Quotes about strength
page 16

Sun Myung Moon photo
Ho Chi Minh photo

“Remember that the storm is a good opportunity for the pine and the cypress to show their strength and their stability.”

Ho Chi Minh (1890–1969) Vietnamese communist leader and first president of Vietnam

As quoted in From Colonialism to Communism : A Case History of North Vietnam (1964) by Văn Chí Hoàng, p. 37

Burkard Schliessmann photo

“To approach Bach, one has to realize that 100 years after Bach’s death, Bach and his music totally had been forgotten. Even while he was still alive, Bach himself believed in the polyphonic power and the resulting symmetric architectures of well-proportioned music. But this had been an artificial truth - even for him. Other composers, including his sons, already composed in another style, where they found other ideals and brought them to new solutions. The spirit of the time already had changed while Bach was still alive. A hundred years later, it was Mendelssohn who about 1850 discovered Bach anew with the performance of the St. Matthew Passion. Now a new renaissance began, and the world learned to know the greatness of Bach. To become acquainted with Bach, many transcriptions were done. But the endeavors in rediscovering Bach had been - stylistically - in a wrong direction. Among these were the orchestral transcriptions of Leopold Stokowski, and the organ interpretations of the multitalented Albert Schweitzer, who, one has to confess, had a decisive effect on the rediscovery of Bach. All performances had gone in the wrong direction: much too romantic, with a false knowledge of historic style, the wrong sound, the wrong rubato, and so on. The necessity of artists like Rosalyn Tureck and Glenn Gould - again 100 years later - has been understandable: The radicalism of Glenn Gould pointed out the real clarity and the internal explosions of the power-filled polyphony in the best way. This extreme style, called by many of his critics refrigerator interpretations, however really had been necessary to demonstrate the right strength to bring out the architecture in the right manner, which had been lost so much before. I’m convinced that the style Glenn Gould played has been the right answer. But there has been another giant: it was no less than Helmut Walcha who, also beginning in the 1950, started his legendary interpretations for the DG-Archive productions of the complete organ-work cycle on historic organs (Silbermann, Arp Schnitger). Also very classical in strength of speed and architectural proportions, he pointed out the polyphonic structures in an enlightened but moreover especially humanistic way, in a much more smooth and elegant way than Glenn Gould on the piano. Some years later it was Virgil Fox who acquainted the U. S. with tours of the complete Bach cycle, which certainly was effective in its own way, but much more modern than Walcha. The ranges of Bach interpretations had become wide, and there were the defenders of the historical style and those of the much more modern romantic style. Also the performances of the orchestral and cantata Bach had become extreme: on one side, for example, Karl Richter, who used a big and rich-toned orchestra; on the other side Helmut Rilling, whose Bach was much more historically oriented.”

Burkard Schliessmann classical pianist

Talkings on Bach

Susan B. Anthony photo
John F. Kennedy photo
Winston S. Churchill photo
Thomas Young (scientist) photo

“A permanent alteration of form limits the strength of materials with regard to practical purposes, almost as much as fracture; since, in general, the force which is capable of producing this effect is sufficient, with a small addition, to increase it till fracture takes place.”

Thomas Young (scientist) (1773–1829) English polymath

(1807) Nat. Phil. Vol. i, p. 14. as quoted by Robert Henry Thurston, Materials of Engineering (1884) Part III https://books.google.com/books?id=0p1BAAAAIAAJ p. 548.

Herbert Marcuse photo

“Ascending modern rationalism, in its speculative as well as empirical form, shows a striking contrast between extreme critical radicalism in scientific and philosophic method on the one hand, and an uncritical quietism in the attitude toward established and functioning social institutions. Thus Descartes' ego cogitans was to leave the “great public bodies” untouched, and Hobbes held that “the present ought always to be preferred, maintained, and accounted best.” Kant agreed with Locke in justifying revolution if and when it has succeeded in organizing the whole and in preventing subversion. However, these accommodating concepts of Reason were always contradicted by the evident misery and injustice of the “great public bodies” and the effective, more or less conscious rebellion against them. Societal conditions existed which provoked and permitted real dissociation. from the established state of affairs; a private as well as political dimension was present in which dissociation could develop into effective opposition, testing its strength and the validity of its objectives. With the gradual closing of this dimension by the society, the self-limitation of thought assumes a larger significance. The interrelation between scientific-philosophical and societal processes, between theoretical and practical Reason, asserts itself "behind the back” of the scientists and philosophers. The society bars a whole type of oppositional operations and behavior; consequently, the concepts pertaining to them are rendered illusory or meaningless. Historical transcendence appears as metaphysical transcendence, not acceptable to science and scientific thought. The operational and behavioral point of view, practiced as a “habit of thought” at large, becomes the view of the established universe of discourse and action, needs and aspirations. The “cunning of Reason” works, as it so often did, in the interest of the powers that be. The insistence on operational and behavioral concepts turns against the efforts to free thought and behavior from the given reality and for the suppressed alternatives.”

