Saps Quotes & Sayings

Negative thinking saps strength. — Lailah Gifty Akita

Pure love was always difficult to witness. Why was that, she wondered? Because it was so rare? So beautiful? SO damned unattainable for most of the poor saps muddling through this life? — Lynda Sandoval

Worry never robs tomorrow of its sorrow, it only saps today of its joy. — Leo Buscaglia

Inaction saps the vigor of the mind. — Leonardo Da Vinci

Did you know that when the baby starts moving that it's called the quickening?" Hope says.

I snicker. "So she's going to burst out of my stomach with a sword declaring there can be only one?"

"Possibly. Women have died in childbirth, right? The baby is essentially a parasite. It lives off your nutrients, saps your energy." She taps the bottom of a hanger against her lip. "So yeah, I think the Highlander motto could fit."

Carin and I look at her in horror. "Hopeless, you can shut up any time now," Carin orders.

"I was just saying, from a medical standpoint, it's a possible theory. Not here, but maybe in other less developed nations." She reaches over and pats my belly. "Don't worry. You're safe. You should've gotten more maternity clothes," she says, moving on to another topic while I'm still digesting that my baby is a parasite. — Elle Kennedy

Like an odorless gas, [inequality] pervades every corner of the United States and saps the strength of the country's democracy. But it seems impossible to find the source and shut it off. — George Packer

These rough sketches, which are born in an instant in the heat of inspiration, express the idea of their author in a few strokes, while on the other hand too much effort and diligence sometimes saps the vitality and powers of those who never know when to leave off. — Giorgio Vasari

Confronting the worst-case scenario saps it of much of its anxiety-inducing power. Happiness reached via positive thinking can be fleeting and brittle, negative visualization generates a vastly more dependable calm. — Oliver Burkeman

I dream a world where man
No other man will scorn,
Where love will bless the earth
And peace its paths adorn
I dream a world where all
Will know sweet freedom's way,
Where greed no longer saps the soul
Nor avarice blights our day.
A world I dream where black or white,
Whatever race you be,
Will share the bounties of the earth
And every man is free,
Where wretchedness will hang its head
And joy, like a pearl,
Attends the needs of all mankind-
Of such I dream, my world! — Langston Hughes

Prayer, true prayer, does not allow us to deceive ourselves. It relaxes the tension of our self-inflation. It produces a clearness of spiritual vision. . . . It saps our self-deception and its Pharisaism. . . . So by prayer we acquire our true selves."242 — Timothy J. Keller

I know why people write poetry," Javi says. "Because they're a bunch of emotional saps with nothin' better to do than whine about ex-girlfriends and dead dogs."
"You're wrong, Javi," I say. "That's called country music. — Colleen Hoover

If one Ponders on objects of the sense, there springs Attraction; from attraction grows desire, Desire flames to fierce passion, passion breeds Recklessness; then the memory - all betrayed - Lets noble purpose go, and saps the mind, Till purpose, mind, and man are all undone. — Mahatma Gandhi

Zack drew alongside her, leaning down to murmur in her ear. Mollie, I'm not leaving you again. If the city burns to the ground for a second time. If an earthquake splits the land in two or a plague saps us dry . . . I am not leaving. I'll show up at your doorstep every morning and every evening for the rest of the year if that's what it takes. — Elizabeth Camden

Living day in and day out with guilt over sin that has not been properly confessed and forsaken expends a certain amount of emotional energy; it saps your emotional strength and causes you to become emotionally exhausted (i.e., depressed). — Lou Priolo

Why have you let your mind get so entwined,"
my master said, "that you have slowed your walk?
Why should you care about what's whispered here?
Come, follow me, and let these people talk:
stand like a sturdy tower that does not shake
its summit though the winds may blast; always
the man in whom thought thrusts ahead of thought
allows the goal he's set to move far off-
the force of one thought saps the other's force. — Dante Alighieri

The Poor Children

Take heed of this small child of earth;
He is great; he hath in him God most high.
Children before their fleshly birth
Are lights alive in the blue sky.

In our light bitter world of wrong
They come; God gives us them awhile.
His speech is in their stammering tongue,
And his forgiveness in their smile.

