Quotes about weakness

A collection of quotes on the topic of weakness, can, strong, doing.

Total 1916 quotes, filter:

„Spotlight your Strengths…not your Weaknesses.

Focus on your Character…not your Reputation.

Count your Blessings…not your Misfortunes.“

— Stephie Pahlavi Zan

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

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

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

Love, People

„Sometimes you don't realize your own strength
Until you come face to face with
Your greatest weaknesses.“

— Stephie Pahlavi Zan

„People cry, not because they are weak. It is because they've been strong for too long.“

— Johnny Depp American actor, film producer, and musician 1963

People, Strong, Cry

„When people see a strong horse and a weak horse, by nature they will like the strong horse.“

— Osama bin Laden founder of al-Qaeda 1957 - 2011

Video interview, quoted in Analyzing Leaders, Presidents and Terrorists by Diane E. Holloway page 325 https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=Jc7CY1yV1g8C&pg=PA325, with NPR transcript https://www.npr.org/news/specials/response/investigation/011213.binladen.transcript.html (9 November 2001)
2000s, 2002

People, Nature, Strong, Horse

„Being kind
won't
cause you
to look weak
nor
less than.“

— Stephie Pahlavi Zan

„whatever you think that you will be.
if you think yourself weak, weak you will be;
if you think yourself strong, you will be“

— Swami Vivekananda Indian Hindu monk and phylosopher 1863 - 1902

Thinking, Strong

„Never think there is anything impossible for the soul. It is the greatest heresy to think so. If there is sin, this is the only sin — to say that you are weak, or others are weak.“

— Swami Vivekananda Indian Hindu monk and phylosopher 1863 - 1902

Pearls of Wisdom

Soul, Thinking

„The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Through violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth. Through violence you may murder the hater, but you do not murder hate.“

— Martin Luther King, Jr. American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement 1929 - 1968

'Where Do We Go From Here?" as published in Where Do We Go from Here : Chaos or Community? (1967), p. 62; many statements in this book, or slight variants of them, were also part of his address Where Do We Go From Here?" which has a section below. A common variant appearing at least as early as 1968 has "Returning violence for violence multiplies violence..." An early version of the speech as published in A Martin Luther King Treasury (1964), p. 173, has : "Returning hate for hate multiplies hate..."
1960s
Context: The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Through violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth. Through violence you may murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate. So it goes. … Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.

Hate, Truth, Lie, Evil

„I have a weakness for any piece in excess of my opponent's numbers - from pawn to queen.“

— Tigran Petrosian Soviet Georgian Armenian chess player and chess writer 1929 - 1984

Quoted in Vik L Vasilev, "Tigran Petrosian His Life and Games" (Batsford, London, 1974) p. 166.

„Be reverent before the dawning day. Do not think of what will be in a year, or in ten years. Think of to-day. Leave your theories. All theories, you see, even those of virtue, are bad, foolish, mischievous. Do not abuse life. Live in to-day. Be reverent towards each day. Love it, respect it, do not sully it, do not hinder it from coming to flower. Love it even when it is gray and sad like to-day. Do not be anxious. See. It is winter now. Everything is asleep. The good earth will awake again. You have only to be good and patient like the earth. Be reverent. Wait. If you are good, all will go well. If you are not, if you are weak, if you do not succeed, well, you must be happy in that. No doubt it is the best you can do. So, then, why will? Why be angry because of what you cannot do? We all have to do what we can.... Als ich kann.“

— Romain Rolland French author 1866 - 1944

Gottfried to Jean-Christophe. Part 3: Ada
Jean-Christophe (1904 - 1912), Youth (1904)

Waiting, Making love, Bad luck, Flowers

„We're too weak to sacrifice the things we love.“

— Raised by Wolves

Raised by Wolves, season 1, episode 4. Character Ambrose.

Love, Making love

„Peace and love are possible only between equals. The real enemies of peace are those weak people, who, because of their weakness, incite the strong. If we are weak, we commit the sin of disturbing world peace. The real cause of our degradation is our mental weakness.“

— K. B. Hedgewar Founding leader of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh 1889 - 1940

Dr. K.B. Hedgewar, Quoted from Talreja, K. M. (2000). Holy Vedas and holy Bible: A comparative study. New Delhi: Rashtriya Chetana Sangathan.

Love, People, World, Peace

„There is a sacredness in tears. They are not a mark of weakness, but of power. They speak more eloquently than ten thousand tongues. They are the messengers of overwhelming grief, of deep contrition and of unspeakable love.“

— Washington Irving writer, historian and diplomat from the United States 1783 - 1859

Love, Tear, Sad, Hurtful

„Life is suffering, and suffering can make you resentful, murderous, and then genocidal, if you take it far enough. So you need an antidote to suffering. And maybe you think that you can build walls of luxury around yourself, and that that will protect you from the suffering. Good luck with that. That isn't going to work. Maybe you think that you could build a delusion and live inside that. Well, that's going to fall apart. What is there, then, that's going to help you fight against suffering? That's easy: It's the Truth. The Truth is the antidote to suffering. The reason for that is because the Truth puts reality behind you, so that you can face the reality that's coming straight at you without becoming weak and degenerating and becoming resentful and wishing for the destruction of Being, because that's the final Hell. The final Hell is your soul wishing for the destruction of everything, because it's too painful, and you're too bitter. And that happens to people all the time.“

— Jordan Peterson Canadian clinical psychologist, cultural critic, and professor of psychology 1962

Other

Life, Pain, People, Truth

„I know I have the body but of a weak and feeble woman; but I have the heart and stomach of a king, and of a king of England too,“

— Elizabeth I of England Queen regnant of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until 1603 1533 - 1603

Speech to the Troops at Tilbury (1588)
Context: I know I have the body but of a weak and feeble woman; but I have the heart and stomach of a king, and of a king of England too, and think foul scorn that Parma or Spain, or any prince of Europe, should dare to invade the borders of my realm.