Source: One-Dimensional Man (1964), pp. 15-16

Letitia Elizabeth Landon photo
Winston S. Churchill photo

“With strength and patience all his grievous loads are borne,
And from the world's rose-bed he only asks a thorn.”

William R. Alger (1822–1905) American clergyman and poet

"Mussud's Praise of the Camel", p. 257.
Poetry of the Orient, 1893 edition

Elias Canetti photo

“I repulse death with all my strength. If I accepted it, I would be a murderer.”

Elias Canetti (1905–1994) Bulgarian-born Swiss and British jewish modernist novelist, playwright, memoirist, and non-fiction writer

J. Agee, trans. (1989), p. 142
Das Geheimherz der Uhr [The Secret Heart of the Clock] (1987)

Henry Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston photo

“It is quite clear that if by sudden attack by an Enemy landed in strength our Dock-yards were to be destroyed our Maritime Power would for more than half a century be paralysed, and our Colonies, our commerce, and the Subsistence of a large Part of our Population would be at the Mercy of our Enemy, who would be sure to shew us no Mercy—we should be reduced to the Rank of a third Rate Power if no worse happened to us. That such a Landing is in the present State of Things possible must be manifest. No Naval Force of ours can effectually prevent it. … One night is enough for the Passage to our Coast, and Twenty Thousand men might be landed at any Point before our Fleet knew that the Enemy was out of Harbour. There could be no security against the simultaneous Landing of 20,000 for Portsmouth 20,000 for Plymouth and 20,000 for Ireland our Troops would necessarily be scattered about the United Kingdom, and with Portsmouth and Plymouth as they now are those Two dock yards and all they contain would be entered and burnt before Twenty Thousand Men could be brought together to defend either of them. … if these defensive works are necessary, it is manifest that they ought to be made with the least possible delay; to spread their Completion over 20 or 30 years would be Folly unless we could come to an agreement with a chivalrous Antagonist, not to molest us till we could inform him we were quite ready to repel his attack—we are told that these works might, if money were forthcoming be finished possibly in three at latest in four years. Long enough this to be kept in a State of imperfect Defence.”

Henry Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston (1784–1865) British politician

Letter to Gladstone (15 December 1859), quoted in Philip Guedalla (ed.), Gladstone and Palmerston, being the Correspondence of Lord Palmerston with Mr. Gladstone 1851-1865 (London: Victor Gollancz, 1928), pp. 115-117.
1850s

John Calvin photo
Bruce Springsteen photo

“May your strength give us strength.
May your faith give us faith.
May your hope give us hope.
May your love give us love.”

Bruce Springsteen (1949) American singer and songwriter

"Into the Fire"
Song lyrics, The Rising (2002)

Swami Vivekananda photo
Thiruvalluvar photo
Cesar Chavez photo
Jacob Bronowski photo

“The strength of the imagination, its enriching power and excitement, lies in its interplay with reality—physical and emotional.”

Jacob Bronowski (1908–1974) Polish-born British mathematician

"The Reach of Imagination" (1967)

Eric Maisel photo

“Our strength is often composed of the weakness that we're damned if we're going to show.”

Mignon McLaughlin (1913–1983) American journalist

The Complete Neurotic's Notebook (1981), Unclassified

Calvin Coolidge photo
Remy de Gourmont photo
John Danforth photo
Jerome K. Jerome photo
Josiah Gilbert Holland photo
John F. Kennedy photo
Ryszard Kapuściński photo
Clement Attlee photo
Igor Ansoff photo

“By searching out opportunities which match its strengths the firm can optimize the synergistic effects.”

Igor Ansoff (1918–2001) American mathematician

Source: Corporate Strategy, 1965, p. 91

Mariah Carey photo
Martin Luther King, Jr. photo
Bernhard Riemann photo
Ralph Cudworth photo

“Knowledge is not a passion from without the mind, but an active exertion of the inward strength, vigour and power of the mind, displaying itself from within.”

