Strength comes in many forms, and not all of them are physical in nature.
If you picture the strongest person you know, it's likely that said individual isn't someone who accomplishes the most daring feats, or participates in the most extreme sports. It's the person who embodies strength on a spiritual, rather than physical, level.
Resilience is often the most important kind of strength. After all, it takes more strength to get back up after taking a tough blow than it does to throw the punch.
Just ask Rocky Balboa, who famously said, “It ain’t about how hard you hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward."
True strength requires a mix of perseverance, kindness, and bravery.
Rather than giving up when times get tough, remember that your strength and courage grow each time you overcome adversity.
For moments when you need an extra boost of motivation, these inspirational words from leaders like Winston Churchill to Mahatma Gandhi will motivate you to push through the toughest of times.
Quotes about strength
- “Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear — not absence of fear.” — Mark Twain
- “The act of facing overwhelming odds produces greatness and beauty.” — Malcolm Gladwell
- “Life doesn’t get easier or more forgiving, we get stronger and more resilient.” — Steve Maraboli
- “Don’t mistake politeness for lack of strength.” — Sonia Sotomayor
- “What does not kill me, makes me stronger.” — Friedrich Nietzsche
- “I’ve learned to rely on the strength I inherited from all those who came before me — the grandmothers, sisters, aunts, and brothers who were tested with unimaginable hardships and still survived.”— Oprah Winfrey
- “Nothing is so strong as gentleness, nothing so gentle as real strength.” — Francis de Sales
- “You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face.” — Eleanor Roosevelt
- “O, do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger men!” — Phillips Brooks
- “The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.” — Mahatma Gandhi
- “Be strong, be fearless, be beautiful. And believe that anything is possible when you have the right people there to support you.” — Misty Copeland
- “Failure will never overtake me if my determination to succeed is strong enough.” — Og Mandino
- “Just remember, you can do anything you set your mind to, but it takes action, perseverance, and facing your fears.” — Gillian Anderson
- “I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.” — Nelson Mandela
- “All the adversity I’ve had in my life, all my troubles and obstacles, have strengthened me.” — Walt Disney
- “When I dare to be powerful — to use my strength in the service of my vision — then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid.” — Audre Lorde
- “Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths. When you go through hardships and decide not to surrender, that is strength.” — Arnold Schwarzenegger
- “The quality of strength lined with tenderness is an unbeatable combination.” — Maya Angelou
- “Courage is an inner resolution to go forward in spite of obstacles and frightening situations.” — Martin Luther King, Jr.
- “If we are strong, our strength will speak for itself. If we are weak, words will be of no help.” — John F. Kennedy
- “To have courage for whatever comes in life — everything lies in that.” — Teresa of Ávila
- “As for courage and will — we cannot measure how much of each lies within us, we can only trust there will be sufficient to carry through trials which may lie ahead.” — Andre Norton
- “When danger is far off we may think of our weakness; when it is near we must not forget our strength.” — Winston Churchill
- “You must never be fearful about what you are doing when it’s right.” — Rosa Parks
- “And one has to understand that braveness is not the absence of fear but rather the strength to keep on going forward despite the fear.” —Paulo Coelho.
- “Promise me you’ll always remember: You’re braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.” — A. A. Milne
- “The value of love will always be stronger than the value of hate.” — Franklin D. Roosevelt
- “Look well into yourself; there is a source of strength which will always spring up if you will always look there.” — Marcus Aurelius
- “It is really wonderful how much resilience there is in human nature.” — Bram Stoker, “Dracula”
- “Courage and perseverance have a magical talisman, before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish into air.” — John Quincy Adams
- “Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that? We must have perseverance and above all confidence in ourselves.” — Marie Curie
- “A hero is an ordinary individual who finds the strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles.” — Christopher Reeve
- “Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, ambition aspired, and success achieved.” — Helen Keller
- “Valor is the strength, not of legs and arms, but of heart and soul.” — Michel de Montaigne
- “Courage is not having the strength to go on, it is going on when you don’t have the strength.” — Theodore Roosevelt
- “Conquering others is power; conquering oneself is strength.” — Lao Tzu
- “In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.” — Albert Camus
- “Anyone can hide. Facing up to things, working through them, that’s what makes you strong.” — Sarah Dessen
- “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.” — Martin Luther King, Jr.
- “It is not the strength of the body that counts, but the strength of the spirit.” ― J.R.R. Tolkien
- “Great leaders are not defined by the absence of weakness, but rather by the presence of clear strengths.” — John H. Zenger
- “That which seems most feeble and bewildered in you is the strongest and most determined.” — Kahlil Gibran
- “Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will.” — Mahatma Gandhi
- “Most men and women will yield to the strong currents sucking them into the seas of ruin. Only the strongest in mind and spirit will swim against that current.” — Ted Dekker
- “I say that the strongest principle of growth lies in human choice.” — George Eliot
- “Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.” — Dale Carnegie
- “Life shrinks or expands according to one’s courage.” — Anaïs Nin
- “There is a stubbornness about me that never can bear to be frightened at the will of others. My courage always rises at every attempt to intimidate me.” — Jane Austen, "Pride and Prejudice"
- “Focus on your strengths, not your weaknesses. Focus on your character, not your reputation. Focus on your blessings, not your misfortunes.” — Roy T. Bennett
- "The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong at the broken places." — Ernest Hemingway, "A Farewell to Arms"
