Strain Quotes

• A difference of taste in jokes is a great strain on the affections.

  George Eliot

  Funny, Women, Humor

  Daniel Deronda bk. 2, ch. 15 (1876)

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• As in walking it is your great care not to run your foot upon a nail, or to tread awry, and strain your leg; so let it be in all the affairs of human life, not to hurt your mind or offend your judgment. And this rule, if observed carefully in all your deportment, will be a mighty security to you in your undertakings.

  Epictetus

  Running, Hurt, Feet

  8 Copy quote

• I am here for a purpose and that purpose is to grow into a mountain, not to shrink to a grain of sand.

  Og Mandino

  Mountain, Purpose, Sand

  Og Mandino (2007). “The Greatest Secret In The World”, p.52, Jaico Publishing House

  59 Copy quote

  Show source

• Words strain, crack, and sometime break, under the burden.

  T. S. Eliot

  Cracks, Break, Burden

  Four Quartets "Burnt Norton" pt. 5 (1936)

  13 Copy quote

  Show source

• I know the woman has no soul, I know The woman has no possibilities Of soul or mind or heart, but merely is The masterpiece of flesh: well, be it so. It is her flesh that I adore; I go Thirsting afresh to drain her empty kiss. I know she cannot love: it is not this My vanquished heart implores in overthrow. Tyrannously I crave, I crave alone, Her splendid body, Earth's most eloquent Music, divinest human harmony; Her body now a silent instrument, That 'neath my touch shall wake and make for me The strains I have but dreamed of, never known.

  Arthur Symons

  Women, Heart, Kissing

  Arthur Symons (1919). “Poems”

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• I find the Englishman to be him of all men who stands firmest in his shoes. They have in themselves what they value in their horses, mettle and bottom.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Horse, Men, Shoes

  "English Traits". Book by Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1856.

  65 Copy quote

  Show source

• If we're going to talk about economic fairness, or about fairness, one of the most pressing economic issues facing families, seniors, and job creators in Missouri and across America is the strain of skyrocketing gas prices.

  Roy Blunt

  Senior, Jobs, America

  "Obama warns on student loan interest" by Josh Boak, www.politico.com. April 21, 2012.

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Strain every nerve to gain your point.

  Marcus Tullius Cicero

  Nerves, Gains

  4 Copy quote

• [Jack Nash from The Andromeda Strain] was not in the original film, but he was kind of a Geraldo Rivera almost kind of reporter that had a drug addiction. We start the story in rehab, and then he gets the roots of the story. I loved him.

  Eric McCormack

  Roots, Addiction, Drug

  Source: www.avclub.com

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Tis true among fields and woods I sing, Aloof from cities--that my poor strains Were born, like the simple flowers you bring, In English meadows and English lanes.

  Alfred Austin

  Flower, Simple, Cities

  Alfred Austin (1896). “Days of the Year: A Poetic Calendar from the Works of A. Austin”

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• But it ain't easy, trying to do without God even if you know he ain't there, trying to do without him is a strain

  Alice Walker

  Trying, Easy, Without God

  Alice Walker (2012). “Anything We Love Can Be Saved: A Writer's Activism”, p.25, Ballantine Books

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Tears were a blessing; they were a relief; they did wash the ache from the heart, ease brain strain, and encourage the soul.

  Gene Stratton-Porter

  Heart, Blessing, Soul

  Gene Stratton-Porter (1923). “The White Flag”

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• "What is truth?" said jesting Pilate, and would not stay for an answer. Pilate was in advance of his time. For "truth" itself is an abstract noun, a camel, that is, of a logical construction, which cannot get past the eye even of a grammarian. We approach it cap and categories in hand: we ask ourselves whether Truth is a substance (the Truth, the Body of Knowledge), or a quality (something like the colour red, inhering in truths), or a relation ("correspondence"). But philosophers should take something more nearly their own size to strain at. What needs discussing rather is the use, or certain uses, of the word "true." In vino, possibly, "veritas," but in a sober symposium "verum."

  J. L. Austin

  Truth, Eye, Past

  "Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society". "Truth" by J. L. Austin, "Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society", 1950.

  11 Copy quote

  Show source

• When a man vowed to nonviolence as the law governing human beings dares to refer to war, he can only do it so as to strain every nerve to avoid it.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  War, Men, Law

  Mahatma Gandhi (1993). “Gandhi on Nehru”

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Love based upon indulgence of animal passion, is at best a selfish affair, and likely to snap under the slightest strain.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Love, Selfish, Passion

  Mahatma Gandhi (1969). “Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi”

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• I refuse to put the unnecessary strain of learning English upon my sisters for the sake of false pride or questionable social advantage.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Pride, Sake, Language

  Mahatma Gandhi, K. Swaminathan (1988). “A Gandhi Reader”, Stosius Incorporated/Advent Books Division

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• When the business grows, the person who founded it is incredibly busy. Rapid growth puts an enormous strain on a business. You outgrow your production facilities. You outgrow your management capabilities.

  Peter Drucker

  Growth, Management, Busy

  Peter Drucker (2012). “Managing in the Next Society”, p.70, Routledge

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Algae is the perfect food plant. It doubles cell mass every twelve hours, depending on the strain.

  Homaro Cantu

  Cells, Perfect, Twelve

  "A Willy Wonka Who Wants to Feed the World". Interview with Brandon Keim, www.wired.com. December 30, 2008.

  25 Copy quote

  Show source

• The roots of the grass strain, Tighten, the earth is rigid, waits-he is waiting- And suddenly, and all at once, the rain!

  Archibald MacLeish

  Rain, Roots, Water

  Archibald MacLeish (1985). “Collected Poems, 1917-1982”, p.103, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Basically it's true that my own life has been my chief window for life in America, beginning with my childhood and the conflicts, the struggles, the strains that I felt in my own family.

  John Updike

  Struggle, America, Childhood

  "Two Pulitzer Prizes for Fiction". American Academy of Achievement Interview, www.achievement.org. June 12, 2004.

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• Shakespeare carries us to such a lofty strain of intelligent activity, as to suggest a wealth which beggars his own; and we then feel that the splendid works which he has created, and which in other hours we extol as a sort of self-existent poetry, take no stronger hold of real nature than the shadow of a passing traveller on the rock. The inspiration which uttered itself in Hamlet and Lear could utter things as good from day to day, for ever.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Real, Inspiration, Intelligent

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2012). “The Selected Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson”, p.90, Graphic Arts Books

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• As long as the "woman's work" that some men do is socially devalued, as long as it is defined as woman's work, as long as it's tacked onto a "regular" work day, men who share it are likely to develop the same jagged mouth and frazzled hair as the coffee-mug mom. The image of the new man is like the image of the supermom: it obscures the strain.

  Arlie Russell Hochschild

  Mom, Women, Coffee

  5 Copy quote

• Democracy will break under the strain of apron strings. It can exist only on trust.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Democracy, Aprons, Break

  Mahatma Gandhi (1965). “Glorious Thoughts of Gandhi: Being a Treasury of about Ten Thousand Valuable and Inspiring Thougths of Mahatma Gandhi, Classified Under Four Hundred Subjects”

  5 Copy quote

  Show source