Heart

„A country is considered the more civilised the more the wisdom and efficiency of its laws hinder a weak man from becoming too weak and a powerful one too powerful.“

— Primo Levi, book If This Is a Man

If This Is a Man (1947)
Source: If This Is a Man / The Truce

Wisdom, Law, Country

„Strength is Life, Weakness is Death.
Expansion is Life, Contraction is Death.
Love is Life, Hatred is Death.“

— Swami Vivekananda Indian Hindu monk and phylosopher 1863 - 1902

Love, Life, Death

„In randori, one must search out the opponent's weaknesses and be ready to attack with all the resources at his disposal the moment the opportunity presents itself, without violating the rules of judo.“

— Kanō Jigorō Japanese educator and judoka 1860 - 1938

Source: Kodokan Judo (1882), p. 22

„Life does not forgive weakness.“

— Adolf Hitler, book Hitler's Letters and Notes

17 February 1945.
Disputed, The Testament of Adolf Hitler (1945)
Variant: Life does not forgive weakness.
Source: Hitler's Letters and Notes

Life, Forgiveness

„…when I had gone through the whole, and saw what a plain, simple, reason able thing Christianity was, suited to all conditions and capacities; and in the morality of it now, with divine authority, established into a legible law, so far surpassing all that philosophy and human reason had attained to, or could possibly make effectual to all degrees of man kind; I was flattered to think it might be of some use in the world; especially to those, who thought either that there was no need of revelation at all, or that the revelation of our Saviour required the belief of such articles for salvation, which the settled notions, and their way of reasoning in some, and want of understanding in others, made impossible to them. Upon these two topics the objections seemed to turn, which were with most assurance made by deists, against Christianity; but against Christianity misunderstood. It seemed to me, that there needed no more to show them the weakness of their exceptions, but to lay plainly before them the doctrine of our Saviour and his apostles, as delivered in the scriptures, and not as taught by the several sects of Christians.“

— John Locke English philosopher and physician 1632 - 1704

Preface to the Reader
The Reasonableness of Christianity (1695)

World, Law, Way, Understanding

„The softer you find your child is, the more you are to seek occasions, at fit times, thus to harden him. The great art in this is, to begin with what is but very little painful, and to proceed by insensible degrees, when you are playing, and in good humour with him, and speaking well of him: and when you have once got him to think himself made amends for his suffering by the praise is given him for his courage; when he can take pride in giving such marks of his manliness, and can prefer the reputation of being brave and stout, to the avoiding a little pain, or the shrinking under it; you need nor despair in time and by the assistance of his growing reason, to master his timorousness, and mend the weakness of his constitution.“

— John Locke, book Some Thoughts Concerning Education

Sec. 115
Some Thoughts Concerning Education (1693)

Pain, Art, Courage, Thinking

„The enemy is like a woman, weak in face of opposition, but correspondingly strong when not opposed. In a quarrel with a man, it is natural for a woman to lose heart and run away when he faces up to her; on the other hand, if the man begins to be afraid and to give ground, her rage, vindictiveness and fury overflow and know no limit.“

— Ignatius of Loyola Catholic Saint, founder of the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits) 1491 - 1556

No. 325.
Spiritual Exercises (1548)

Nature, Strong, Rage, Heart

„Good times create weak people's and weak people creates bad time and bad times creates strong peoples and strong 💪peoples create good times“

— Attiah

So don't worry if now your time is bad it's making you strong so nothing can effect you in future

People, Strong, Time

„The love of possessions is a disease in them. These people have made many rules that the rich may break, but the poor may not! They have a religion in which the poor worship, but the rich will not! They even take tithes from the poor and weak to support the rich and those who rule. They claim this mother of ours, the earth, for their own use, and fence their neighbor away. … If America had been twice the size it is, there still would not have been enough.“

— Sitting Bull Hunkpapa Lakota medicine man and holy man 1831 - 1890

Sitting Bull: The Collected Speeches, p. 75
Sourced quotes

Love, People, Disease, Religion

„The weak fall, but the strong will remain and never go under!“

— Anne Frank victim of the Holocaust and author of a diary 1929 - 1945

Variant: The weak die out and the strong will survive, and will live on forever
Source: The Diary of a Young Girl

Strong

„The first step to get this noble and manly steadiness, is… carefully keep children from frights of all kinds, when they are young. …Instances of such who in a weak timorous mind, have borne, all their whole lives through, the effects of a fright when they were young, are every where to be seen, and therefore as much as may be to be prevented.“

— John Locke, book Some Thoughts Concerning Education

Sec. 115
Some Thoughts Concerning Education (1693)

Children

„I will remain what I am until I die, a hunter, and when there are no buffalo or other game I will send my children to hunt and live on prairie, for where an Indian is shut up in one place his body becomes weak.“

— Sitting Bull Hunkpapa Lakota medicine man and holy man 1831 - 1890

Recorded by James M. Walsh, inspector in the Northwest Territory of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, at a conference with Sitting Bull on March 23, 1879. Published in Utley, Robert M. The Lance and the Shield. New York: Henry Holt and Co., 1993. p. 206.

