Gentle Strength Quotes

In a gentle way, you can shake the world.

Nothing in the world is more flexible and yielding than water. Yet when it attacks the firm and the strong, none can withstand it, because they have no way to change it. So the flexible overcome the adamant, the yielding overcome the forceful. Everyone knows this, but no one can do it.

He [Ernest Hemingway] is gentle, as all real men are gentle; without tenderness, a man is uninteresting.

Some people say you're weak because, you know, you're not loud and you're not boisterous and you're not rude. But the fact of the matter is, look and see what I've done. And that speaks volumes about strength.

A strong man doesn't have to be dominant toward a woman. He doesn't match his strength against a woman weak with love for him. He matches it against the world.

Patience and perseverance at lengthAccomplish more than anger or brute strength.

Water is patient; it can stagnate and let itself be coated with scum if need be. It is as gentle as the morning's dew. It is non-confrontational, even respectful, in circumventing the rocks in a stream. It makes room for everything that enters its pools. It accommodates by assuming the shape of any vessel it is poured into. And it is humble, seeking always the lowest level. Yet along with - or rather because of these adaptive, yielding properties, it is ultimately irresistible; it carves canyons out of stone.

I consider non-violence to be compassion in action. It doesn’t mean weakness, cowering in fear, or simply doing nothing. It is to act without violence, motivated by compassion, recognising the rights of others.

There is no surer mark of a low and unregenerate nature than this tendency of power to loudness and wantonness instead of quietness and reverence. To souls baptized in Christian nobleness the largest sphere of command is but a wider empire of obedience, calling them, not to escape from holy rule, but to its full impersonation.

He views life with tenderness and determination.

. . . gentleness is stronger than severity, water is stronger than rock, love is stronger than force.

It was times like these when I thought my father, who hated guns and had never been to any wars, was the bravest man who ever lived.

Let the gentle bush dig its root deep and spread upward to split one boulder.

The feminine is more powerful than the masculine, the soft is more powerful than the hard, the water is more powerful than the rock.

The softest things in the world overcome the hardest things in the world. Through this I know the advantage of taking no action.

Strength does not have to be belligerent and loud.

Being nice should never be perceived as being weak. It's not a sign of weakness, it's a sign of courtesy, manners, grace, a woman's ability to make everyone...feel at home, and it should never be construed as weakness.

I love her with a love as still As a broad river's peaceful might, Which by high tower and lowly mill, Goes wandering at its own will, And yet does ever flow aright.

A word to the wise to all the children of the twentieth century, whether their concern be pediatrics or geriatrics, whether they crawl on hands and knees and wear diapers or walk with a cane and comb their beards. There's a wondrous magic to Christmas, and there's a special power reserved for little people. In short, there's nothing mightier than the meek, and a merry Christmas to each and all.

You don’t always have to smack people in the face with how strong you are

Sometimes I still forget to look for the gentler parts of her. For so long all I saw was the strength, standing out like the wiry muscles in her arms or the black ink marking her collarbone with flight.

I used to think that to become free you had to practice like a samurai warrior, but now I understand that you have to practice like a devoted mother of a newborn child. It takes the same energy but has a completely different quality. It's compassion and presence rather than having to defeat the enemy in battle.

The patience and the humility of the face she loved so well was a better lesson to Jo than the wisest lecture, the sharpest reproof.

I always say that you can be polite and nice and still know what you want and still can see your path.

The true strength of the Christian is the power of truth and love, which leads to the renunciation of all violence. Faith and violence are incompatible.