Ralph Cudworth (1617–1688) English philosopher

Source: Treatise Concerning Eternal and Immutable Morality (1731), Ch. 1, sct. 1

Calvin Coolidge photo
Ludovico Ariosto photo

“Arms of Orlando, paladin',
By this inscription meaning to deter
Whoever saw the splendid trophy shine,
As though to say: 'Hands off, all who pass by,
Unless Orlando's strength you wish to try.”

Armatura d'Orlando paladino;
Come volesse dir: nessun la muova,
Che star non possa con Orlando a prova.
Canto XXIV, stanza 57 (tr. B. Reynolds)
Orlando Furioso (1532)

Smita Nair Jain photo
Lupe Fiasco photo
Patrik Baboumian photo
Bernard Cornwell photo
Paul Klee photo
Pauline Kael photo
Edward Bouverie Pusey photo
K. R. Narayanan photo
Ibn Saud photo

“Faisal, Saud is your brother. Saud, Faisal is your brother. There is no power and no strength save in God.”

Ibn Saud (1875–1953) Founder of Saudi Arabia

The last words of Ibn Saud; quoted in Ibn Saud, by Leslie McLoughlin.

April Winchell photo

“Out came Ms. Hilton in a Juicy track suit, chattering away like a gibbon on her jewel-encrusted cell phone. It was like magic, if magic were like a extra-strength laxative.”

April Winchell (1960) American voice actor and writer

On Sunday December 5, 2004 at 7:34 pm from aprilwinchell.com http://www.aprilwinchell.com/12/2004/.

Maxwell D. Taylor photo

“Some persons in Europe carry their notions about cruelty to animals so far as not to allow themselves to eat animal food. Many very intelligent men have, at different times of their lives, abstained wholly from flesh; and this too with very considerable advantage to their health. … The most attentive research which I have been able to make into the health of all these persons induces me to believe that vegetable food is the natural diet of man; I tried it once with very considerable advantage: my strength became greater, my intellect clearer, my power of continued exertion protracted, and my spirits much higher than they were when I lived on a mixed diet. I am inclined to think that the inconvenience which some persons experience from vegetable food is only temporary; a few repeated trials would soon render it not only safe but agreeable, and a disgust to the taste of flesh, under any disguise, would be the result of the experiment. The Carmelites and other religious orders, who subsist only on the productions of the vegetable world, live to a greater age than those who feed on meat, and in general herbivorous persons are milder in their dispositions than other people. The same quantity of ground has been proved to be capable of sustaining a larger and stronger population on a vegetable than on a meat diet; and experience has shewn that the juices of the body are more pure and the viscera much more free from disease in those who live in this simple way. All these facts, taken collectively, point to a period, in the progress of civilization, when men will cease to slay their fellow mortals in the animal world for food, and will tend thereby to realize the fictions of antiquity and the Sybilline oracles respecting the millennium or golden age.”

Thomas Ignatius Maria Forster (1789–1860) British astronomer

Philozoia; or Moral Reflections on the Actual Condition of the Animal Kingdom, and on the Means of Improving the same, Brussels: Deltombe and W. Todd, 1839, pp. 42 https://books.google.it/books?id=hdVq93Ypgu0C&pg=PA42-43.

Sören Kierkegaard photo
Calvin Coolidge photo
William Paley photo
Roman Dmowski photo

“In relations with other nations, there is neither right nor wrong; there is only strength and weakness.”

Roman Dmowski (1864–1939) Polish politician

Myśli nowoczesnego Polaka, 7th ed., 1953, p. 14.

“It took all of her considerable strength to heave the girl’s wrapped body into her arms, pivot, and let it thump into the trunk.”

Lis Wiehl (1961) American legal scholar

Source: Heart of Ice A Triple Threat Novel with April Henry (Thomas Nelson), p. 118

Adolf Eichmann photo

“I have to forge my weapons according to the strength of the resistance.”

Adolf Eichmann (1906–1962) German Nazi SS-Obersturmbannführer

Argentina Audiotapes (1957)

Alexander Maclaren photo
Oliver Goldsmith photo
Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo photo

“I compare that old relic with myself… ruins and dilapidation. What a difference between then and now. Then, youth, strength and riches; now age, weakness and poverty.”

Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo (1807–1890) Californian military commander, politician, and rancher

as quoted by Dayton Duncan, Geoffrey C. Ward "Lachryma Montis," The West, Episode Eight (1996) referring to his old ranch house near Petaluma, California

Swami Vivekananda photo

“Strength is Life, Weakness is death.”

