Quotes about weakness
page 5

“Everyone has their weak spot. The one thing that despite your best efforts, will always bring you to your knees, regardless of how strong you are otherwise. For some people, it's love. Others, money or alcohol. Mine was even worse: calculus.”

Sarah Dessen Lock and Key

Source: Lock and Key

Love, Money, People, Alcohol

“The obstacle became his alibi for weakness.”

Anaïs Nin (1903–1977) writer of novels, short stories, and erotica

“A weak man in a corner is more dangerous than a strong man. (Inspector Miller)”

Agatha Christie book The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding

Source: The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding

Strong

“The valor that struggles is better than the weakness that endures.”

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831) German philosopher

“The weak are dominated by their ego, the wise dominate their ego, and the intelligent are in a constant struggle against their ego”

Hamza Yusuf (1958) American Islamic scholar

Shaykh Hamza Yusuf https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/158902.Hamza_Yusuf

Intelligence, Wise

“Don’t expect to build up the weak by pulling down the strong.”

Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933) American politician, 30th president of the United States (in office from 1923 to 1929)

Strong

“As gentle a man as he was, as tender as was his heart, there was nothing weak about Michael Hosea. He was the strongest-minded man Joseph had ever met. A Man like Noah. A Man like the Shepherd-king David. A man after God's own heart.”

Francine Rivers (1947) American writer

Source: Redeeming Love

God, Heart

“To swallow and follow, whether old doctrine or new propaganda, is a weakness still dominating the human mind.”

Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860–1935) American feminist, writer, commercial artist, lecturer and social reformer

“But 'Thou mayest!'! Why, that makes a man great, that gives him stature with the gods, for in his weakness and his filth and his murder of his brother he has still the great choice. He can choose his course and fight it through and win”

John Steinbeck book East of Eden

Source: East of Eden

God, Fight

“Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful.”

Samuel Johnson book The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia

Source: The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia (1759), Chapter 41

Knowledge

“Often admitting our weakness and fear is the first step to finding rest in God. Our trust in Him isn't conveyed though superhuman confidence as much as it comes in the way of childlike reliance on Him.”

Tracie Peterson (1959) American writer

Source: Morning's Refrain

God, Fear, Way, Confidence

“Seth trotted over to Kendra. Bringing good luck as usual
It was a weak pass okay”

Brandon Mull (1974) American fiction writer

Source: Rise of the Evening Star

“Jealousy has always been my cross, the weakness and woundedness in me that has most often caused me to feel ugly and unlovable, like the Bad Seed.”

Anne Lamott (1954) Novelist, essayist, memoirist, activist

Source: Grace (Eventually): Thoughts on Faith

Jealousy, Feeling

“The weak in courage is strong in cunning.”

William Blake (1757–1827) English Romantic poet and artist

Source: 1790s, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1790–1793), Proverbs of Hell, Line 49

Courage, Strong

“It is not true that women cannot keep secrets. Where they love, they can be trusted to death and beyond, against all sense and reason. It is their weakness, and their great strength.”

Mary Stewart book The Hollow Hills

Source: The Hollow Hills

Love, Death, Women, Secret

“Only the weak blame their past for the faults they find in their present; the strong acknowledge the effects of their past and then move on from it. We are all free to choose whether we will be weak or strong.”

Penny Jordan (1946–2011) British women's author

Source: The Italian Duke's Virgin Mistress

Strong, Past

“They always call depression the blues, but I would have been happy to waken to a periwinkle outlook. Depression to me is urine yellow, washed out, exhausted miles of weak piss.”

Gillian Flynn book Sharp Objects

Source: Sharp Objects

Happiness, Depressing

“Public opinion is a weak tyrant compared with our own private opinion. what a man thinks of himself, that it is which determines, or rather indicates, his fate.”

Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) 1817-1862 American poet, essayist, naturalist, and abolitionist

Fate, Thinking

“The whole "weak in the knees" thing, which she always thought was just some idiotic expression back from the golden age of idiotic expressions, was real.
-Suite Scarlett”

Maureen Johnson (1973) writer from the USA

Source: Suite Scarlett

Age

“We fell into silence, both of us keeping our own secrets of what we'd suffered in the other's absence. I wondered if we were trying to protect each other or simply didn't want to admit to our own fears and weaknesses.”

