Tough Soft Quotes & Sayings

When I finally made it across the dune, I found her gazing at the ocean and holding a weathered fence post as if it were the mast of a sailboat.
'That was quite a sprint you did on that soft sand,' I said, huffing and puffing. She smiled, but didn't respond. So I clarified, 'That sand is hard to get through.'
She laughed. 'It's easier to get through the tough stuff if I give it a little muscle.'
I looked at her out of the corner of my eye and said coyly, 'I think there's a life lesson there.'
'Nah,' she refuted. 'I've exercised my whole life. Lots of practice. It comes naturally now.'
Like I said. — Emily Colson

I'd say he's not much older than you," Mother said when she noticed.
"Really?" Lynn peered closer at his face. "How can you tell?"
"Well," Mother peered up at the gray sky as she considered how to answer, "I guess it's in the way his skin isn't so tough, he's still got the little bit of baby soft on him. — Mindy McGinnis

We dance. Sweet, downcast, through-the-lashes-glances bely every beating she got at thirteen, every lash of the tongue from her dad at fourteen, every heroin high that let her out for awhile, every hour and day she had to be tough.

She is so natural and soft. Her shoulders are down, hips loose and swinging as we close together. I swear I'm growing chest hair just looking at her. I've been a boy in public before, but I've never seen her like this. That's it exactly; I haven't seen her at all, except in glimpses, in half-confessional role-play sex. And here she is - pressed tight against my chest, hips grinding against my crotch to the bass bump of the music. Her thigh along mine is electric heaven. Two drag queens cannot decide whether we are breeders or in drag. I stroke my mascara-made mustache at them - but none of it matters with hands in suede and the way she smiles. — Various

A soft answer breaks the rage, a tough answer encourage the fury. — Solomon

I'm a Cancerian, the typical crab with the tough outer shell and the soft bit in the middle. I don't think I'll ever come to terms with people being unnecessarily nasty, but I can take it if someone doesn't like my music - I'm not everyone's cup of tea. — Katherine Jenkins

We couldn't generalize on the people. Some of them were known to be tough guys and they didn't say much, but some of them were kind of soft-headed, but they did that. That was an East German film. — James Stockdale

Soft as butter they can be, and yet sometimes as tough as old tree-roots. — J.R.R. Tolkien

I'm tough on the outside and soft on the inside ... I'm really a shy guy. — Milo Ventimiglia

My clients don't pay me to feel sorry; they pay me to bring them money. I am tough, but I have a soft side. — Bill Gross

I realized that I'm a soft person. I think I'm sensitive. I wanted very much to be tough and I think movie stars have a certain kind of resilience and toughness to them, but I'm quite a sensitive young lady in some respects. — Rachael Taylor

Forgiving is tough. Excusing is easy. What a mistake it is to confuse forgiving with being mushy, soft, gutless, and oh, so understanding. Before we forgive, we stiffen our spine and we hold a person accountable. And only then, in tough-minded judgment, can we do the outrageously impossible thing: we can forgive. — Lewis B. Smedes

Look what pressure(cooker) does to Rice. It makes the hard and tough rice go soft. — Gaurav Rao

The thing that you're faulted on today is not that you are too tough, or not that you aren't careful. It's that you might have been too soft. People want that red meat now because you have to keep up with the mood and the mood today is harsh. It really is. — Mark Russell

Leaders trust their guts. "Intuition" is one of those good words that has gotten a bad rap. For some reason, intuition has become a "soft" notion. Garbage! Intuition is the new physics. It's an Einsteinian, seven-sense, practical way to make tough decisions. Bottom line, circa 2001 to 2010: The crazier the times are, the more important it is for leaders to develop and to trust their intuition. — Tom Peters

When your team is winning, be ready to be tough, because winning can make you soft. On the other hand, when your team is losing, stick by them. Keep believing — Bo Schembechler

Patriarchy values the hard over the soft; the tough over the tender; punishment, vengeance, and vindictiveness over compassion, negotiation, and reconciliation. The 'hard' qualities are linked to power, success, and masculinity - and exalted. The 'soft' qualities are identified with weakness, powerlessness, and femininity - and denigrated. — Starhawk

There is little hope for us until we become tough-minded enough to break loose from the shackles of prejudice, half-truths, and downright ignorance. The shape of the world today does not permit us the luxury of soft mindedness. A nation or a civilization that continues to produce soft minded men purchases its own spiritual death on an installment plan. — Martin Luther King Jr.

I am tough but I have a soft side. — Bill Gross

It is very hard to be a female leader. While it is assumed that any man, no matter how tough, has a soft side ... and female leader is assumed to be one-dimensional. — Billie Jean King

I had been gullible, naive, soft, pliable. That's why I got taken advantage of. To survive, you have to have a tough skin. — Tia Carrere

It was only after university that I said to myself that I had to take the risk and have a serious go at acting. It's such a bizarre profession, because you have to be totally tough to deal with all those times when you're being turned down, and then really soft in order to access your character's emotions. — Felicity Jones

i am water soft enough to offer life tough enough to drown it away — Rupi Kaur

A tough will counts. So does desire.So does a rich soft wanting.Without rich wanting nothing arrives. — Carl Sandburg

Man, when living, is soft and tender; when dead, he is hard and tough. All animals and plants when living are tender and delicate; when dead they become withered and dry. Therefore it is said: the hard and tough are parts of death; the soft and tender are parts of life. — Laozi

Busted," she said. "You pretend to be all rough and tough, but on the inside you're a big softie."
"I guarantee you there is nothing soft
— Robin Bielman

I don't have any huge desire to show you all that I'm not tough and strong, that I'm all feminine and soft. That's not a huge longing that I have because I know who I am. — Carrie-Anne Moss

