

Still Me (1999); also quoted at the Christopher Reeve Foundation http://www.christopherreeve.org/site/c.geIMLPOpGjF/b.1097025/k.6FF5/Christopher_and_Dana_Reeve.htm <br class="br">Context: When the first Superman movie came out, I gave dozens of interviews to promote it. The most frequent question was: What is a hero? My answer was that a hero is someone who commits a courageous action without considering the consequences. Now my definition is completely different. I think a hero is an ordinary individual who finds the strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles. They are the real heroes, and so are the families and friends who have stood by them.

“He took her into his arms again, using all his strength to be gentle, and let his lips touch hers so lightly he could hardly feel it.”

Morgan Llywelyn book Lion of Ireland

Source: Lion of Ireland

“Our strength comes from that magic, from the earth and the sky, from the fire and the water. Fly high, swim deep, give back to the earth what she gives you…”

Juliet Marillier book Daughter of the Forest

Source: Daughter of the Forest

“In the mountains of truth you will never climb in vain: either you will get up higher today or you will exercise your strength so as to be able to get up higher tomorrow.”

Friedrich Nietzsche book Human, All Too Human

II.293, maxim 358 http://books.google.kz/books?id=Nl-vaAdJD3MC&pg=PA293&dq=%22In+the+mountains+of+truth+you+will+never+climb+in+vain%22&hl=en <br class="br">Human, All Too Human (1878)

“Feel like Christ and you will be a Christ; feel like Buddha and you will be a Buddha. It is feeling that is the life, the strength, the vitality, without which no amount of intellectual activity can reach God.”

Swami Vivekananda (1863–1902) Indian Hindu monk and phylosopher

Pearls of Wisdom

“Every increase of knowledge may possibly render depravity more depraved, as well as it may increase the strength of virtue. It is in itself only power; and its value depends on its application.”

Sydney Smith (1771–1845) English writer and clergyman

Quote reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 364

“We can determine America's future. After all, that's what an election is all about. So let's decide for optimism, not pessimism; for hope, not despair; for strength, not weakness; for victory, not defeat.”

Rudy Giuliani (1944–2001) American businessperson and politician, former mayor of New York City

December 15, 2007. http://edition.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/candidates/rudy.giuliani.html

“The highest strength is acquired not in overcoming the world, but in overcoming one’s self. Learn to be cruel to thyself, to withstand thy appetites, to bear thy sufferings, and thou shalt become free and able.”

John Lancaster Spalding (1840–1916) Catholic bishop

Source: Aphorisms and Reflections (1901), p. 164

“Oh that you would arise in Christ's strength, and do what possibly you can for God, though you cannot do what you would and what you should!”

Thomas Brooks (1608–1680) English Puritan

The Hypocrite Detected, Anatomized

“Blest is my lot whate'er befall;
What can disturb me, who appall,
While, as my strength, my rock, my all,
Saviour! I cling to Thee?”

Charlotte Elliott (1789–1871) English poet, hymn writer, editor

Reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 101.

“Those who have the strength and the love to sit with a dying patient in the silence that goes beyond words will know that this moment is neither frightening nor painful, but a peaceful cessation of the functioning of the body.”

Elisabeth Kübler-Ross (1926–2004) American psychiatrist

On Death and Dying (1969)

“There is no such thing as "natural law": this expression is nothing but old nonsense… Prior to laws, what is natural is only the strength of the lion, or the need of the creature suffering from hunger or cold, in short, need.”

Stendhal book The Red and the Black

Il n’y a point de droit naturel: ce mot n'est qu’une antique niaiserie... Avant la loi il n’y a de naturel que la force du lion, ou le besoin de l’être qui a faim, qui a froid, le besoin en un mot.
Vol. II, ch. XLIV
Variant translation: There is no such thing as natural law, the expression is nothing more than a silly anachronism … There is no such thing as right, except when there is a law to forbid a certain thing under pain of punishment. Before law existed, the only natural thing was the strength of the lion, or the need of a creature who was cold or hungry, to put it in one word, need.
As translated by Horace B. Samuel (1916)
Le Rouge et le Noir (The Red and the Black) (1830)

“For the young, death is an enemy they wish to try their strength against. For those of us a little older, she is an old friend, an old lover, but one we are not eager to meet again soon.”

Robert Jordan (1948–2007) American writer

Rhuarc
(15 September 1992)

““ASAN service” brought novelties into the relationship between citizens and civil servants. It gave us even more strength in the struggle against corruption. It showed that it is possible to fight corruption and win.”

Ilham Aliyev (1961) 4th President of Azerbaijan from 2003

During opening ceremony of "ASAN Kommunal" Center No 1 (28 December 2016) http://en.apa.az/azerbaijan-politics/domestic-news/ilham-aliyev-asan-service-brought-novelty-into-citizen-civil-servant-relationship.html <br class="br">Anti-corruption policy

“For a house, I take it, or a ship or anything of that sort must have its chief strength in its substructure; and so too in affairs of state the principles and the foundations must be truth and justice.”

Démosthenés (-384–-322 BC) ancient greek statesman and orator

Olytnhiac II, 10 http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0070%3Aspeech%3D2%3Asection%3D10

“Irons and the unbreathable air of this world strip us of everything, except the freedom to kill ourselves; and this freedom grants us a strength and pride to triumph over the loads which overwhelm us.”

Emil M. Cioran book A Short History of Decay

A Short History of Decay (1949)

“If a symbolic language dies, it tortures us like a nightmare, like a thousand piece orchestra grating on our nerves and tearing our mind to pieces... It is a corpse with no symbolic power or strength.”

Asger Jorn (1914–1973) Danish artist

quoted in Asger Jorn (2002) by Arken Museum of Modern Art, p. 166
Jorn is talking about symbolism of the Nordic myths
1959 - 1973, Various sources