Richelle Mead book Silver Shadows

Source: Silver Shadows

Secret, Fear, Silence, Suffering

“The malice of the wicked was reinforced by the weakness of the virtuous.”

Winston S. Churchill (1874–1965) Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

“Everyone had a weakness. It was the law of nature that for each being there was a predator, or a disease, or a vulnerability built into their very core.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Bites

Disease, Law, Nature

“The power of women! I've never felt so full of mysterious power. Men are a joke.
We're so weak physically, so helpless with things. Still, even today. But we're stronger than they are. We can stand their cruelty. They can't stand ours.”

John Fowles book The Collector

Source: The Collector

Women, Men

“What is Grand is necessarily obscure to Weak men. That which can be made Explicit to the idiot is not worth my care.”

William Blake (1757–1827) English Romantic poet and artist

1790s, Letter to Revd. Dr. Trusler (1799)

Men

“I find I am much prouder of the victory I obtain over myself, when, in the very ardor of dispute, I make myself submit to my adversary’s force of reason, than I am pleased with the victory I obtain over him through his weakness.”

Michel De Montaigne (1533–1592) (1533-1592) French-Occitan author, humanistic philosopher, statesman

Source: The Complete Essays

Victory

“…as man under pressure tends to give in to physical and intellectual weakness, only great strength of will can lead to the objective.”

Carl von Clausewitz book On War

On War (1832), Book 3

“That's weak! You don't know what caring is… Caring is love. And love fights! Love doesn't look for the path of least resistance. Hell's bells, Roderick, if love was that easy everyone would have it. You're a coward!”

Karen Marie Moning book To Tame a Highland Warrior

Source: To Tame a Highland Warrior

Love, Hell, Fight, Relationship

“I suspect that I am the result of particularly weak conception on the part of my father. His sperm was probably emitted in a rather offhand manner.”

John Kennedy Toole A Confederacy of Dunces

Source: A Confederacy of Dunces

Parting

“Life before Death.
Strength before Weakness.
Journey before Destination.”

Brandon Sanderson book The Way of Kings

Source: The Way of Kings

Life, Death

“Every existing thing is born without reason, prolongs itself out of weakness and dies by chance.”

Jean Paul Sartre book Nausea

Tout existant naît sans raison, se prolonge par faiblesse et meurt par rencontre.
Nausea (1938)

Chance

“Only stupid men trying to seem smart need to be with dumb women. Only weak men trying to look strong are attracted to compliant women.”

Orson Scott Card Ender's Game hexalogy

Page 96
Ender's Game series, First Meetings in the Enderverse (2003), Teacher's Pest
Source: First Meetings in Ender's Universe

Women, Men, Stupidity, Strong

“But when the strong were too weak to hurt the weak, the weak had to be strong enough to leave.”

Milan Kundera book The Unbearable Lightness of Being

pg 71
Source: The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1984), Part Two: Soul and Body

Strong, Hurt

“Oh, no!" Hazel wailed. "Popcorn! Our fatal weakness!”

Rick Riordan book The Blood of Olympus

Source: The Blood of Olympus

“The future has several names. For the weak, it is impossible; for the fainthearted, it is unknown; but for the valiant, it is ideal.”

Victor Hugo book Les Misérables

Variant: The future has many names: For the weak, it means the unattainable. For the fearful, it means the unknown. For the courageous, it means opportunity.
Source: Les Misérables

Future

“For the first time I could remember, I felt weak, woozy and stupid— like a human-being. Like a very small and helpless human-being.”

Jeff Lindsay book Darkly Dreaming Dexter

Source: Darkly Dreaming Dexter

Stupidity, Time

“I want you to be weak. As weak as I am.”

Milan Kundera book The Unbearable Lightness of Being

Source: The Unbearable Lightness of Being

“She who showed weakness to teenagers would be picked on to death. True fact of life.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Burn for Me

Life, Death

“To rush into explanations is always a sign of weakness.”

Agatha Christie book The Seven Dials Mystery

Source: The Seven Dials Mystery

“I guess I felt attached to my weakness. My pain and suffering too. Summer light, the smell of a breeze, the sound of cicadas - if I like these things, why should I apologize?”