Children, Game

„If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours … In proportion as he simplifies his life, the laws of the universe will appear less complex, and solitude will not be solitude, nor poverty poverty, nor weakness weakness.“

— Henry David Thoreau, Walden ou la vie dans les bois

Commonly misquoted, converted to imperative mood, as "Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you've imagined. As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler".
Walden (1854)

Life, Law, Dreams, Confidence

„It is not because men's desires are strong that they act ill; it is because their consciences are weak.“

— John Stuart Mill, book On Liberty

Source: On Liberty (1859)

Men, Strong

„The starting point of all achievement is DESIRE. Keep this constantly in mind. Weak desire brings weak results, just as a small fire makes a small amount of heat.“

— Napoleon Hill American author 1883 - 1970

Source: Think and Grow Rich: The Landmark Bestseller - Now Revised and Updated for the 21st Century

„The weak are more likely to make the strong weak than the strong are likely to make the weak strong.“

— Marlene Dietrich German-American actress and singer 1901 - 1992

Strong, Making love

„And then I'm weak. As much as I want to make the audience laugh, I really want to make Jon laugh.“

— Stephen Colbert American political satirist, writer, comedian, television host, and actor 1964

Entertainment Weekly interview http://www.jerriblank.com/colbert_ew.html, August 13, 2004, on his character break during the infamous Prince Charles sketch on The Daily Show.
Context: Such a proud moment of professionalism. You work for years crafting cogent satirical essays and the thing that everybody remembers is me making love to a Chiquita and bursting into laughter. What you can't see off camera is Jon started laughing first. And then I'm weak. As much as I want to make the audience laugh, I really want to make Jon laugh.

„There are two fundamentally different ways for the strong to bend down to the weak, for the rich to help the poor, for the more perfect life to help the “less perfect.” This action can be motivated by a powerful feeling of security, strength, and inner salvation, of the invincible fullness of one’s own life and existence. All this unites into the clear awareness that one is rich enough to share one’s being and possessions. Love, sacrifice, help, the descent to the small and the weak, here spring from a spontaneous overflow of force, accompanied by bliss and deep inner calm. Compared to this natural readiness for love and sacrifice, all specific “egoism,” the concern for oneself and one’s interest, and even the instinct of “self-preservation” are signs of a blocked and weakened life. Life is essentially expansion, development, growth in plenitude, and not “self-preservation,” as a false doctrine has it. Development, expansion, and growth are not epiphenomena of mere preservative forces and cannot be reduced to the preservation of the “better adapted.” … There is a form of sacrifice which is a free renunciation of one’s own vital abundance, a beautiful and natural overflow of one’s forces. Every living being has a natural instinct of sympathy for other living beings, which increases with their proximity and similarity to himself. Thus we sacrifice ourselves for beings with whom we feel united and solidary, in contrast to everything “dead.” This sacrificial impulse is by no means a later acquisition of life, derived from originally egoistic urges. It is an original component of life and precedes all those particular “aims” and “goals” which calculation, intelligence, and reflection impose upon it later. We have an urge to sacrifice before we ever know why, for what, and for whom! Jesus’ view of nature and life, which sometimes shines through his speeches and parables in fragments and hidden allusions, shows quite clearly that he understood this fact. When he tells us not to worry about eating and drinking, it is not because he is indifferent to life and its preservation, but because he sees also a vital weakness in all “worrying” about the next day, in all concentration on one’s own physical well-being. … all voluntary concentration on one’s own bodily wellbeing, all worry and anxiety, hampers rather than furthers the creative force which instinctively and beneficently governs all life. … This kind of indifference to the external means of life (food, clothing, etc.) is not a sign of indifference to life and its value, but rather of a profound and secret confidence in life’s own vigor and of an inner security from the mechanical accidents which may befall it. A gay, light, bold, knightly indifference to external circumstances, drawn from the depth of life itself—that is the feeling which inspires these words! Egoism and fear of death are signs of a declining, sick, and broken life. …
This attitude is completely different from that of recent modern realism in art and literature, the exposure of social misery, the description of little people, the wallowing in the morbid—a typical ressentiment phenomenon. Those people saw something bug-like in everything that lives, whereas Francis sees the holiness of “life” even in a bug.“

— Max Scheler German philosopher 1874 - 1928

Source: Das Ressentiment im Aufbau der Moralen (1912), L. Coser, trans. (1961), pp. 88-92

