Top 100 Strained Quotes
#1. But somehow or other my intimacy with them was always strained and soon ended of itself. Once, indeed, I did have a friend. But I was
Fyodor Dostoyevsky
#2. I was a semi-professional gymnast as a child. I did rhythmic gymnastics, but I sustained an injury and strained all the muscles in my spine.
Gwendoline Christie
#3. I was at the bottom of the sea, the pressure dense, crushing, inexorable. Dead silence strained against my eardrums. The darkness was without reprieve. No mental adjustment could make it less absolute. It was impenetrable - black painted over black painted over black.
Haruki Murakami
#4. As Michel de Montaigne observed, "The least strained and most natural ways of the soul are the most beautiful; the best occupations are the least forced."
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Gretchen Rubin
#5. He put his forehead against hers.
"Alannah, my heart is yours." He said softly.
"And yet, I must hand it over to someone else for the keeping." Her last words falling to a strained whisper.
B.C. Morin
#6. The moon rose, squatting in the strained blue.
Janet Fitch
#7. Everyone sees that this cannot go on. Everything is strained to such a degree that it will certainly break, said Pierre (as those wha examine the actions of any government have always said since governments began).
Leo Tolstoy
#8. It's often the case that the most strained moments in books are the very beginning and the very end - the getting in and the getting out. The ending, especially: it's awkward, as if the writer doesn't know when the book is over and nervously says it all again.
Robert Gottlieb
#9. He strained to say something else. I leaned toward him. He focused on me. "Rape," he promised. "Many, many times. Until you bleed ... "
"I'm so flattered.
Ilona Andrews
#10. The drowsy stillness of the afternoon was shattered by what sounded to his strained senses like G.K. Chesterton falling on a sheet of tin.
P.G. Wodehouse
#11. Kyle strained his eyes to the horizon while they paddled swiftly through the fog.
Nicholai Ball
#12. If you're not seeing each other anymore because things are so strained, and your only communication is a weekly e-mail, and you're wondering which medium is most appropriate for announcing your desire to break up - guess what, you've already broken up.
Amber Heard
#13. There was something so primal and hungry about the way he stared down at her..the way their bodies unconsciously strained toward one another as if nothing - not even time, not distance, not even death- could ever keep them apart.
Amanda Stevens
#14. If you don't strain the strings, and then try to break them, you'll find it a difficult job; but strain a string to its very utmost, and the mere weight of one finger on the strained string will snap it.
Leo Tolstoy
#15. Is that a nautilus?" he asked. "Close, but no. It's an ammonite." "An ammonite? What's an ammonite? Sounds like an Old Testament people overdue for smiting." "Ammonites are not a biblical people," she replied in a tone of strained forbearance. "But they have been smited." "Smote
Tessa Dare
#16. They have shrunk from inquiry, though they have strained after punishment. I have in every shape dared the one, that I might, so far as lay in my power, be able to secure the other.
Joseph Howe
#17. now and it mustn't be broken under any circumstance. There was so much yet to be said, but it would all come in good time. So many meaningless apologies. So many strained explanations. Promises
Stefan Ahnhem
#18. And what little she allowed herself to say was said in a strained tone, in which her ingrained timidity paralysed her tendency to freedom and audacity of speech.
Marcel Proust
#19. Children are the closest we have to wisdom, and they become adults the moment that final drop of everything mysterious is strained from them.
Simon Van Booy
#20. Few things a doctor does are more important than relieving pain ... pain is soul destroying. No patient should have to endure intense pain unnecessarily. The quality of mercy is essential to the practice of medicine; here, of all places, it should not be strained.
Marcia Angell
#21. As if it were important, he strained his memory; beside the sofa there had been a large lamp with a round milk-white base encircled by a chain of painted roses, and beyond that, on the wall, neatly framed, was a series of water colors done by a forgotten aunt during her Grand Tour. But
John Edward Williams
#22. If the economy is strained, then Social Security, like the rest of the government, will be, too.