Haruki Murakami book A Wild Sheep Chase

Source: A Wild Sheep Chase: A Novel (1982), Chapter 40, The Rat Who Wound the Clock

Pain, Light, Suffering, Summer

“I've always had a weakness for lost causes once they're really lost.”

Margaret Mitchell book Vom Winde verweht (1937 German edition)

Source: Gone with the Wind

“I often cried when I got angry; I hated that. Crying just made you look weak, no matter what triggered it.”

Charlaine Harris book All Together Dead

Source: All Together Dead

Hate, Cry

“Who knows more about male weakness: you or me? Use my knowledge, Sage.”

Richelle Mead book The Indigo Spell

Source: The Indigo Spell

Knowledge

“A strong man who has known power all his life may lose respect for that power. But a weak man knows the value of strength.”

Jeffrey Archer (1940) English author and former politician

Life, Strong

“My bones are brittle, my heart weak and erratic, my esophagus and stomach riddled with ulcers, my reproductive system shot, my immune system useless… I'm not going to have a happy ending.”

Marya Hornbacher book Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia

Source: Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia

Happiness, Heart

“Everyone has their weak spot. The one thing that, despite your best efforts, will always bring you to your knees, regardless of how strong you are otherwise.”

Sarah Dessen Lock and Key

Source: Lock and Key

Effort, Strong

“I used to think you were weak and just didn't fight back… but now, honestly, I think you're actually pretty tough. It takes a hell of a lot of strength to not complain and lash out.”

Richelle Mead Bloodlines

Source: Bloodlines

Hell, Thinking, Fight

“I hear a guttural sound followed by a weak sigh and look back at the bodies.
"I'm going to kill the kid," Barrons says faintly.
Ryodan makes a burbling sound like a bloody laugh. I don't think he even has the parts left to laugh with. "Get in line.”

Karen Marie Moning (1964) author

Source: Iced

Thinking, Parting

“I'm like everybody else: weak, full of mistakes, but basically good.”

Junot Díaz book This Is How You Lose Her

Source: This Is How You Lose Her

“silence is not weakness and decency is not pride”

Arthur Machen (1863–1947) Welsh author and mystic

Silence

“Vulnerability is not winning or losing; it’s having the courage to show up and be seen when we have no control over the outcome. Vulnerability is not weakness; it’s our greatest measure of courage.”

Brené Brown (1965) US writer and professor

Source: Rising Strong

Courage

“How can you blame a person for his fears and weaknesses unless you have felt the same and done differently?”

Amy Tan The Kitchen God's Wife

Source: The Kitchen God's Wife

Fear, Personality

“Men are the weak ones, luv. Didn't you know? Oh, you make a lot of noise, but its the women who are strong. Where it counts. In 'ere”

Jennifer Donnelly book The Tea Rose

Source: The Tea Rose

Women, Men, Strong

“The wound you refuse to dress is one that will never heal. You gush lifeblood and never even know why. It will make you weak at a critical moment when you need to be strong.”

Karen Marie Moning (1964) author

Source: Iced

Strong

“Some people are weak in some ways, sir. Others in other ways.”

Anthony Doerr book All the Light We Cannot See

Source: All the Light We Cannot See

People, Way

“To have not shot his friend in the face would have sent a message to the quail that America is weak.”

Jon Stewart (1962) American political satirist, writer, television host, actor, media critic and stand-up comedian

“The strong look for more strength, the weak for excuses.”

Margaret George book The Memoirs of Cleopatra

Source: The Memoirs of Cleopatra

Strong

“The heart itself is beyond control. That is its power, and its weakness.”

Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni (1956) novelist, short story writer, poet, and essayist

Source: The Palace of Illusions

Heart

“You are human and mortal; we are the sum of our weak moments and our strong.”

Mercedes Lackey book The Black Gryphon

Source: The Black Gryphon

Strong

“There's one hole in every revolution, large or small. And it's one word long— PEOPLE. No matter how big the idea they all stand under, people are small and weak and cheap and frightened. It's people that kill every revolution.”

Warren Ellis (1968) English comics and fiction writer

Source: Transmetropolitan, Vol. 1: Back on the Street

People, Idea

“He who establishes his argument by noise and command shows that his reason is weak.”

