Bend Or Break Quotes & Sayings

Do you ever wonder what happens to the words that we send
Do they bend, do they break from the flight that they take
And come back together again with a whole new meaning
In a brand new sense, completely unrelated to the one I sent
((Did You Get My Message?)) — Jason Mraz

Batter my heart, three-personed God, for you As yet but knock; breathe, shine, and seek to mend; That I may rise, and stand, o'erthrow me, and bend Your force to break, blow, burn, and make me new. — John Donne

Obedience is our universal duty and destiny; wherein whoso will not bend must break; too early and too thoroughly we cannot be trained to know that "would," in this world of ours, is a mere zero to "should," and for most part as the smallest of fractions even to "shall. — Thomas Carlyle

I'm entranced by the idea of reading the culture back to itself, because I'm conscious that we as people and also as a culture are myth-making machines. So I'm interested in a resistance to that: What we can bend, what we can break. — Daphne Gottlieb

When circumstances defy order, order should bend or break: anomalies and uncertainties give validity to architecture. — Robert Venturi

Either find a way, or make one ... You can bend but you can never break if you want to achieve excellence. — Ziad K. Abdelnour

Except that Morgan's face was too pinched and thin to pull off the look. "Your point being?" I did my best to keep from looking nervous or impressed. Truth be told, I was both. Morgan was my Warden, assigned to me by the White Council to make sure I didn't bend or break any of the Laws of Magic. He hung about and spied on me, mostly, and usually came sniffing around after I'd cast a spell of some kind. I would be damned if I was going to let the White Council's guard dog see any fear out of me. Besides, he would — Jim Butcher

Things change when you learn to loosen your grip. I think one way and the future is desperate. I think another way everything is in sight. Trees bend so branches don't have to break. We mend the wounds of our last mistake ... I live one way holding onto the fence post. I live another way sliding off into space. Each life is loosely assembled ... Birds swim, fish do fly. Proud man begins to cry. Birds swim, fish do fly. Things change, so why can't I? — Tim Finn

I worry about Zimbabweans. They bend, they bend, they bend, they bend - where do the people break? How long can they go on scrounging for food in garbage dumps and using the moisture from sewage drains to plant vegetables? — Samantha Power

Would you like to sit?" Kellen asked her.
"You'd better do it soon," Owen whispered close to her ear, "or I'm going to bend you over that table and break the club's no-penetration-in-the-lounge rule. — Olivia Cunning

Sure, I didn't weigh a hundred and ten pounds , but my narrow waist let me bend and I could break a man's neck with my kick. — Ilona Andrews

Marriage isn't a contest to see who is most often right. Marriage requires being what the Japanese call 'the wise bamboo,' which means you bend so you don't break. Treat your spouse with the flexibility and respect you would give to a top client. Think how we treat clients; We smile, we are polite, we listen to their ideas. Never forget that your spouse is your most important client. — Joan Rivers

And then the leaves break out on the trees, and the petals drop from the fruit trees and carpet the earth with pink and white. The centers of the blossoms swell and grow and color: cherries and apples, peaches and pears, figs which close the flower in the fruit. All California quickens with produce, and the fruit grows heavy, and the limbs bend gradually under the fruit so that little crutches must be placed under them to support the weight. — John Steinbeck

We just don't give in. If you can bend and not break, you always got a chance. — David Blatt

Cause when push comes to shove,
You taste what you're made of.
You might bend till you break,
Cause it's all you can take.
On your knees, you look up,
Decide you've had enough.
You get mad, you get strong,
Wipe your hands, shake it off.
And you stand ... — Rascal Flatts

I was going to break from the inside out if he didn't bend me into nameless shapes — C.D. Reiss

If I have to produce movies, direct movies, whatever to change the way Hollywood treats older women, I'll do it. If I have to bend the rules, I will. If I have to break them, I will. — Naomi Watts

I'm going where my heart will take me
I've got faith to believe
I can do anything
I've got strength of the soul
And no one's gonna bend or break me
I can reach any star
I've got faith
I've got faith
Faith of the heart — Rod Stewart

I wasn't sure I'd been born with the ability to forgive. Not for terrors inflicted on those I loved. For myself, I didn't care - not nearly as much. But there was some fundamental pillar of steel in me that could not bend or break in this. Could not stomach the idea of letting these people get away with what they'd done. — Sarah J. Maas

We bend. I bend to sweep crumbs and I bend to wipe vomit and I bend to pick up little ones and wipe away tears ... And at the end of these days I bend next to the bed and I ask only that I could bend more, bend lower. Because I serve a Savior who came to be a servant. He lived bent low. And bent down here is where I see His face. He lived, only to die. Could I? Die to self and just break open for love. This Savior, His one purpose to spend Himself on behalf of messy us. Will I spend myself on behalf of those in front of me? And people say, "Don't you get tired?" and yes, I do. But I'm face to face with Jesus in the dirt, and the more I bend the harder and better and fuller this life gets. And sure, we are tired, but oh we are happy. Because bent down low is where we find fullness of Joy. — Katie J. Davis