Love, Life, Death, People

„One cannot love anybody without turning away from oneself. However, the crucial question is whether this movement is prompted by the desire to turn toward a positive value, or whether the intention is a radical escape from oneself. “Love” of the second variety is inspired by self-hatred, by hatred of one’s own weakness and misery. The mind is always on the point of departing for distant places. Afraid of seeing itself and its inferiority, it is driven to give itself to the other—not because of his worth, but merely for the sake of his “otherness.” Modern philosophical jargon has found a revealing term for this phenomenon, one of the many modern substitutes for love: “altruism.” This love is not directed at a previously discovered positive value, nor does any such value flash up in the act of loving: there is nothing but the urge to turn away from oneself and to lose oneself in other people’s business. We all know a certain type of man frequently found among socialists, suffragettes, and all people with an ever-ready “social conscience”— the kind of person whose social activity is quite clearly prompted by inability to keep his attention focused on himself, on his own tasks and problems. Looking away from oneself is here mistaken for love! Isn’t it abundantly clear that “altruism,” the interest in “others” and their lives, has nothing at all to do with love? The malicious or envious person also forgets his own interest, even his “preservation.” He only thinks about the other man’s feelings, about the harm and the suffering he inflicts on him. Conversely, there is a form of genuine “self-love” which has nothing at all to do with “egoism.” It is precisely the essential feature of egoism that it does not apprehend the full value of the isolated self. The egoist sees himself only with regard to the others, as a member of society who wishes to possess and acquire more than the others. Selfdirectedness or other-directedness have no essential bearing on the specific quality of love or hatred. These acts are different in themselves, quite independently of their direction.“

— Max Scheler German philosopher 1874 - 1928

Das Ressentiment im Aufbau der Moralen (1912)

Love, People, Feeling, Question

„In ressentiment morality, love for the “small,” the “poor,” the “weak,” and the “oppressed” is really disguised hatred, repressed envy, an impulse to detract, etc., directed against the opposite phenomena: “wealth,” “strength,” “power,” “largesse.” When hatred does not dare to come out into the open, it can be easily expressed in the form of ostensible love—love for something which has features that are the opposite of those of the hated object. This can happen in such a way that the hatred remains secret. When we hear that falsely pious, unctuous tone (it is the tone of a certain “socially-minded” type of priest), sermonizing that love for the “small” is our first duty, love for the “humble” inspirit, since God gives “grace” to them, then it is often only hatred posing as Christian love.“

— Max Scheler German philosopher 1874 - 1928

Source: Das Ressentiment im Aufbau der Moralen (1912), L. Coser, trans. (1961), pp. 96-97

Love, God, Hate, Secret

„I am a weak, ephemeral creature made of mud and dream. But I feel all the powers of the universe whirling within me.“

— Nikos Kazantzakis, book The Saviors of God

The Saviors of God (1923)

Dreams, Feeling, Universe

„Fear, selfishness, greed and a human weakness for seeking the "easy way" have led us to the abyss.“

— David Lane (white nationalist) American white supremacist, convicted felon 1938 - 2007

Now or Never
Focus Fourteen

Selfishness, Way, Fear

„I am mindful of human weakness, and I reflect upon the might of Fortune and know that everything that we do is exposed to a thousand chances.“

— Scipio Africanus Roman general in the Second Punic War -235 - -183 BC

Context: I am mindful of human weakness, and I reflect upon the might of Fortune and know that everything that we do is exposed to a thousand chances. But, just as I should admit that I were acting with arrogance and violence if, before I had crossed over to Africa, I were to reject you when you were voluntarily withdrawing from Italy and, while your army was already on shipboard, you were coming in person to sue for peace, so now, when I have dragged you to Africa, resisting and shifting ground as we almost came to blows, I am under no obligation to respect you. Therefore, if to the terms upon which peace was formerly about to be made, as it seemed, you are adding some kind of compensation for the ships loaded with supplies that were taken by force during the armistice, and for violence done to my envoys, I have reason to bring it before the council. But if that addition also seems too severe, prepare for war, since you have been unable to endure a peace [bellum parate, quoniam pacem pati non potuistis].

Reply to Hannibal's attempt to set terms for peace, prior to the Battle of Zama, as quoted in Livy. Books XXVIII-XXX With An English Translation (1949), Book 30, Ch. 31 http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0159%3Abook%3D30%3Achapter%3D31
Variant translation:
I am aware of the frailty of man, I think about the power of fortune, and I know that all our actions are at the mercy of a thousand vicissitudes. Now I admit that it would have been arrogant and headstrong reaction on my part if you had come to sue for peace before I crossed to Africa, and I had rejected your petition when you were yourself voluntarily quitting Italy, and had your troops embarked on your ships. But, as it is, I have forced you back to Africa, and you are reluctant and resisting almost to the point of fighting, so that I feel no need to show you any consideration. Accordingly, if something is actually added to the terms on which it seems probable that a peace could be concluded — some sort of indemnity for the forceful appropriation of our ships, along with their cargoes, during truce and for the violation of our envoys — then I have something to take to my council. But if you consider even that to be excessive, prepare for war, for you have found peace intolerable.
Hannibal's War : Books Twenty-one to Thirty by Livy, as translated by John Yardley (2006), p. 600
Prepare to fight — for, evidently, you have found peace intolerable.
Let us make war, since evidently, you have found peace intolerable.

