A Quote by Henry David Thoreau

Nature is as well adapted to our weakness as to our strength.

Henry David Thoreau

Quote Topics

Adapted Nature Our Strength Weakness Well

Quote Author

Henry David Thoreau
American - Author
July 12, 1817 - May 6, 1862

Weakness and strength are necessary for balance. No one or nothing is only weak or only strong. But some of us overlook our weaknesses, and even deny that we have them. That can be dangerous, because denying there is a weakness is in itself a weakness. Likewise, accepting that we have weaknesses becomes a strength. And by the same token, overestimating strength is a weakness. You should not be blinded by your strengths. The feeling of strength is not the same as having strength. Neither should you ignore your weaknesses. Know them well, too.

Joseph M. Marshall III

Strength must build up, not destroy. It should outdo itself, not others who are weaker. Used without responsibility, it causes nothing but harm and death. I can lift the heaviest weights, but I can not take the responsibility off my shoulders. Because the way we use our strength defines our fate. What traces will I leave on my path into the future? Do we really have to kill in order to live? My true strength lies in not seeing weakness as weakness. My strength needs no victims. My strength is my compassion.

Patrik Baboumian

Remember, it is not your weakness that will get in the way of God's working through you, but your delusions of strength. His strength is made perfect in our weakness! Point to His strength by being willing to admit your weakness.

Paul David Tripp

As the strongest faith may be shaken, so the weakest, where truth is, is so far rooted that it will prevail. Weakness with watchfulness will stand, when strength with too much confidence fails. Weakness, with acknowledgement of it, is the fittest seat and subject for God to perfect His strength in; for consciousness of our infirmities drives us out of ourselves to Him in whom our strength lies.

Richard Sibbes

Confronting our feelings and giving them appropriate expression always takes strength, not weakness. It takes strength to acknowledge our anger, and sometimes more strength yet to curb the aggressive urges anger may bring and to channel them into nonviolent outlets. It takes strength to face our sadness and to grieve and to let our grief and our anger flow in tears when they need to. It takes strength to talk about our feelings and to reach out for help and comfort when we need it.

Fred Rogers

When God is our strength, it is strength indeed; when our strength is our own, it is only weakness.

Saint Augustine

I believe every major strength we have can be used against us as a weakness. At the same time, things that people see as weakness can be part of our strength.

Terence Trent D'Arby

Strength, strength it is that we want so much in this life, for what we call sin and sorrow have all one cause, and that is our weakness. With weakness comes ignorance, and with ignorance comes misery.

Swami Vivekananda

Even in a jungle, lovely flowers will spring up here and there, such being the fecundity of nature, and however badly our pastors and masters run our society, however much they pull to pieces that which they claim to be keeping intact, nature remains fecund, human beings are born with human traits, sometimes human strength outweighs human weakness, and human grace shows itself amid human ugliness. ‘In the bloodiest times,’ as our play has it, ‘there are kind people.’

Eric Bentley

Our economic strength at home is key to our diplomatic and military strength abroad. We should be investing far more in education as well as our technological and economic development so that we have the resources to support our foreign policy.

Ruben Gallego

If we resist our passions, it is more due to their weakness than our strength.

Francois de La Rochefoucauld

We Americans... like change. It is at once our weakness and our strength.

W. Somerset Maugham

The rock is a field of battle between our weakness and our strength.

Royal Robbins

God stands in no need of our strength or wisdom, but of our ignorance, of our weakness; let us but give these to Him, and He can make use of us in winning souls.