The women that were worth that kind of heart-break wouldn't let you fall for them so easy. They wouldn't bend over your couch, or allow you to charm them into their bedroom on the first night - or even the tenth. — Jamie McGuire

I will be merciful, and I will believe in people. If I am to err, I will err on the side of mercy. I will give people the benefit of the doubt. I will bend, but not break, in order to give people the opportunity to grow and develop. — David K. Bernard

Lao Tsu uses the anology of the tree. The old hard tree breaks and falls when the wind blows. The young tree bends and does not break. He advises us to bend and not to break. — Frederick Lenz

What doesn't bend, breaks. — Ani DiFranco

Why do you think there aren't rules to how sex will work? You didn't want to talk to me about what you wanted. You pushed me into the room so I wouldn't turn on the light because you knew damn well I would push back on that, didn't you?"
She stayed where she was. "Yes. I don't want you to see me. I don't look like one of those girls in a magazine."
He groaned, the sound coming from deep in his chest. "Those girls in the magazines are airbrushed and way too thin. The camera adds pounds so those girls are so skinny I wouldn't be able to fuck them for fear I would break them. I want a woman, Avery, not some tiny freaking thing whose waistline only proves she doesn't eat. I want a woman who can take me. I want a woman I can hold on to. So bend over because I want to see your ass. I want to look at it because I've been dreaming about it for days. It's hot and round and so fucking juicy I can't stand it. Get me hot, Avery. Show me your ass. — Lexi Blake

Sometimes, Gerald, people break the law so clearly you can hear it crack like a tree branch snapped in two. But other times, like a baker twisting a roll of dough into a pretzel, you only bend the law. You don't tear it. You don't break it. You end up with something better than the ingredients you started with. And the final result is beautiful to behold. — Paul Levine

To behave creatively in art means behavior with skill; and skill comes from discipline, not derangement. The artist who knows the rules -and proportion is one of them- knows where to bend and how to break them. — Burne Hogarth

Sometimes it is good to breach the rules
so as to achieve an end,
Yet keep an edge and not break or bend. — Mira Midha

We must bend with change, or we will break. — Jayne Castel

I love you because you are you. You're a little bit crazy, and I find that more interesting than being normal. You're passionate and I find that more fascinating than being calm. You're curious and adventurous and sexual, and you're full of life and you make me want to be a better man, to live louder, to bend and break all the damn rules. — Karina Halle

When I turned to climb the third wave, I saw at my feet a small leaf, perhaps an inch long, pointed, withered to bright chestnut but still smooth. It was supported above the soil in the grey points of short grasses which did not bend beneath its weightlessness. It was curved in all three planes. Fibrous veins displayed its structure. It was quite still. And as I watched its stillness spread; first to me. I wanted not to move by a hair's breadth. Lest the bond between it and me should break. The stillness spread to the grass around us. It encompassed the hill. The beech wood became attendant on it. The whole valley slowly filled with it. The leaf, and I its participant, had drawn the mileswide landscape into an attentive, breathless synthesis ... there was no movement, no sound and no distinction or identifying of parts in all that had been there united. For there was no 'I' that gazed ... through that tiny gateway I became one with what was boundless. — Geoffrey Vickers

Batter my heart, three-person'd God ; for you
As yet but knock ; breathe, shine, and seek to mend ;
That I may rise, and stand, o'erthrow me, and bend
Your force, to break, blow, burn, and make me new.
I, like an usurp'd town, to another due,
Labour to admit you, but O, to no end.
Reason, your viceroy in me, me should defend,
But is captived, and proves weak or untrue.
Yet dearly I love you, and would be loved fain,
But am betroth'd unto your enemy ;
Divorce me, untie, or break that knot again,
Take me to you, imprison me, for I,
Except you enthrall me, never shall be free,
Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me. — John Donne

Fate is like a storm. You can let it bend you, or you can make it break you. One way or the other, the storm always has its way. Now our storm is beginning, Olivia. — R. Lee Smith

But you have to learn to bend a little," said Clary with a yawn. Despite the story's content, the rhythm of Jace's voice had made her sleepy. "Or you'll break." "Not if you're strong enough," said Jace firmly. — Cassandra Clare

Their closeness wouldn't break, but it would bend and stretch into a new shape. — Cassandra Clare

Lord, bend me, or I shall rot.
Lord do not bend me too much, for I shall break.
Lord bend me too much, who cares if I break! — Nikos Kazantzakis

