Wavering Quotes

• We should ask God to increase our hope when it is small, awaken it when it is dormant, confirm it when it is wavering, strengthen it when it is weak, and raise it up when it is overthrown.

  John Calvin

  Weak, Dormant, Increase

  John Calvin (2013). “Commentary on Psalms”, p.340, Ravenio Books

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• No man is able to make progress when he is wavering between opposite things.

  Epictetus

  Men, Opposites, Progress

  Epictetus (1895*). “Discourses: With the Encheiridion and Fragments”

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• We rely upon the poets, the philosophers, and the playwrights to articulate what most of us can only feel, in joy or sorrow. They illuminate the thoughts for which we only grope; they give us the strength and balm we cannot find in ourselves. Whenever I feel my courage wavering, I rush to them. They give me the wisdom of acceptance, the will and resiliance to push on.

  Helen Hayes

  Wisdom, Acceptance, Rely Upon

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• He who believes is strong; he who doubts is weak. Strong convictions precede great actions.

  Louisa May Alcott

  Inspirational, Strength, Being Strong

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• All the strength and force of man comes from his faith in things unseen. He who believes is strong; he who doubts is weak. Strong convictions precede great actions. The man strongly possessed of an idea is the master of all who are uncertain or wavering. Clear, deep, living convictions rule the world.

  James Freeman Clarke

  Faith, Strong, Believe

  James Freeman Clarke (1875). “Common-sense in Religion: A Series of Essays”, p.339

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• The wavering mind is but a base possession.

  Euripides

  Decision, Mind, Literature

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• Better a wrong will than a wavering; better a steadfast enemy than an uncertain friend; better a false belief than no belief at all.

  George Eliot

  Enemy, Belief, Uncertain

  George Eliot (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of George Eliot (Illustrated)”, p.3422, Delphi Classics

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• Reputation is only a candle, of wavering and uncertain flame, and easily blown out, but it is the light by which the world looks for and finds merit.

  James Russell Lowell

  Happiness, Success, Character

  JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL (1871). “THE POETICAL WORKS OF JOHN KEATS.”, p.14

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• We were wavering around like a ship without a sail.

  Judy Holliday

  Inspirational, Funny, Sailing

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• You accuse a woman of wavering affections, but don't blame her; she is just looking for a consistent man.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Men, Consistency, Affection

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• In one of the decisive battles of World War I, disastrous reports poured into the headquarters of Marshal Foch, the commander of the Allied forces. The great general never lost heart. When things were at their worst, he drafted his famous order which is now in all textbooks of military strategy: "My center is giving way, my right is pushed back, my left is wavering. The situation is excellent. I shall attack!"

  James Keller

  Military, War, Heart

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• I'm a strong believer in stating your position and not wavering.

  Mitt Romney

  Strong, Believer, Position

  "Activists remember a different Romney" by Peter Wallsten, articles.latimes.com. March 25, 2007.

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• With wavering steps does fickle fortune stray,
  Nowhere she finds a firm and fixed abode;
  But now all smiles, and now again all frowns,
  She's constant only in inconstancy.

  Ovid

  Doe, Fickle, Steps

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• My center is giving way, my right is pushed back, my left is wavering. The situation is excellent. I shall attack!

  James Keller

  Giving, Way, Excellent

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• you mean machines are like humans?" I shook my head. "No, not like humans. With machines the feeling is, well, more finite. It doesn't go any further. With humans it's different. The feeling is always changing. Like if you love somebody, the love is always shifting or wavering. It's always questioning or inflating or disappearing or denying or hurting. And the thing is, you can't do anything about it, you can't control it. With my Subaru, it's not so complicated.

  Haruki Murakami

  Hurt, Mean, Love Is

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• Without God there is for mankind no purpose, no goal, no hope, only a wavering future, an eternal dread of every darkness.

  Jean Paul

  God, Goal, Darkness

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• It is when we try to grapple with another man's intimate need that we perceive how incomprehensible, wavering, and misty are the beings that share with us the sight of the stars and the warmth of the sun.

  Joseph Conrad

  Stars, Men, Sight

  Joseph Conrad (1905). “Lord Jim”, p.167, McClure, Phillips & Company

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• Our worst foes are not belligerent circumstances, but wavering spirits.

  Helen Keller

  Courage, Spirit, Worst

  Helen Keller, Annie Sullivan (1904). “The story of my life”

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• Let still woman take An elder than herself: so wears she to him, So sways she level in her husband's heart, For, boy, however we do praise ourselves, Our fancies are more giddy and unfirm, More longing, wavering, sooner to be lost and warn, Than women's are.

  William Shakespeare

  Husband, Heart, Boys

  'Twelfth Night' (1601) act 2, sc. 4, l. 29

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• Races, better than we, have leaned on her wavering promise,
  Having naught else but Hope.

  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

  Hope, Race, Promise

  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (2008). “Michael Angelo and Translations”, p.243, Wildside Press LLC

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• Only in the steady and constant application of force lies the very first prerequisite for success. This persistence, however, can always and only arise from a definite spiritual conviction. Any violence which does not spring from a firm, spiritual base, will be wavering and uncertain.

  Adolf Hitler

  Spiritual, Religious, Spring

  Adolf Hitler (1998). “Mein Kampf”, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• Our fancies are more giddy and unfirm, more longing, wavering, sooner lost and won, than women's are.

  William Shakespeare

  Fancy, Longing, Lost

  William Shakespeare (2014). “Twelfth Night: Third Series”, p.228, Bloomsbury Publishing

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• The best worship that we ever render to God is far from perfect. Our praises, how faint and feeble they are! Our prayers, how wandering, how wavering they are! When we get nearest to God, how far off we are! When we are most like Him, how greatly unlike Him we are!

  Charles Spurgeon

  Prayer, Perfect, Worship

  Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1988). “Spurgeon at His Best: Over 2200 Striking Quotations from the World's Most Exhaustive and Widely-read Sermon Series”, Baker Publishing Group

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• Even as the needle that directs the hour,
  (Touched with the loadstone) by the secret power
  Of hidden Nature, points upon the pole;
  Even so the wavering powers of my soul,
  Touch'd by the virtue of Thy spirit, flee
  From what is earth, and point alone to Thee.

  Francis Quarles

  Soul, Secret, Earth

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• Over the tops of it, beginning to dusk under a young white moon, trailed a wavering ghost of smoke, and at the end of it I came upon the Pocket Hunter making a dry camp in the friendly scrub.

  Mary Hunter Austin

  Moon, White, Friendly

  Mary Hunter Austin, Marjorie Pryse (1987). “Stories from the Country of Lost Borders”, p.43, Rutgers University Press

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