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

Pearls of Wisdom

Mark Hopkins (educator) photo
Shushanik Kurghinian photo
Lin Yutang photo
Alexis De Tocqueville photo

“General ideas are no proof of the strength, but rather of the insufficiency of the human intellect.”

Book One, Chapter III.
Democracy in America, Volume II (1840), Book One

Jewel photo

“the greatest
Grace
we can aspire to
is the strength
to see the wounded
walk with the forgotten
and pull ourselves
from the screaming
blood of our losses
to fight on
undaunted
all the more”

Jewel (1974) American singer-songwriter, guitarist, producer, actress, and poet

"I Say to You Idols"
A Night Without Armor (1998)

Gregory Scott Paul photo
Ralph Bunche photo
James Martineau photo
A. P. J. Abdul Kalam photo
M. Balamuralikrishna photo
Paula Modersohn-Becker photo
John F. Kennedy photo

“A man's strength is ultimately born of his knowledge of his own weakness …”

Source: Drenai series, Legend, Pt 1: Against the Horde, Ch. 7

Masiela Lusha photo

“I would like to see from women in this industry what I have had the privilege of witnessing for a decade now. Strength, conviction, and unapologetic sensitivity for the healing of souls.”

Masiela Lusha (1985) Albanian actress, writer, author

On women in the entertainment industry http://reelladies.wordpress.com/2008/09/01/reel-lady-masiela-lusha/

Francis Beaumont photo

“Mortality, behold and fear!
What a change of flesh is here!
Think how many royal bones
Sleep within this heap of stones:
Here they lie, had realms and lands,
Who now want strength to stir their hands”

Francis Beaumont (1584–1616) British dramatist

On the Tombs in Westminster Abbey http://www.englishverse.com/poems/on_the_tombs_in_westminster_abbey

Baldur von Schirach photo

“In the presence of this blood banner which represents our Führer, I swear to devote all my energies and my strength to the saviour of our country, Adolf Hitler. I am willing and ready to give up my life for him, so help me God.”

Baldur von Schirach (1907–1974) German Nazi leader convicted of crimes against humanity in the Nuremberg trial

An oath written by Schirach about Hitler. Quoted in "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany" - Page 253 - by William Lawrence Shirer - Germany - 1990

Mahendra Chaudhry photo

“There is absolutely no doubt that our future as a nation, lies in drawing strength from the richness of the cultural diversity that surrounds us, for in that alone lies our sustainability and viability as a sovereign state.”

Mahendra Chaudhry (1942) Fijian politician

"The Legacy of Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara" - Memorial Lecture http://www.flp.org.fj/s030827.htm, Waterfront Hotel, Lautoka, 27 August 2003

Phil Brooks photo

“Look at you people. Look at what's become of the mighty United Kingdom. This land used to be filled with kings and knights and noblemen. You used to rule half the planet, and now you're just as sad and pathetic as the Americans. You can pretend you're not, you can pretend you don't spend your days tucked away in some little pub downing your pints of ale; you can pretend you don't spend every single night filling your lungs and those around you with carcinogens and poisons from your fancy cigarettes and trendy cigars; you can pretend you don't knowingly stuff chewing tobacco in your mouth in one of the most disgusting habits I've ever seen in my life—something that will give you cancer inside of two years. You people are weak-minded. You have no heart, your spirit is broken. You're practically decomposing right before my very eyes as I talk to you, and the only thing you can do is boo or wave a crooked little finger at me and accuse me of being preachy. You people need somebody as righteous as myself to preach to you the proper way to live. You should all aspire to be as great as I am. Do I think I'm better than you? Absolutely, and it's not that hard because my mind is clear; my body, free of poison. Look at me—I am perfect in every way. My strength comes from within, and I don't need a crutch to get through my everyday life like you people, and I certainly don't need a crooked official like Scott Armstrong to fight my battles for me. I filed a formal complaint with the Board of Directors; and as far as tonight goes, I will beat R-Truth just like I'll beat him at Survivor Series, and just like I can easily beat up everybody here in this arena today. Because I am the Choice of a New Generation, and R-Truth's gonna come out here and ask you people, "What's Up?"”