Chance

„My attitude is that if you push me towards something that you think is a weakness, then I will turn that perceived weakness into a strength.“

— Michael Jordan American retired professional basketball player and businessman 1963

Thinking, Attitude, Motivational

„It is not great men who change the world, but weak men in the hands of a great God.“

— Brother Yun Chinese christian house church leader 1958

Source: The Heavenly Man: The Remarkable True Story of Chinese Christian Brother Yun

Men, God, World, Change

„The first essential of civilization is law. Anarchy is simply the handmaiden and forerunner of tyranny and despotism. Law and order enforced with justice and by strength lie at the foundations of civilization. Law must be based upon justice, else it cannot stand, and it must be enforced with resolute firmness, because weakness in enforcing it means in the end that there is no justice and no law, nothing but the rule of disorderly and unscrupulous strength. Without the habit of orderly obedience to the law, without the stern enforcement of the laws at the expense of those who defiantly resist them, there can be no possible progress, moral or material, in civilization. There can be no weakening of the law-abiding spirit here at home, if we are permanently to succeed; and just as little can we afford to show weakness abroad.“

— Theodore Roosevelt American politician, 26th president of the United States 1858 - 1919

1900s, The Strenuous Life: Essays and Addresses (1900), National Duties

Lie, Justice, Law, Home

„I hate smiling. It makes me feel weak and powerless and small. I've always been like that; I don't smile in any pictures.“

— Billie Eilish American singer-songwriter 2001

https://www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/art-books-music/a13040159/billie-eilish-interview/

Smile, Hate, Feeling, Making love

„Going into our fear and confronting our greed, our weaknesses, our neediness is the way out. And the way out is through the mind, by choosing our thoughts.“

— Robert T. Kiyosaki, book Rich Dad Poor Dad

Source: Rich Dad, Poor Dad

Fear, Way

„For each of us as women, there is a dark place within where hidden and growing our true spirit rises, “Beautiful and tough as chestnut/stanchions against our nightmare of weakness” and of impotence. These places of possibility within ourselves are dark because they are ancient and hidden; they have survived and grown strong through darkness. Within these deep places, each one of us holds an incredible reserve of creativity and power, of unexamined and unrecorded emotion and feeling. The woman’s place of power within each of us is neither white nor surface; it is dark, it is ancient, and it is deep.“

— Audre Lorde writer and activist 1934 - 1992

"Poetry is Not a Luxury"
Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches (1984)

Women, Beauty, Feeling, Strong

„I heard the Master preach.
“Don’t be chained to love and suffering. Instead, cut the ties of love and you will rejoice in your heart.” So he said in a loud voice.The Master is quite a fool.
He does not know: true it hurts to be tied with love, but it will hurt more to cut the ties of love, it will hurt more than even death.
In the tight binding of love’s bonds lies their unbinding.Thus great liberation is to be had in the bonds themselves.
My love, I was afraid the rope of your love might be weak so I doubled the strands of my love for you.“

— Han Yong-un Korean writer 1879 - 1944

"The Master’s Sermon", translated by Sammy Solberg

Love, Death, Fools, Suffering

„The weak fear happiness itself. They can harm themselves on cotton wool. Sometimes they are wounded even by happiness.“

— Osamu Dazai, book No Longer Human

Source: No Longer Human

Fear, Happiness

„It is too early to assess the policies of the new German government. I can only say that the crisis has shown that the monetary union is incomplete and that the weaknesses need to be remedied. Germany helps the euro best by further strengthening its competitiveness and promoting growth.“

— Mario Draghi Italian banker and economist 1947

spiegel.de http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/spiegel-interview-with-ecb-president-mario-draghi-a-941489.html.

Help

„Smiling makes me feel weak and not in control and not powerful and small. Writing a song is so personal. You have to have trust in someone you're working with; otherwise, you're not gonna come out with something that's really you.“

— Billie Eilish American singer-songwriter 2001

Source: https://www.wmagazine.com/story/billie-eilish-new-ep/

Personality, Making love, Smile, Feeling

„!-- Having no colour, no odour and no shape, the mind is not something that can be grasped by the senses. However, based on the principle that the mind and body are actually one, we can know the state of this ungraspable mind by testing the body, which is available to our senses. --> Ki tests are not founded on the idea of testing for strength or weakness. The most important factor in ki testing is to accurately inform the person of the state of his or her mind. Thus, the person performing ki tests must truly understand and exhibit oneness of mind and body from the outset and then perform the tests correctly.“

— Koichi Tohei Japanese aikidoka 1920 - 2011

22 : The treasure of ki testing
Ki Sayings (2003)

Idea, Understanding, Sense, Personality

„The shaping of form is weak in energy in comparison with the determining of form. The final consequence of both ways of forming is form. From the ways to the end. From activity to the accomplished. From the genuinely living thing to the objective thing. In the beginning the male speciality, the energetic stimulus. Then the fleshly growth of the egg. Or: first the bright flash of lightning, then the raining cloud. When is the spirit at its purest? In the beginning. Here, work that becomes (dual). There, work that is.“

— Paul Klee German Swiss painter 1879 - 1940

Diary entry (1913), # 944; as quoted by Francesco Mazzaferro, in 'The Diaries of Paul Klee - Part Four', : Klee as an Expressionist and Constructivist Painter http://letteraturaartistica.blogspot.nl/2015/05/paul-klee-ev27.html
1911 - 1914

