Vulnerability is not weakness. And that myth is profoundly dangerous.

Only strength can cooperate. Weakness can only beg.

Convictions, in the end, they can be dangerous, but a world without them is just kind of an awful kind of gray, amorphous mass.

Let’s be very clear: Strong men – men who are truly role models – don’t need to put down women to make themselves feel powerful. People who are truly strong lift others up. People who are truly powerful bring others together.

God is not on the side of the big battalions, but on the side of those who shoot best.

These things bring you to reality as to how fragile you are; at the same moment you are doing something that nobody else is able to do. The same moment that you are seen as the best, the fastest and somebody that cannot be touched, you are enormously fragile.

The first two games for Churchill, I was so jittery that I didn’t know what to do. I was running more but didn’t know what to do. I’ve no bones accepting the fact that I didn’t know what was happening in the game.

We can never obtain peace in the outer world until we make peace with ourselves.

Notice that the stiffest tree is most easily cracked, while the bamboo or willow survives by bending with the wind.

Because of its phantom nature, and despite elaborate defense mechanisms, the ego is very vulnerable and insecure, and it sees itself as constantly under threat. This, by the way, is the case even if the ego is outwardly very confident.

I am not a victim of emotional conflicts. I am human.

We cannot live being obsessed with what other people think about us. It’s impossible to live like that. Not even God managed to please the entire world.

I want to grow old without facelifts. I want to have the courage to be loyal to the face I have made.

Nothing strengthens authority so much as silence.

It is my own firm belief that the strength of the soul grows in proportion as you subdue the flesh.

Great talents are the most lovely and often the most dangerous fruits on the tree of humanity. They hang upon the most slender twigs that are easily snapped off.

When written in Chinese, the word ‚crisis‘ is composed of two characters. One represents danger and the other represents opportunity.

It’s fun to be hopelessly in love. It’s dangerous, but it’s fun.

One of my big goals as a human being is to continue to write what’s really happening to me, even if it’s a tough pill to swallow for people around me… I do fear that if I ever were to have someone in my life who mattered, I would second-guess every one of my lyrics.

I’d always tried to resist playing the supervirility thing. I liked showing the vulnerability of age.

Adversity is sometimes hard upon a man; but for one man who can stand prosperity, there are a hundred that will stand adversity.

If you think dealing with issues like worthiness and authenticity and vulnerability are not worthwhile because there are more pressing issues, like the bottom line or attendance or standardized test scores, you are sadly, sadly mistaken. It underpins everything.

Nobody looks like they did when they were 20, so why not take advantage of the fact that you’re changing, emotionally as well as physically?

Blessed are the hearts that can bend; they shall never be broken.

I can take it. The tougher it gets, the cooler I get.

I am a tough guy.

The strength of a man’s virtue should not be measured by his special exertions, but by his habitual acts.

The U.S. military is not war weary. Our military draws strength from confronting our enemies when clear policy objectives are set and we are fully resourced for the fight.

Always fall in with what you’re asked to accept. Take what is given, and make it over your way. My aim in life has always been to hold my own with whatever’s going. Not against: with.

There’s nothing I have to hide or defend. I’m gonna live my life. And there are times when people wanna try to attack me, and I don’t know why, but they will. And that’s okay.

You should never view your challenges as a disadvantage. Instead, it’s important for you to understand that your experience facing and overcoming adversity is actually one of your biggest advantages.

You should never give up your inner self.

I’ve always seen first responders as unsung heroes and very special people because, when everyone else is running away from danger, they run into it.

Trials teach us what we are; they dig up the soil, and let us see what we are made of.

A weak man is just by accident. A strong but non-violent man is unjust by accident.

When restraint and courtesy are added to strength, the latter becomes irresistible.

Certainly a woman should never disguise the fact that she is a woman. A woman’s body is very beautiful.

I refuse to accept other people’s ideas of happiness for me. As if there’s a ‚one size fits all‘ standard for happiness.

The world breaks everyone, and afterward, some are strong at the broken places.

I’m not going to change the way I look or the way I feel to conform to anything. I’ve always been a freak. So I’ve been a freak all my life and I have to live with that, you know. I’m one of those people.

The single most powerful thing I can be is to be myself.

Everybody always laughs because I feel so much more comfortable with, like, a giant paper bag on my whole body and paint on my face. Sometimes I try really hard to take it all off. But inevitably what’s underneath is still not a straight edge. And I don’t think it ever will be.

Build me a son, O Lord, who will be strong enough to know when he is weak, and brave enough to face himself when he is afraid, one who will be proud and unbending in honest defeat, and humble and gentle in victory.

I’m very secure about my talents and about who I am.

Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point.

Returning to your family and where you came from, and your history… this is what makes you strong. It’s not looking out that’s going to do that – it’s looking in.

Faith is the strength by which a shattered world shall emerge into the light.

Follow your honest convictions and be strong.

I’m very definitely a woman and I enjoy it.

As we advance in life it becomes more and more difficult, but in fighting the difficulties the inmost strength of the heart is developed.

On the other hand, you have different fingers.

Our peace shall stand as firm as rocky mountains.

Waking up every day and loving someone who may or may not love us back, whose safety we can’t ensure, who may stay in our lives or may leave without a moment’s notice, who may be loyal to the day they die or betray us tomorrow – that’s vulnerability.

If you’re serious, you really understand that it’s important that you laugh as much as possible and admit that you’re the funniest person you ever met. You have to laugh. Admit that you’re funny. Otherwise, you die in solemnity.

Wanting to be someone else is a waste of the person you are.

I can’t pretend that I’m brave and that I can beat the whole world.

The hardest thing for – not only an artist but for anybody to do is look themselves in the mirror and acknowledge, you know, their own flaws and fears and imperfections and put them out there in the open for people to relate to it.

Deeply earnest and thoughtful people stand on shaky footing with the public.

The more I see of deer, the more I admire them as mountaineers. They make their way into the heart of the roughest solitudes with smooth reserve of strength, through dense belts of brush and forest encumbered with fallen trees and boulder piles, across canons, roaring streams, and snow-fields, ever showing forth beauty and courage.

A woman is like a tea bag – you can’t tell how strong she is until you put her in hot water.

I’m an emotional person. Sometimes I can’t help it.