Teenagers are in the throes of learning the biggest lesson of all: life isn't simple, it isn't black and white. It's multiple and varied shades of grey. If you mix these shades of grey you might end up getting close to black or white, but in the end, it's the darkening of themselves around the edges and the ways in which they bend and break that will make them more wholesome people; people that others will want to be around and who will contribute greatly to society when given the awesome opportunity. — Danielle Weiler

He grew restless with Connemara and its bleak possibilities, its blasted bogscape and lunar rockiness, the grey desolation of everything around him, the rainy, acidulous smell of the air. The wind lashed in like a whip from the Atlantic and the trees grew at every angle to the ground except the perpendicular. He sat for hours at his cracked, filthy window watching them bend and warp in a gale; wondering when the fury might get too much and they would break in two or be torn from the earth. But they never broke. They just groaned and bowed low, and remained bowed after the storm had raged away. Stooped. Hunched. Twisted. Deformed: the serveants of a master who detested their devotion. — Joseph O'Connor

I will be the answer at the end of the line. I will be there for you. Why take the time? In the burning of uncertainty, I will be your solid ground. I, I will hold the balance if you can't look down. If it takes my whole life, I won't break. I won't bend. It will all be worth it, worth it in the end because I can only tell you what I know, that I need you in my life. When the stars have all gone out you'll still be burning so bright. — Sarah McLachlan

Sometimes you have to bend with the breeze or you break. — Steve McQueen

Every English poet should master the rules of grammar before he attempts to bend or break them. — Robert Graves

Wisdom is knowing that if you bend, you don't have to break. Sometimes it is necessary to go with the flow of life. — Frederick Lenz

Lovesick, bitter and hardened heart. Aching, waiting for life to start — Bil Keane

Different minds perceive different things, but all are imprisoned, asleep in a paradigm of material reality. Awakened minds bearing a more malleable paradigm, such as those of mages, can bend its rules, but never truly break them. To cross that boundary is to become something more and less human. A god, but absent the restraint. — Kinoko Nasu

The willow is my favorite tree. I grew up near one. It's the most flexible tree in nature and nothing can break it - no wind, no elements, it can bend and withstand anything. — Pink

Bowmen bend their bows when they wish to shoot: unbrace them when the shooting is over. Were they kept always strung they would break and fail the archer in time of need. So it is with men. If they give themselves constantly to serious work, and never indulge awhile in pastime or sport, they lose their senses and become mad. — Herodotus

Virtuous persons and fruit-laden trees bow, but fools and dry sticks break because they do not bend. — Chanakya

Learn the wisdom of compromise, for it is better to bend a little then to break — Jane Wells

His gaze caught and held hers, bored into her with an intensity that stole the air from her lungs.

"I want to break free of these bonds, bend you the fuck over and rail you so hard you scream."

He arched up as much as he could, forcing a breath of shock out of her in a rush.

"And when I'm done, I want to spank the hell out of you before I tie you down, make you suck my cock and swallow every last drop of my load. Now, will you please let me come?"

~Trance — Sydney Croft

Circumstances change. Bend or break... — Nora Roberts

No matter how our hearts break, we bend toward life, don't we? We bend toward hope. — Anonymous

As much as we might like to break, we're really only made to bend. — Cody McFadyen

I wanted to eat her, like a wolf in a fairy tale. I wanted to crush her to my chest until she was part of me, her atoms commingling with my atoms. I wanted to bend her, break her and then watch her beg for more. — Sierra Simone

The air between us crackles like it always has, like it has its own energy or frequency. One of us is going to bend. One of us is going to break. — Lauren Blakely

I am the palm and this is only wind. I will bend, but I will not break. — Peter V. Brett

You... kill... what you cannot control. Break... what you cannot bend. Is this what all my teachings have brought you to? Victory by any means? Conquest? Terror? You say you oppose kings, and yet your methods do not differ from theirs. You say you war against tyranny, but you too war against your own people. You say you bring the power of life. Then how did it happen that your very name became death? — Ta-Nehisi Coates

In Einstein's general relativity the structure of space can change but not its topology. Topology is the property of something that doesn't change when you bend it or stretch it as long as you don't break anything. — Edward Witten

You feel like a candle in a hurricane, just like a picture with a broken frame. alone and helpless, like you've lost your fight, but you'll be alright, you'll be alright. Cause when push comes to shove you taste what your made of you might bend till you break cause it's all you can take. you get mad, you get strong, wipe your hands, shake it off then you stand! — Rascal Flatts

This sweet, blessed, God-inspired place called America is a champion that has absorbed some blows. But while we bend, we don't break. This is no dark hour; this is the dawn before we remember who we are. — Artur Davis

Sure, you can break a man. Bend his will, even, but be careful with the ones that break easily. Those are the ones you have to keep a close eye on. Those are the ones that play possum and hide in the shadows. Just waiting for their time to strike! That's when you're most vulnerable. When you're surrounded by friends. — Joe Reyes