Their sweet light rests upon our eyes.
Alas! their right to joy is plain.
If they are hungry Paradise
Weeps, and, if cold, Heaven thrills with pain.

The want that saps their sinless flower
Speaks judgment on sin's ministers.
Man holds an angel in his power.
Ah! deep in Heaven what thunder stirs,

When God seeks out these tender things
Whom in the shadow where we sleep
He sends us clothed about with wings,
And finds them ragged babes that weep — Victor Hugo

Sincerity is impossible, unless it pervade the whole being, and the pretence of it saps the very foundation of character. — James Russell Lowell

Life coaching is a way of life, not just another monotonous job that eventually saps one's energy. It's a profession that makes people feel like they have a lot to contribute to the world they're living in. A greater understanding of the concept is needed in order to apply it, though. — James Browning

Complacency is a blight that saps energy, dulls attitudes, and causes a a drain in the brain. The first symptom is satisfaction with things as they are. The second is rejection of things it as they might be. "Good enough" becomes days today's watchword and tomorrow standard. — Alex And Brett Harris

Trade and wealth creation is not all upside. It is failure, too.
Failure is a necessary component to growth and success. Babe Ruth
struck out 1,330 times but also hit 714 home runs. We need to let
failing entities fail. Only then will successful people turn these enterprises
back into wealth-creating vehicles again. "Too big to fail" is a
concept that perpetuates failure and saps vitality from the rest of the
wealth creators to do so. — Ziad K. Abdelnour

Inequality saps the will to conceive of ambitious solutions to large collective problems, because those problems no longer seem very collective. — George Packer

Knowledge is power, and truth is knowledge; whoever, therefore, knowingly propagates a prejudice, wilfully saps the foundation of his country's strength. — Washington Irving

Why does a human body become deceased?
The reason is that as long as the human body is not free from suffering, mind cannot be happy.
If a man lacks enthusiasm, either his body or mind is in a deceased condition ...
Now what saps the enthusiasm in man?
If there is no enthusiasm, life becomes drudgery - a mere burden to be dragged. Nothing can be achieved if there is no enthusiasm.
The main reason for this lack of enthusiasm on the part of a man is that an individual looses the hope of getting an opportunity to elevate himself.
Hopelessness leads to lack of enthusiasm.
The mind in such cases becomes deceased ...
When is enthusiasm created?
When one breaths an atmosphere where one is sure of getting the legitimate reward for one's labor, only then one feels enriched by enthusiasm and inspiration. — B.R. Ambedkar

If we are full of hatred, we can't really do our work. Hatred saps all that strength and energy we need to plan. — Cesar Chavez

The essence of any plan for financing old age is saving-to put aside some part of today's earnings for the future. Anything that saps the value of savings-and inflation is the worst single threat-is the enemy of the aged and of those who expect to grow old. — Bernard Baruch

But I ask you, those of you who are with us all day, not to stress yourselves out because of us. When you do this, it feels as if you're denying any value at all that our lives may have
and that saps the spirit we need to soldier on. The hardest ordeal for us is the idea that we are causing grief for other people. We can put up with our own hardships okay, but the thought that our lives are the source of other people's unhappiness, that's plain unbearable. — Naoki Higashida

This disease of being "busy" (and let's call it what it is, the dis-ease of being busy, when we are never at ease) is spiritually destructive to our health and wellbeing. It saps our ability to be fully present with those we love the most in our families, and keeps us from forming the kind of community that we all so desperately crave. — Omid Safi

[Once plans for each eventuality are resolved, further] Worry never robs tomorrow of its sorrow, but only saps today of its strength. — A.J. Cronin

You weren't that good when you fought Govart.'
'When I fought Govart,' said Damen, 'I had my lungs full of chalis.'
Another slow nod.
'I'm not sure how it is in Akielos,' said Jord, 'but... you shouldn't take that stuff before a fight. Slows your reflexes. Saps your strength. Just some friendly advice.'
'Thank you,' said Damen, after a long, drawn out moment had passed. — C.S. Pacat

