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Rain was coming down in sheets. I could hear it, on the concrete outside and on the old building above me. It creaked and swayed in the spring thunderstorm and the wind, timbers gently flexing, wise enough with age to give a little, rather than put up stubborn resistance until they broke. I could probably stand to learn something from that.
Jim Butcher (b. 1971) American author Storm Front, ch. 17 (2000)
Man’s greatest strength is shown in standing still.
Edward Young (1683-1765) English poet The Complaint: Or, Night Thoughts, Vol. 2, No. 8 “Night the Eighth: Virtue’s Apology,” l. 922 (1745-03) (1748)
(Source)
But this truth from long experience I assert, that he who has the most friends and the fewest enemies, is the strongest; will rise the highest with the least envy; and fall, if he does fall, the gentlest, aud the most pitied.
Lord Chesterfield (1694-1773) English statesman, wit [Philip Dormer Stanhope]
Letter to his son, #293 (11 Nov 1752)
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Nathan Bedford Forrest (1821-1877) American / Confederate military leader
(Attributed)
Sometimes "corrected" as "I get there firstest with the mostest men," first found in print in a New York Tribune article about Civil War generals. The New York Times (28 May 1918) speculatively corrected this to "Ma'am, I get thar first with the most men."
Elsewhere given as "I always make a rule to get there first with the most men."
Let us speak, though we show all our faults and weaknesses — for it is a sign of strength to be weak, to know it, and out with it — not in a set way and ostentatiously, but incidentally and without premeditation.
Herman Melville (1819-1891) American writer
Letter to Nathaniel Hawthorne (29 Jun 1851)
HENRY: What stronger breastplate than a heart untainted?
Thrice is he armed that hath his quarrel just,
And he but naked, though locked up in steel,
Whose conscience with injustice is corrupted.
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet Henry VI, Part 2, Act 3, sc. 2, l. 240ff (3.2.240-243) (1591)
(Source)
The superior man is the providence of the inferior. He is eyes for the blind, strength for the weak, and a shield for the defenseless. He stands erect by bending above the fallen. He rises by lifting others.
Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899) American lawyer, agnostic, orator
“Liberty”
A strong mind is one which does not lose its balance even under the most violent excitement.
[Ein starkes Gemüt ist ein solches, welches auch bei den heftigsten Regungen nicht aus dem Gleichgewicht kommt.]
Karl von Clausewitz (1780-1831) Prussian soldier, historian, military theorist On War [Vom Kriege], Book 1, ch. 3 “On Military Genius [Der Kriegerische Genius],” (1.3) (1832) [tr. Graham (1873)]
(Source)
To be thoroughly good-natured, and yet avoid being imposed upon, shows great strength ov character.
Josh Billings (1818-1885) American humorist, aphorist [pseud. of Henry Wheeler Shaw] Everybody’s Friend, Or; Josh Billing’s Encyclopedia and Proverbial Philosophy of Wit and Humor, ch. 157 “Affurisms: Hot Korn” (1874)
(Source)
A strong nation, like a strong person, can afford to be gentle, firm, thoughtful, and restrained. It can afford to extend a helping hand to others. It’s a weak nation, like a weak person, that must behave with bluster and boasting and rashness and other signs of insecurity.
Jimmy Carter (b. 1924) American politician, US President (1977-1981), Nobel laureate [James Earl Carter, Jr.]
“Warm Hearts and Cool Heads,” speech, Liberal Party dinner, New York City (14 Oct 1976)
(Source)
The title of the speech was from a phrase coined by Adlai Stevenson.
Out of life’s school of war: What does not destroy me, makes me stronger.
[Aus der Kriegsschule des Lebens. — Was mich nicht umbringt, macht mich stärker.]
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) German philosopher and poet Twilight of the Idols [Die Götzen-Dämmerung], “Maxims and Arrows [Sprüche und Pfeile]” #8 (1889) [tr. Hollingdale (1968)]
(Source)
Alt. trans.:
"From the military school of life. -- What does not kill me, strengthens me." [tr. Common (1896)]
"From the Military School of Life: Whatever does not kill me, makes me stronger. [tr. Large (1998), "Maxims and Barbs"]
"From life's school of war. -- What doesn't kill me makes me stronger." [tr. Norman (2005), "Arrows and Epigrams"]
"From the military school of life. -- That which does not kill me, makes me stronger." [tr. Ludovici (1911), "Maxims and Missiles"]
It is better to be patient than powerful. It is better to win control over yourself than over whole cities.
The Bible (The Old Testament) (14th - 2nd C BC) Judeo-Christian sacred scripture [Tanakh, Hebrew Bible], incl. the Apocrypha (Deuterocanonicals)
Proverbs 16:32 [GNT (1976)]
(Source)
Alternate translations:
He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who ruleth his spirit than he who taketh a city.
[KJV (1611)]
Better an equable man than a hero, a man master of himself than one who takes a city.
[JB (1966)]
Better an equable person than a hero, someone with self-mastery than one who takes a city.
[NJB (1985)]
Great blunders are often made, like large ropes, of a multitude of fibers.
[Les fortes sottises sont souvent faites, comme les grosses cordes, d’une multitude de brins.]
Victor Hugo (1802-1885) French writer Les Misérables, Vol. 2 “Cosette,” Book 5 “A Dark Chase Requires a Silent Hound,” ch. 10 “In Which it is explained how Javert lost the Game” (1862) [tr. Wilbour]
Alt. trans. [N. Denny (1980)]: "The greatest blunders, like the thickest ropes, are often compounded of a multitude of strands. Take the rope apart, separate it into the small threads that compose it, and you can break them one by one. You think, 'That is all there was!' But twist them all together, and you have something tremendous." Full text. Cited as Part 2, ch. 5 "Hunt in the Darkness."
Shallow men believe in luck, believe in circumstances — it was somebody’s name, or he happened to be there at the time, or it was so then, and another day would have been otherwise. Strong men believe in cause and effect.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist, lecturer, poet
“Worship,” The Conduct of Life, ch. 6 (1860)
(Source)