Build up your weaknesses until they become your strong points.
—Knute Rockne (1888–1931) American College Football Coach
Flee an enemy who knows your weakness.
—Pierre Corneille (1606–84) French Poet, Dramatist
The weakest spot with mankind is where they fancy themselves most wise.
—Charles Simmons (1924–2017) American Editor, Novelist
The strength of man sinks in the hour of trial: but there doth live a power that to the battle girdeth the weak.
—Joanna Baillie (1762–1851) Scottish Playwright, Poet
Only strength can cooperate. Weakness can only beg.
—Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) American Head of State, Military Leader
We are more often treacherous, through weakness than through calculation.
—Francois de La Rochefoucauld (1613–80) French Writer
The weakest and most timorous are the most revengeful and implacable.
—Thomas Fuller (1608–61) English Cleric, Historian
The acknowledgment of our weakness is the first step toward repairing our loss.
—Thomas a Kempis (1379–1471) German Religious Priest, Writer
She lacks the indefinable charm of weakness.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
Some of our weaknesses are born in us, others are the result of education; it is a question which of the two gives us most trouble.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
Power corrupts the few, while weakness corrupts the many. The resentment of the weak does not spring from any injustice done to them but from the sense of their inadequacy and impotence. They hate not wickedness but weakness. When it is in their power to do so, the weak destroy weakness wherever they see it.
—Eric Hoffer (1902–83) American Philosopher, Author
Man’s biological weakness is the condition of human culture.
—Erich Fromm (1900–80) German-American Psychoanalyst, Social Philosopher
The wise man does not deny and affirm, he does not exalt himself and he does not despair, he does not believe either in the existence of God or in his existence. The wise man has no certainty, he only has more or less probable hypotheses.
—Luciano De Crescenzo (b.1928) Italian Writer, Film Actor, Director, Engineer
If weakness may excuse, what murderer, what traitor, parricide, incestuous, sacrilegious, but may plead it? All wickedness is weakness; that plea, therefore, with God or man will gain thee no remission.
—John Milton (1608–74) English Poet, Civil Servant, Scholar, Debater
Delusion and weakness produce not one mischief the less, because they are universal.
—Edmund Burke (1729–97) British Philosopher, Statesman
Weakness has its hidden resources, as well as strength. There is a degree of folly and meanness, which we cannot calculate upon, and by which we are as much liable to be foiled as by the greatest ability or courage.
—William Hazlitt (1778–1830) English Essayist
To excel means to reach beyond the best you have ever given because doing so matters to you personally, for its own sake. It means to run your own race—as an individual, team, or organization. To excel is to know your greatest strengths and passions, and to emphasize them while honestly admitting and managing your weaknesses.
—Robert Cooper (b.1947) British Diplomat
Weaklings must lie.
—Jean Paul (1763–1825) German Novelist, Humorist
A woman’s strength is the irresistible might of weakness.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Compassion is not weakness, and concern for the unfortunate is not socialism.
—Hubert Humphrey (1911–78) American Head of State, Politician
Success is achieved by development of our strengths, not by elimination of our weakness.
—Marilyn vos Savant (b.1946) American Columnist, Author, Lecture, Playwright
Better make a weak man your enemy than your friend.
—Josh Billings (Henry Wheeler Shaw) (1818–85) American Humorist, Author, Lecturer
History does not long entrust the care of freedom to the weak or the timid.
—Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) American Head of State, Military Leader
And he has said to me, My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness. Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may dwell in me.
—The Holy Bible Scripture in the Christian Faith
It is from a weakness and smallness of mind that men are opinionated; and we are very loath to believe what we are not able to comprehend.
—Francois de La Rochefoucauld (1613–80) French Writer
The weak may be joked out of anything but their weakness.
—Johann Georg Ritter von Zimmermann (1728–1795) Swiss Philosophical Writer, Naturalist, Physician
People who have no weaknesses are terrible; there is no way of taking advantage of them.
—Anatole France (1844–1924) French Novelist
Wickedness is weakness.
—John Milton (1608–74) English Poet, Civil Servant, Scholar, Debater
Confession is always weakness. The grave soul keeps its own secrets, and takes its own punishment in silence.
—Dorothy Dix (1861–1951) American Journalist, Columnist
This work somehow awakened my dormant powers of will and I began to practice self-control. At first my resolutions faded like snow in April, but in a little while I conquered my weakness and felt a pleasure I never knew before—that of doing as I willed.
—Nikola Tesla (1856–1943) Serbian-American Electrical Engineer, Inventor
The weak soul, within itself unblest, leans for all pleasure on another’s breast.
—Oliver Goldsmith (1730–74) Irish Novelist, Playwright, Poet
Our strength grows out of our weaknesses.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Power over others is weakness disguised as strength. True power if within, and it is available to you now.
—Eckhart Tolle (b.1948) German Spiritual Writer, Public Speaker, Spiritual Teacher
Credulity is the man’s weakness, but the child’s strength.
—Charles Lamb (1775–1834) British Essayist, Poet
Human love is often but the encounter of two weaknesses.
—Francois Mauriac (1885–1970) French Novelist
The weak are more likely to make the strong weak than the strong are likely to make the weak strong.
—Marlene Dietrich (1901–92) German-born American Actor, Singer
You cannot run away from a weakness. You must sometimes fight it out or perish; and if that be so, why not now, and where you stand?
—Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–94) Scottish Novelist
Union of the weakest develops strength not wisdom. Can all men, together, avenge one of the leaves that have fallen in autumn?. But the wise man avenges by building his city in snow.
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955) American Poet
Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character.
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born Physicist
All cruelty springs from weakness.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca) (c.4 BCE–65 CE) Roman Stoic Philosopher, Statesman, Tragedian
It is weakness rather than wickedness which renders men unfit to be trusted with unlimited power.
—John Adams (1735–1826) American Head of State, Lawyer
Emphasize strengths, don’t fix weaknesses.
—Tim Ferriss (b.1977) American Self-help Author
Ambition, old as mankind, the immemorial weakness of the strong.
—Vita Sackville-West (1892–1962) English Gardener, Author, Poet
The concessions of the weak are the concessions of fear.
—Edmund Burke (1729–97) British Philosopher, Statesman
Some of our weakness is born in us, some of it comes through education; it is a big question as to which gives us the most trouble.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
Never mind what a man’s virtues are; waste no time in learning them. Fasten at once on his infirmities.
—Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton (1803–73) British Novelist, Poet, Politician
The more weakness, the more falsehood; strength goes straight; every cannon-ball that has in it hollows and holes goes crooked. Weaklings must lie.
—Jean Paul (1763–1825) German Novelist, Humorist
Few men have done more harm than those who have been thought to be able to do the least; and there cannot be a greater error than to believe a man whom we see qualified with too mean parts to do good, to be, therefore, incapable of doing hurt. There is a supply of malice, of pride, of industry, and even of folly, in the weakest, when he sets his heart upon it, that makes a strange progress in wickedness.
—Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon (1609–74) English Statesman, Historian
Growth begins when we start to accept our own weakness.
—Jean Vanier (1928–2019) French-Canadian Philosopher, Theologian, Humanitarian
It is a talent of the weak to persuade themselves that they suffer for something when they suffer from something; that they are showing the way when they are running away; that they see the light when they feel the heat; that they are chosen when they are shunned.
—Eric Hoffer (1902–83) American Philosopher, Author