Michel De Montaigne (1533–1592) (1533-1592) French-Occitan author, humanistic philosopher, statesman

Attributed

“All war presupposes human weakness and seeks to exploit it.”

Carl von Clausewitz book On War

On War (1832), Book 5

War

“You forget who submits, Eva,” he said gruffly. “I’ve given up control for you. I’ve bent and adjusted for you. I’ll do anything to keep you and make you happy. But I can’t be tamed or topped. Don’t mistake indulgence for weakness.”

Sylvia Day book Bared to You

Source: Bared to You

Happiness, Forgetting

“Every man has a weakness!” he patiently explained. “I'll find theirs, I promise you.”
“Every man?”
“Yes,” he answered emphatically.
…
“What is your weakness, Brodick?” she asked.
“You.”

Julie Garwood (1946) American writer

Source: Ransom

“molesting the vampire while he's too weak to fight back, iz? jace asked. i'm pretty sure that violates at least one of the accords.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Glass

Source: City of Glass

Fight

“when times are tough, the weak bail and the tough get creative.”

Kelley Armstrong (1968) Canadian writer

Time

“… no woman can love a weak man hard enough to make him strong.”

Pearl Cleage (1948) American novelist

Source: Just Wanna Testify

Love, Strong

“Weak desires bring weak results, just as a small amount of fire brings a small amount of heat.”

Napoleon Hill (1883–1970) American author

“Ender didn't like fighting. He didn't like Peter's kind, the strong against the weak, and he didn't like his own kind either, the smart against the stupid.”

Orson Scott Card book Ender's Game

Source: Ender's Game

Stupidity, Strong, Fight

“In the minds of great managers, consistent poor performance is not primarily a matter of weakness, stupidity, disobedience, or disrespect. It is a matter of miscasting.”

Marcus Buckingham (1966) British writer

Stupidity

“Don't wish to be normal. Wish to be yourself. To the hilt. Find out what you're best at, and develop it, and hopscotch your weaknesses. Wish to be great at whatever you are.”

Lois McMaster Bujold book Labyrinth

Source: Labyrinth

“It's okay to accept things from people. It doesn't make you weak or helpless.”

Sarah Dessen Lock and Key

Source: Lock and Key

People

“Maybe weakness is a strength of a kind.”

Melissa de la Cruz book The Van Alen Legacy

Source: The Van Alen Legacy

“Rudeness is the weak man's imitation of strength.”

Eric Hoffer (1898–1983) American philosopher

Section 241
The Passionate State Of Mind, and Other Aphorisms (1955)
Source: The Passionate State of Mind: And Other Aphorisms

“Strength grows from building other strength, not from trampling on weakness.”

Eric Flint (1947) American author

“I live lies because I cannot endure the weakness of anger, and I cannot admit the irrationality of love.”

Anne Rice (1941) American writer

Source: Blood And Gold

Love, Anger

“Pain is the body's way of ridding itself of weakness.”

Dean Karnazes (1962) American distance runner

Source: Ultramarathon Man: Confessions of an All-Night Runner

Pain, Way

“People with weaknesses get killed by the people who lack them. Notice I'm not dead.”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

People, Dead

“It's the people who seem weak who are always suprisingly strong, and the ones who seem strong who are unexpectledly weak.”

Lisa Jewell (1968) British writer

Source: Ralph's Party

People, Strong

“I lacked the courage to investigate the weaknesses of the wicked, because I discovered they are the same as the weaknesses of the saintly.”

Umberto Eco (1932–2016) Italian semiotician, essayist, philosopher, literary critic, and novelist

Source: Postscript to the Name of the Rose

Courage

“When my faith is getting weak
And I feel like giving in
You breathe into me again…”

Karen Marie Moning (1964) author

Source: Shadowfever

Faith, Feeling

“Always do what you're afraid to do.
…
I will prove myself strong when they think I am sick.
I will prove myself brave when they think I am weak.”

E. Lockhart book We Were Liars

Variant: I will prove myself strong when they think I am sick. I will prove myself brave when they think I am weak -Cady Sinclair
Source: We Were Liars

Thinking, Strong

“A man's weaknesses may intrude on his faith but they do not diminish it.”

Robert Ludlum book The Bourne Ultimatum

Source: The Bourne Ultimatum

Faith