Each and every incomplete thing in your life or work exerts a draining force on you, sucking the energy of accomplishment and success out of you as surely as a vampire stealing your blood. Every incomplete promise, commitment and agreement saps your strength, because it blocks your momentum, inhibits your ability to move forward, to progress and improve. Incomplete things keep calling you back to the past to take care of them. — Jeff Olson

The tools of their trade were simple, effective things: iron knuckles, saps and the like. But the iconic tool of the scuttler arsenal was a woven leather belt with a heavy iron or brass buckle used to decrease intelligence one wallop at a time. — S.C. Barrus

Many Christians and Christian leaders have been neutralized by the love of money and materialism. The homage paid to affluence becomes a burden that saps our energy as well as our love for God and other people ... Like Jesus and Paul, we can learn to be content with what we have, living modestly in order that we may give liberally to the work of the kingdom and to meet the needs of others. — John Wimber

She feels so good and welcoming, like home. Reluctantly, I relinquish her, and Bob gives me an awkward one-armed hug. He seems unsteady on his feet, and I remember that he's hurt his leg. "Welcome back, Ana. Why you cryin'?" he asks. "Aw, Bob, I'm just pleased to see you, too." I stare up into his handsome square-jawed face and his twinkling blue eyes that gaze at me fondly. I like this husband, Mom. You can keep him. He takes my backpack. "Jeez, Ana, what have you got in here?" That would be the Mac, and they both put their arms around me as we head for the parking lot. I always forget how unbearably hot it is in Savannah. Leaving the cool air-conditioned confines of the arrival terminal, we step into the Georgia heat like we're wearing it. Whoa! It saps everything. I have to struggle out of Mom and Bob's embrace so — E.L. James

No one should be allowed to stop in one place any longer than necessary. A man isn't a tree, and being settled in one place is his misfortune. It saps his courage, breaks his confidence. When a man settles down somewhere, he agrees to any and all of its conditions, even the disagreeable ones, and frightens himself with the uncertainty that awaits him. Change to him seems like abandonment, like a loss of an investment: someone else will occupy his domain, and he'll have to begin again. Digging oneself in marks the real beginning of old age, because a man is young as long as he isn't afraid to make new beginnings. If he stays in the same place, he has to put up with things, or take action. If he moves on, he keeps his freedom; he's ready to change places and the conditions imposed on him. — Mesa Selimovic

As every divided kingdom falls, so every mind divided between many studies confounds and saps itself. — Leonardo Da Vinci

Work kills no one, but worry has killed multitudes ... Worry not only saps vitality and wastes energy, but it also seriously affects the quality of one's work. It cuts down ability. A man cannot get the highest quality of efficiency into his work when his mind is troubled. The mental faculties must have perfect freedom before they will give out their best. A troubled brain cannot think clearly, vigorously, and logically. — Orison S. Marden

It really strikes me how much of your energy in America, especially if you're from a working back-ground, is spent just keeping your head above water. It really saps your grace and your strength. — George Saunders

My sadness isn't a way I feel but a thing trapped inside the walls of my flesh, like a smog. It takes the sheen off everything. It rolls the world in soot. It saps the power from my limbs and presses my back into a stoop. — Sara Baume

Doubt is like a current you have to swim against, one that saps your strength. — Victoria Schwab

A boatload of government money is indeed a gift. Unless, I suppose, you're one of the saps paying for the cargo. — David Harsanyi

Boredom dismantles the mind, renders it superficial, out at the seams, saps it from within and dislocates it. — Emile M. Cioran

You may think that you've lost your passion, or that you can't identify it, or that you have so much of it, it threatens to overwhelm you. None of these is true. Fear saps passion. When we conquer our fears, we discover a boundless, bottomless, inexhaustible well of passion. — Steven Pressfield

The ability to reason the un-reason which has afflicted by reason saps my ability to reason, so that I complain with good reason of your infinite loveliness. — Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

I'm a very smart guy. I haven't a feeling or a scruple in the world. All I have the itch for is money. I am so money greedy that for twenty-five bucks a day and expenses, mostly gasoline and whisky, I do my thinking myself, what there is of it; I risk my whole future, the hatred of the cops ... I dodge bullets and eat saps, and say thank you very much, if you have any more trouble, I hope you'll think of me, I'll just leave one of my cards in case anything comes up. — Raymond Chandler