Way

„They were conquerors, and for that you want only brute force--nothing to boast of, when you have it, since your strength is just an accident arising from the weakness of others.“

— Joseph Conrad, book Heart of Darkness

Source: Heart of Darkness

„For most countries, serving the UN's objectives has never seemed worth even the smallest of risks. Member nations do not want a large, reputable, strong and independent United Nations, no matter their hypocritical pronouncements otherwise. What they want is a weak, beholden, indebted scapegoat of an organization, which they can blame for their failures or steal victories from.“

— Roméo Dallaire, book Shake Hands with the Devil

Shake Hands with the Devil (2003)

Failure, Strong, Victory, Country

„Men are taught to apologize for their weaknesses, women for their strengths.“

— Lois Wyse American advertising executive 1926 - 2007

Women, Men, For women

„I've been tryin' to get down to the Heart of the Matter
Because the flesh will get weak
And the ashes will scatter
So I'm thinkin' about forgiveness
Forgiveness
Even if you don't love me anymore.“

— Don Henley American singer, lyricist, producer and drummer 1947

"The Heart of the Matter"
Song lyrics, The End of the Innocence (1989)

Love, Forgiveness, Heart

„Do you love me enough that I may be weak with you? Everyone loves strength, but do you love me for my weakness? That is the real test.“

— Alain de Botton Swiss writer 1969

Love

„He thought back on his family with deep emotion and love. His conviction that he would have to disappear was, if possible, even firmer than his sister's. He remained in this state of empty and peaceful reflection until the tower clock struck three in the morning. He still saw that outside the window everything was beginning to grow light. Then, without his consent, his head sank down to the floor, and from his nostrils streamed his last weak breath.“

— Franz Kafka, book The Metamorphosis

The Metamorphosis (1915)

Love, Family, Peace, Sister

„My argument with so much of psychoanalysis, is the preconception that suffering is a mistake, or a sign of weakness, or a sign even of illness, when in fact, possibly the greatest truths we know have come out of people's suffering“

— Arthur Miller playwright from the United States 1915 - 2005

1963 interview, used in The Century of the Self (2002)
Context: My argument with so much of psychoanalysis, is the preconception that suffering is a mistake, or a sign of weakness, or a sign even of illness, when in fact, possibly the greatest truths we know have come out of people's suffering; that the problem is not to undo suffering or to wipe it off the face of the earth but to make it inform our lives, instead of trying to cure ourselves of it constantly and avoid it, and avoid anything but that lobotomized sense of what they call "happiness." There's too much of an attempt, it seems to me, to think in terms of controlling man, rather than freeing him. Of defining him rather than letting him go. It's part of the whole ideology of this age, which is power-mad.

People, Truth, Suffering

„South Korean nationalism is something quite different from the patriotism toward the state that Americans feel. Identification with the Korean race is strong, while that with the Republic of Korea is weak.“

— Brian Reynolds Myers American professor of international studies 1963

2010s, South Korea's Collective Shrug (May 2010)

Strong, Feeling

„If you feel lost, disappointed, hesitant, or weak, return to yourself, to who you are, here and now and when you get there, you will discover yourself, like a lotus flower in full bloom, even in a muddy pond, beautiful and strong.“

— Masaru Emoto Japanese writer 1943 - 2014

Source: Secret Life of Water

Beauty, Disappointment, Feeling, Flowers

„If, by the virtue of charity or the circumstance of desperation, you ever chance to spend a little time around a Substance-recovery halfway facility like Enfield MA’s state-funded Ennet House, you will acquire many exotic new facts…That certain persons simply will not like you no matter what you do. That sleeping can be a form of emotional escape and can with sustained effort be abused. That purposeful sleep-deprivation can also be an abusable escape. That you do not have to like a person in order to learn from him/her/it. That loneliness is not a function of solitude. That logical validity is not a guarantee of truth. That it takes effort to pay attention to any one stimulus for more than a few seconds. That boring activities become, perversely, much less boring if you concentrate intently on them. That if enough people in a silent room are drinking coffee it is possible to make out the sound of steam coming off the coffee. That sometimes human beings have to just sit in one place and, like, hurt. That you will become way less concerned with what other people think of you when you realize how seldom they do. That there is such a thing as raw, unalloyed, agendaless kindness. That it is possible to fall asleep during an anxiety attack. That concentrating intently on anything is very hard work. That 99% of compulsive thinkers’ thinking is about themselves; that 99% of this self-directed thinking consists of imagining and then getting ready for things that are going to happen to them; and then, weirdly, that if they stop to think about it, that 100% of the things they spend 99% of their time and energy imagining and trying to prepare for all the contingencies and consequences of are never good. In short that 99% of the head’s thinking activity consists of trying to scare the everliving shit out of itself. That it is possible to make rather tasty poached eggs in a microwave oven. That some people’s moms never taught them to cover up or turn away when they sneeze. That the people to be the most frightened of are the people who are the most frightened. That it takes great personal courage to let yourself appear weak. That no single, individual moment is in and of itself unendurable. That other people can often see things about you that you yourself cannot see, even if those people are stupid. That having a lot of money does not immunize people from suffering or fear. That trying to dance sober is a whole different kettle of fish. That different people have radically different ideas of basic personal hygiene. That, perversely, it is often more fun to want something than to have it. That if you do something nice for somebody in secret, anonymously, without letting the person you did it for know it was you or anybody else know what it was you did or in any way or form trying to get credit for it, it’s almost its own form of intoxicating buzz. That anonymous generosity, too, can be abused. That it is permissible to want. That everybody is identical in their unspoken belief that way deep down they are different from everyone else. That this isn’t necessarily perverse. That there might not be angels, but there are people who might as well be angels.“