Christian guys had a reputation for being soft or not being tough enough to play the game. But every chapel we've had, our team fighter has been in there. Stu Grimson is very outspoken. Dan Bylsma, the head coach at Pittsburgh, was one guy that really helped me a lot. — Matt Cullen

Successful leadership is not about being tough or soft, sensitive or assertive, but about a set of attributes. First and foremost is character — Warren G. Bennis

The swaying figure's white, haggard face was rough with beard-stubble. His shirt was in tatters which blew back behind him in twisted ribbons, showing the starved stack of his ribs. A filthy rag was wrapped around his right hand. He looked sick, sick and dying, but even so he also looked tough enough to make Andolini feel like a soft-boiled egg. — Stephen King

A hard head makes a soft ass. — Will Leamon

A smile bloomed again in his eyes. "I love that you let me bring out that softness in you. You've always been such a tough little trooper, but under that snappy, tough act you put on, you're butter-soft. Sweet as honey. And I can get there! Make that softness come up. I'm so ... honored by it — Ramona Wray

You wouldn't think it would be Toby
she was so tough and hard
but if you're drowning, a soft squashy thing is no good to hold on to. You need something more solid. — Margaret Atwood

I liked to think I had a tough everything, but I did have one weakness. One. In my entire child/woman body, and we both knew it. Dante. He was the chink in my armor. My soft underbelly. — R.K. Lilley

I really like women who get emotional about babies and puppies. I've met some incredibly cool women who are tough, but the woman you marry should have a really soft side. — Chris Evans

She drew her knees up and dropped her chin on the top of them, smiling at him. Watching him. Caressing him with soft eyes. "You're going to go out there and act all tough, aren't you?"
"That's my intention, yes." He slipped a knife into his boots. It took discipline to keep his face pure stone when she made him want to laugh.
-Lexi & Gavriil — Christine Feehan

She knew about young boys - she'd spent the last year taking care of them. They were tough and reckless and yet at the same time so very sweet and vulnerable. Their cheeks were soft and their eyes apologized even as they fought to assert their independence with too smart mouths. — Elizabeth Hoyt

I didn't just foster the delusions. I lived them. Even after the world crashed, I clung to them. But after he died, I told myself no more. No more brave fronts or false hopes or pretending everything's okay when nothing is. I thought I was being tough by pretending, calling it being optimistic, brave, keeping my head up or whatever bullshit seemed to fit the moment. That's not tough. That's the very definition of soft. — Rick Yancey

God, make me a man with thick skin and a soft heart. Make me a man who is tough and tender. Make me tough so I can handle life. Make me tender so I can love people. God, make me a man. — Darrin Patrick

Dad said High Lonesome, as the area was known, wasn't a place for the soft of head or the weak of heart, and he said that was why he and I made out just fine there, because we were both tough nuts. — Jeannette Walls

She stood up and took the book from him, and as he smiled over his shoulder at some other kids, she threw it away and kicked him as hard as she could in the vicinity of the groin.
Well, as you might imagine, Ludwig Schmeikl certainly buckled, and on the way down, he was punched in the ear. When he landed, he was set upon. When he was set upon, he was slapped and clawed and obliterated by a girl who was utterly consumed with rage. His skin was so warm and soft. Her knuckles and fingernails were so frighteningly tough, despite their smallness.
You Saukerl." Her voice, too, was able to scratch him. "You Arschloch. Can you spell Arschloch for me? — Markus Zusak

It was wonderful to see the sparkle back in her eyes. He wanted to keep it there. For the first time in years he'd found himself actually caring about how someone else felt. He'd been spending so much time being a tough successful businessman that he'd almost forgotten how pleasurable it was to help make other people happy. — Emily Arden

Watching him climb, William's perception shifted again with a bone-rattling jolt. Christian was not soft, he realized. There was nothing of the coddled child in him. He was hard and tough as sinew. Refined? Refined as a purebred stallion, perhaps, or an elemental sprite. But not weak, no. He was a powerful and strong man. For — Eli Easton

As she watched, he examined the can intently, read the ingredients, then returned it to the shelf and chose another, repeating his thorough study of it.
The contrast between his rough, tough-guy appearance and the domestic act he was performing did funny things to her head.
She had a sudden, breathtaking vision of a dark-haired little boy sitting in the seat of the cart, laughing up at Cian, grabbing at his swinging braids with chubby little fists, while his daddy inspected the ingredients on a jar of baby food. Her mind's eye
picture of sexy, strong man with beautiful, helpless child made something soft and warm blossom behind her chest. — Karen Marie Moning

John Wayne is as tough as an old nut and as soft as a yellow ribbon. — Elizabeth Taylor

We girls, we're tough, darling. Soft on the outside but, deep down, we're tough. — Kristen Ashley

It was like ... it was like women were made to do that to men. Like men were made with a big soft spot, and no matter how tough they got they couldn't protect themselves there. Like maybe, when God took that rib from the man to make the woman, the way the priests told it from their Scripture books, He left a hole in the man. One that she could always slide into. And the man couldn't stop her doing it, either. — George Bryan Polivka

I think there's a whole bunch of things that go along with being a girl. You're not supposed to have opinions or be tough or strong. You're supposed to be soft and vulnerable, and I find those qualities important in both men and women. — Ellen DeGeneres

One of the things about being raised British in Africa is that you get this double whammy of toughness. The continent in place itself made you quite tough. And then you've got this British mother whose entire being rejects 'coddling' in case it makes you too soft. So there's absolutely nothing standing between you and a fairly rough experience. — Alexandra Fuller

One must have a tough mind, and a soft heart. — Sophie Scholl

I actually write some pretty tough jokes. I don't want to push the "soft" angle too much. — Allison Silverman