When you encounter difficulties and contradictions, do not try to break them, but bend them with gentleness and time. — Saint Francis De Sales

Oh, you know I'm only human;
I bend and fall and break
You cut me and I bleed
I'm a mess for you to make
So forget the words and give me deeds
My heart was yours to take. — Emery Lord

We may bend sometimes, but we don't break. There's a lot of character in that room — David Blatt

Positive emotions and mental states may make people more resilient to stress, like sturdy tree branches that bend but don't break when battered by a storm — Melanie Greenberg

I believe that every English poet should read the English classics, master the rules of grammar before he attempts to bend or break them, travel abroad, experience the horrors of sordid passion, and - if he is lucky enough - know the love of an honest woman. — Robert Graves

In this age, the mere example of non-conformity, the mere refusal to bend the knee to custom, is itself a service. Precisely because the tyranny of opinion is such as to make eccentricity a reproach, it is desirable, in order to break through that tyranny, that people should be eccentric. Eccentricity has always abounded when and where strength of character has abounded; and the amount of eccentricity in a society has generally been proportional to the amount of genius, mental vigor, and moral courage which it contained. That so few now dare to be eccentric, marks the chief danger of the time. — John Stuart Mill

every instinct telling me to run. Every instinct, except for that one to hold or break, but never bend. — Anonymous

There's going to be a new code on Parliament Hill: bend the rules, you will be punished; break the law, you will be charged; abuse the public trust, you will go to prison, — Stephen Harper

Suffering can bend & break us. But it can also break us open to become the persons God intended us to be. It depends on what we do with the pain. If we offer it back to God, He will use it to do great things in us & through us, because suffering is fertile ... it an grow new life. — John Green

Little kids' minds are very, very strong. They bend. There's a lot of tensile strength and they don't break. We start our kids off on things like "Hansel and Gretel," which features child abbandonment, kidnapping, attempted murder, forcible detention, cannibalism, and finally murder by cremation. And the kids love it. — Stephen King

Arrogant , beautiful, domineering Lord Crane, with the caring that made Stephen's heart break, and the vicious streak that made his knees bend, had chosen him among all the men's men of London, and treated him with a loyalty, generosity and almost painful honesty that made Stephen's heart hurt. And his reward was a few doled-out crumbs of Stephen's time in a country he hated. — K.J. Charles

Men are prostrated by misfortune; women bend, but do not break, and martyr-like live on. — Anna Cora Mowatt

I may venture to say, loosely, that in Judo there is a sort of counter for every twist, wrench, pull, push or bend. Only the Judo expert does not oppose such movements at all. No, he yields to them. But he does much more than yield to them. He aids them with a wicked sleight that causes the assailant to put out his own shoulder, to fracture his own arm, or in a desparate case, even to break his own neck or back. — Lafcadio Hearn

Bend the rules only if you have learned them; break the rules only if you have mastered them. — Matshona Dhliwayo

It's like I've been stuffed full of twigs and all I have to do is bend and my body will break. All the guilt, the anger, the frustration, the pent-up aggression inside of me has found an outlet and now it can't be controlled. — Tahereh Mafi

Waiting with too few men, and with every instinct telling me to run. Every instinct, except for that one to hold or break, but never bend. I — Mark Lawrence

Love means seeing beauty in the ugly, the light in the dark, and accepting that even if the lights are off, and I can't see what's in front of me, there will be something there to guide my way.
Love means turning yourself inside out, handing yourself over to somebody else, and trusting them.. trusting them to touch you, to handle you, to bend you, but never, ever break what you give them. — J.M. Darhower

Hearts are tough, Most times they don't break. Most times they are only bend — Stephen King

The rule of captivity is to bend, not break. — Nathaniel Fick

You either bend, or you break.
Suppress your ego to stay happy. — Manoj Arora

We tried to approach this as though there's never been a Superman movie before, but at the same time respecting the canon and mythology. There are the pillars that you have to respect, and I'm not about to break them. But it is fun for me to bend them and mess with them. — Zack Snyder

Let me tell you something, Johnny. And don't you ever forget this. Men make their own puny little laws for the courts. Men bend those laws, break them, change them, corrupt them, turn them to their own use. But there are other laws. Basic laws. And the strongest law of all is survival. When your honor, your family, your home, your privacy, are threatened, you have to think of how you'll answer to your God. And to hell with men's chickenshit little laws. — Leonard Sanders

It is funnier to bend things than to break them. — W.C. Fields

He had been through hell and survived, and his reward had come in the form of a woman who could bend but not break, challenge but not conform, submit but not surrender. Naiya was his. Totally, utterly, and irrevocably. And he would never let her go. — Sarah Castille