— David Foster Wallace, book Infinite Jest

Infinite Jest (1996)

Hurt, Imagination, Housing, Personality

„Weakness always has a thousand means and cowardice is all that keeps us from listing them.“

— Aimé Césaire, Une Tempête

Caliban in Une Tempête (1969)
Une Tempête (1969)

„When men do wrong, it is out of hardness; when women do wrong, it is out of weakness.“

— Anne Louise Germaine de Staël, book Corinne

Bk. 6, ch. 3
Corinne (1807)

Women, Men

„And raw in fields the rude militia swarms,
Mouths without hands; maintain'd at vast expense,
In peace a charge, in war a weak defence;
Stout once a month they march, a blustering band,
And ever but in times of need at hand.“

— John Dryden, book Fables, Ancient and Modern

Source: Fables, Ancient and Modern (1700), Cymon and Iphigenia, Line 400.

War, Peace, Time

„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

„Only the weak will fall and give up, the strong falls 100 times and wakes up 200 times“

— Cornelius Keagon Liberian humanitarian aid worker 1996

Time, Strong

„In other to be a successful leader you must be heartless, heart makes you weak“

— Cornelius Keagon Liberian humanitarian aid worker 1996

Success, Heart

„Morals - the strongest weakness of Man.“

— Teodor Burnar

„Life can be dangerous at any time if you do not know how to protect your weak self.“

— Kimsa Sok

Kimsa Sok
Source: https://quotepark.com/quotes/2102246-kimsa-sok-life-can-be-dangerous-at-any-time-if-you-do-not-kn/

Time, Life

„I want to make all Europe and America know it – I want to make England feel her weakness if she refuses to give the justice we the Irish require – the restoration of our domestic parliament…“

— Daniel O'Connell Irish political leader 1775 - 1847

Speech given at a ‘monster’ meeting held at Drogheda, June, 1843.

Justice, Feeling

„I was truly under Hitler's spell, that cannot be denied. I was impressed with him from the moment I first met him, in 1932. He had terrific power, especially in his eyes. Now the tribunal accuses us of conspiracy. I say, how can one have a conspiracy in a dictatorship government? One man and one man only made all the crucial decisions. That was the Fuhrer. In all my dealings with him I never discussed the exterminations or anything of that sort. What I shall never comprehend is that six weeks before the end of the war he assured me we'd win by a nose. I left his presence then and said that from that time forth I was completely at a loss — that I didn't understand a thing. Hitler always, until the end, and even now, had a strange fascination over me. Would you call it abnormal of me? Sometimes, in his presence, when he spoke of all his plans, the good things he would do for the Volk, vacations, highways, new buildings, cultural advantages and so forth, tears would come to my eyes. Would that be because I'm a hysterical weak man?“

— Joachim von Ribbentrop German general 1893 - 1946

To Leon Goldensohn, July 15, 1946, from "The Nuremberg Interviews" by Leon Goldensohn, Robert Gellately - History - 2004

War, Understanding, Decision, Tear

„When the workers of a single factory or of a single branch of industry engage in struggle against their employer or employers, is this class struggle? No, this is only a weak embryo of it. The struggle of the workers becomes a class struggle only when all the foremost representatives of the entire working class of the whole country are conscious of themselves as a single working class and launch a struggle that is directed, not against individual employers, but against the entire class of capitalists and against the government that supports that class. Only when the individual worker realizes that he is a member of the entire working class, only when he recognises the fact that his petty day-to-day struggle against individual employers and individual government officials is a struggle against the entire bourgeoisie and the entire government, does his struggle become a class struggle.“

— Vladimir Lenin Russian politician, led the October Revolution 1870 - 1924

Source: On the Foreign Policy of the Soviet State

Support, Country

„I protest against every order with which some authority may feel pleased on the basis of some alleged necessity to over-rule my free will. Laws: We know what they are, and what they are worth! They are spider webs for the rich and mighty, steel chains for the poor and weak, fishing nets in the hands of government.“

— Pierre Joseph Proudhon French politician, mutualist philosopher, economist, and socialist 1809 - 1865

"The Authority Principle" in No Gods, No Masters : An Anthology of Anarchism (1980) Daniel Guérin, as translated by Paul Sharkey (1998), p. 90
Context: I stand ready to negotiate, but I want no part of laws: I acknowledge none; I protest against every order with which some authority may feel pleased on the basis of some alleged necessity to over-rule my free will. Laws: We know what they are, and what they are worth! They are spider webs for the rich and mighty, steel chains for the poor and weak, fishing nets in the hands of government.