Worry is useless. Worry saps our strength and steals our focus. It causes us to be more awestruck and dumbfounded by storms than by the one who silences storms with a word. — Judah Smith

It was that period in the vernal quarter when we may suppose the Dryads to be waking for the season. The vegetable world begins to move and swell and the saps to rise, till in the completest silence of lone gardens and trackless plantations, where everything seems helpless and still after the bond and slavery of frost, there are bustlings, strainings, united thrusts, and pulls-all-together, in comparison with which the powerful tugs of cranes and pulleys in a noisy city are but pigmy efforts. — Thomas Hardy

Every hour you spend on your rear end ... saps your energy and ruins your health. — Tom Rath

The outcome of successful planning always looks like luck to saps. — Dashiell Hammett

Fear saps passion. — Steven Pressfield

Ring out the grief that saps the mind, for those that were here we see no more. — Alfred Lord Tennyson

As a scientist, I am hostile to fundamentalist religion because it actively debauches the scientific enterprise. It teaches us not to change our minds, and not to want to know exciting things that are available to be known. It subverts science and saps the intellect. — Richard Dawkins

Don't just survive while waiting for someone's revolution to clear your head. — Hakim Bey

When a milestone is conquered, the subtle erosion called entitlement begins its consuming grind. The team regards its greatness as a trait and a right. Half hearted effort becomes habit and saps a champion. — Pat Riley

Fulfillment comes from striving to succeed, to survive by your own wits and strength. Such things make each of us who we are." Using the blanket, he rubbed his hair. "You lose that in captivity, lose yourself, and that loss saps your capacity for joy. I think comfort can be a curse, an addiction that without warning or notice erodes hope. You know what I mean?" He looked at each of them, but no one answered. "Live with it long enough and the prison stops being the walls or the guards. Instead, it's the fear you can't survive on your own, the belief you aren't as capable, or as worthy, as others. I think everyone has the capacity to do great things, to rise above their everyday lives; they just need a little push now and then. — Michael J. Sullivan

There is nothing that saps one's confidence as the knowing how to do a thing — Mark Twain

I've been writing as usual, but this is not a healthy lifestyle. I tried to change and work during the day, but found that the morning sun saps my energy. So what am I going to do ... ? — Kyousuke Motomi

Negative thought saps a person's strength.
Positive thought is healthy to the soul. — Lailah Gifty Akita

When something sucks, it saps your energy and undermines the quality of your life. It makes you feel smaller and wish you hadn't participated. — Alan Cohen

It is usually meaningless work, not overwork, that wears us down, saps our strength, and robs our joy. — Rick Warren

Since my moral system rests on my accepted version of the facts, he who denies my moral judgments or my version of the facts, is to me perverse, alien, dangerous. How shall I account for him? The opponent has always to be explained, and the last explanation that we ever look for is that he sees a different set of facts. Such an explanation we avoid, because it saps the very foundation of our own assurance that we have seen life steadily and seen it whole. — Walter Lippmann

Worry is the most popular form of suicide. Worry impairs appetite, disturbs sleep, makes respiration irregular, spoils digestion, irritates disposition, warps character, weakens mind, stimulates disease, and saps bodily health. It is the real cause of death in thousands of instances where some other disease is named on the death certificate. — William George Jordan

For the past two weeks he's been feeling so superior and smart because of all the things he knows from the war, but forget it, they are the ones in charge, these saps, these innocents, their homeland dream is the dominant force. His reality is their reality's bitch; what they don't know is more powerful than all the things he knows, and yet he's lived what he's lived and knows what he knows, which means what, something terrible and possibly fatal, he suspects. To learn what you have to learn at the war, to do what you have to do, does this make you the enemy of all that sent you to the war?
Their reality dominates, except for this: It can't save you. It won't stop any bombs or bullets. He wonders if there's a saturation point, a body count that will finally blow the homeland dream to smithereens. How much reality can unreality take? — Ben Fountain

But trust me, men are never worth it. Behind every great man is a woman who gave up on greatness and tied herself into an apron. Romance is for saps, Abbie. You're sharp and you've got pluck. Don't waste it. — William Ritter