Phil Brooks (1978) American professional wrestler and mixed martial artist

I'll answer that little riddle for you right now. I tell you "what's up" Straight-edge—that is what's up. No narcotics, no drugs, no alcohol, no cigarettes, no prescription medication, and that, you sad, sad people, can save your entire pathetic country and the entire world.
November 13, 2009
Friday Night SmackDown

Jair Bolsonaro photo
Thomas Hobbes photo

“For he that hath strength enough to protect all, wants not sufficiency to oppresse all.”

De Cive "Of the right of him, whether Counsell, or one Man onely, who hath the supreme power in the City" (1642) Ch. 6

William Moulton Marston photo

“If, as psychologists, we follow the analogy of the other biological sciences, we must expect to find normalcy synonymous with maximal efficiency of function. Survival of the fittest means survival of those members of a species whose organisms most successfully resist the encroachments of environmental antagonists, and continue to function with the greatest internal harmony. In the field of emotions, then, why would we alter this expectation? Why should we seek the spectacularly disharmonious emotions, the feelings that reveal a crushing of ourselves by environment, and consider these affective responses as our normal emotions? If a jungle beast is torn and wounded during the course of an ultimately victorious battle, it would be a spurious logic indeed that attributed its victory to its wounds. If a human being be emotionally torn and mentally disorganized by fear or rage during a business battle from which, ultimately, he emerges victorious, it seems equally nonsensical to ascribe his conquering strength to those emotions symptomatic of his temporary weakness and defeat. Victory comes in proportion as fear is banished. Perhaps the battle may be won with some fear still handicapping the victor, but that only means that the winner's maximal strength was not required.”

William Moulton Marston (1893–1947) American psychologist, lawyer, inventor and comic book writer

Source: The Emotions of Normal People (1928), p.2

Bal Gangadhar Tilak photo

“It is true that lack of rain causes famine but it is also true that the people of India have not the strength to fight the evil. The poverty of India is wholly due to the present rule. India is being bled till only the skeleton remains…all the vitality of the people is being sapped and we are left in an emaciated state of slavery.”

Bal Gangadhar Tilak (1856–1920) Indian independence activist

[Bhagwat, A.K., Pradhan, G.P., Lokmanya Tilak – A Biography, http://books.google.com/books?id=bYfMbCXyc3kC&pg=PT167, 1958, Jaico Publishing House, 978-81-7992-846-2, 167–]

Winston S. Churchill photo
Donald J. Trump photo

“Last quarter, it was just announced our gross domestic product — a sign of strength, right? But not for us. It was below zero. Whoever heard of this? It's never below zero.”

Donald J. Trump (1946) 45th President of the United States of America

2010s, 2015, Presidential Bid Announcement (June 16, 2015)

Charles Lamb photo

“Credulity is the man's weakness, but the child's strength.”

Witches, and Other Night Fears.
Essays of Elia (1823)

Louis Pasteur photo

“Let me tell you the secret that has led me to my goal. My strength lies solely in my tenacity.”

Louis Pasteur (1822–1895) French chemist and microbiologist

As quoted in There's a Spiritual Solution to Every Problem (2001) by Wayne W. Dyer

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)

Luther Burbank photo
John Milton photo

“Then lies him down the lubber fiend,
And stretched out all the chimney's length,
Basks at the fire his hairy strength.”

John Milton (1608–1674) English epic poet

Source: L'Allegro (1631), Line 110

Indra Nooyi photo

“Each of us in the US - the long middle finger - must be careful that we extend our arm in either a business or political sense, we take pains to assure that we are giving a hand, not the finger. Unfortunately, I think this is how the reset of the world looks at the US right now. Not as part of the hand-giving strength and purpose to the rest of the fingers –but instead scratching our nose and sending a signal.”

Indra Nooyi (1955) Indian-born, naturalized American, business executive

When she drew compassion with the five most populated of the seven continents of the world in a lectuere which created a furore necessitating an apology from her. Quoted in [. Branson, Douglas M ., The Last Male Bastion: Gender and the CEO Suite in America s Public Companies, http://books.google.com/books?id=wTFSa2qouSwC&pg=PA98, 15 December 2009, Routledge, 978-0-203-86566-8, 98–]

John Donne photo
Haile Selassie photo
Edgar Cayce photo

“Encouraging the weak and the faint; giving strength and courage to those who have faltered.”

Edgar Cayce (1877–1945) Purported clairvoyant healer and psychic

Many Mansions Chapter 20 - A Philosophy of Vocational Choice
When a woman of forty-nine asks: What is my true life work?
On Vocational Choices

George W. Bush photo
William Hazlitt photo
Carl Sandburg photo
Karl Jaspers photo