Law, Feeling, Fish

„The weakness of men is the facade of strength; the strength of women is the facade of weakness.“

— Warren Farrell, book The Myth of Male Power

Source: The Myth of Male Power (1993), Part 1: The Myth of Male Power, p. 13.

Women, Men

„Weakness can imitate strength if bound properly, just as cowardice can imitate heroism if given nowhere to flee.“

— Brandon Sanderson, book The Way of Kings

Source: The Way of Kings

„Dr. Watson's summary list of Sherlock Holmes's strengths and weaknesses:

"1. Knowledge of Literature: Nil.
2. Knowledge of Philosophy: Nil.
3. Knowledge of Astronomy: Nil.
4. Knowledge of Politics: Feeble.
5. Knowledge of Botany: Variable. Well up in belladonna, opium, and poisons generally. Knows nothing of practical gardening.
6. Knowledge of Geology: Practical but limited. Tells at a glance different soils from each other. After walks has shown me splashes upon his trousers, and told me by their colour and consistence in what part of London he had received them.
7. Knowledge of Chemistry: Profound.
8. Knowledge of Anatomy: Accurate but unsystematic.
9. Knowledge of Sensational Literature: Immense. He appears to know every detail of every horror perpetrated in the century.
10. Plays the violin well.
11. Is an expert singlestick player, boxer, and swordsman.
12. Has a good practical knowledge of British law.“

— Arthur Conan Doyle, book A Study in Scarlet

Source: A Study in Scarlet

Law, Literature, Knowledge, Appearance

„Have this faith that someone is there to take away your weaknesses. Ok, you slipped once, twice, thrice. It does not matter. Keep moving ahead. People take vows never to commit mistakes again. Breaking the vows makes it worse. Surrendering is better“

— Sri Sri Ravi Shankar spiritual leader 1956

People, Faith

„None of us will become perfect in a day or a month or a year. We will not accomplish it in a lifetime, but we can begin now, starting with our more obvious weaknesses and gradually converting them to strengths as we go forward with our lives. This quest may be a long one; in fact, it will be lifelong. It may be fraught with many mistakes, with falling down and getting back up again. And it will take much effort. But we must not sell ourselves short. We must make a little extra effort. We would be wise to kneel before our God in supplication. He will help us. He will bless us. He will comfort and sustain us. He will help us to do more, and be more, than we can ever accomplish or be on our own.“

— Gordon B. Hinckley, book Standing for Something

Standing for Something: Ten Neglected Virtues That Will Heal Our Hearts and Homes.

God, Effort, Help, Perfection

„I cannot waste time in these classes and these books, memorizing the weak assumptions of lesser mortals.“

— John Nash American mathematician and Nobel Prize laureate 1928 - 2015

Books, Time

„Let me not be weak and tell others how bleeding I am internally; how day by day it drips, and gathers, and congeals.“

— Sylvia Plath American poet, novelist and short story writer 1932 - 1963

Source: The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath

„While the stranger is present before us, evidence can arise of his possessing an attribute that makes him different from others in the category of persons available for him to be, and of a less desirable kind – in the extreme, a person who is quite thoroughly bad, or dangerous, or weak. He is thus reduced in our minds from a whole and usual person to a tainted, discounted one. Such an attribute is a stigma, especially when its discrediting effect is very extensive; sometimes it is also called a failing, a shortcoming, a handicap. It constitutes a special discrepancy between virtual and actual social identity.“

— Erving Goffman, book Stigma

Source: 1950s-1960s, Stigma, 1963, p. 11-12

Personality

„My theory is that for those of us who are too weak to remain single, God gives us a spouse. For those of us who are too hung up to handle marriage, God gives us celibacy. So, pick your weakness. Pick your poison, I guess. But anyway, for those of you who do choose to be in love and stuff, go for it.“

— Rich Mullins American christian musician 1955 - 1997

Anderson, Indiana http://www.kidbrothers.net/words/concert-transcripts/anderson-indiana-nov1695.html (November 16, 1995)
In Concert

Love, God, Marriage

„The greatest weakness of all weaknesses is to fear too much to appear weak.“

— Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet French bishop and theologian 1627 - 1704

Politics Drawn from the Very Words of Holy Scripture (1709)

Appearance, Fear

„I am weak and therefore I am strong.“

— Bing Xin Chinese writer 1900 - 1999

As quoted in Haiping Yan's Chinese Women Writers and the Feminist Imagination, 1905–1948 (New York: Routledge, 2006), p. 8

Strong

„The vain and weak see a judge in everyone; the proud and strong know no judge other than themselves.“

— Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach Austrian writer 1830 - 1916

Der eitle, schwache Mensch sieht in Jedem einen Richter, der stolze, starke hat keinen Richter als sich selbst.
Source: Aphorisms (1880/1893), p. 34.

Strong

„We are so inculcated with guilt that we think that weakness is a sin or that it is some crime against nature to be submissive.“

— Anton LaVey, book The Satanic Bible

The Satanic Bible (1969)

Nature, Thinking

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

— Antonio Porchia Italian Argentinian poet 1885 - 1968

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

„Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,“

— Edgar Allan Poe, The Raven

Stanza 1.
The Raven (1844)
Context: Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.