Mark Dayton
#24. The curse of cancer created a strange and strained existence, challenging me to be neither blind to, nor bound by, death's approach. Even when the cancer was in retreat, it cast long shadows. When
Paul Kalanithi
#25. Judges must beware of hard constructions and strained inferences, for there is no worse torture than that of laws.
Francis Bacon
#26. I like the fact that this kind of family has been seen in a movie a million times: teenage kids, the family is a bit strained and they don't have enough money, but in the background the guy used to be a Gene Simmons type.
Gary Cole
#27. I strained to remember where I was or even what I was wearing, touching my green corduroy jeans and staring at the exposed-brick wall. As my paranoia deepened, I became convinced that I had died and no one was telling me.
Maureen Dowd
#28. The serpent hissing between the lips of Envy is so huge, and so completely fills her wide-opened mouth that the muscles of her face are strained and contorted, ...
Marcel Proust
#29. I know not, but strained silence, so I deem,
IS no less ominous than excessive grief.
Sophocles
#30. If I loan money to a friend or relative, the relationship will be strained or destroyed. The only relationship that would be enhanced is the kind resulting from one party being the master and the other party a servant.
Dave Ramsey
#31. NSEERS was so poorly conceived and badly managed that it created chaos and fear. Trust between the immigrant community and law enforcement was severely strained and, in the end, there was no evidence that any terrorists were apprehended as a result of the effort.
James Zogby
#32. You were my first crush." She sobered, her voice strained as sincere green eyes slanted up to me . "And my only love." Her throat bobbed as she swallowed, almost painfully. "I've been waiting for you my whole life.
A.L. Jackson
#33. Locking the door behind Preacher, Knuckles turned to Debbie, a strained smile on his face. "You ain't got no gun, right Debbie darling?" He pointed to the words on his T-shirt - PEACE, LOVE, AND PUSSY. "'Cause, I'm a lover, not a fighter.
Madeline Sheehan
#34. I think of the friendships I've strained, the generosity I've exploited, the bridges I've torched. Do as the heavens have done, forget your evil; with them, forgive yourself. There may be hope for me yet.
Anthony Ervin
#35. He grinned, though his face was strained. That's it, love. Use me to make yerself feel good.
Elizabeth Hoyt
#36. Nor aught so good but strained from that fair use,
Revolts from true birth stumbling on abuse.
William Shakespeare
#37. With this lodging and diet our extreme toil in bearing and planting palisades so strained and bruised us and our continual labor in the extremity of the heat had so weakened us, as were cause sufficient to have made us as miserable in our native country or any other place in the world
John Smith
#38. If someone was ... you know ... going a bit weird in the head-"
"Mental, he means," said Wobbler, behind him.
"Just a bit Over-Strained," said Johnny. "I mean... would they know? Themselves?"
"Well, everyone thinks they're a bit mad,' said Yo-less. "It's part of being normal.
Terry Pratchett
#39. Envy is an ill-natured vice, and is made up of meanness and malice. It wishes the force of goodness to be strained, and the measure of happiness abated. It laments over prosperity, and sickens at the sight of health. It oftentimes wants spirit as well as good nature.
Jeremy Collier
#40. Kiss me back, Tenleigh," he whispered, his voice strained. "God, please kiss me back.
Mia Sheridan
#41. Merripen?" Her voice was strained.
"Yes?"
"You should probably know that if my brother hasn't already managed to kill himself, I plan to shoot him when we find him."
"I'll hand you the pistol.
Lisa Kleypas
#42. The desire that is satisfied is not a great desire, nor has the shoulder used all its might that an unbreakable gate has never strained.
William Butler Yeats
#43. The "germ," wherever gathered, has ever been for me, "the germ of a story," and most of the stories strained to shape under my hand have sprung from a single small seed, a seed as remote and windblown as a casual hint.
Henry James
#44. Since September 11 2001, editors in America have faced some excruciating choices, as the attempt to wage a war against a new kind of enemy sometimes strained the boundaries of our laws and values.
Bill Keller
#45. When you're under stress as a human being, you behave oddly and your relationships with people become strained.
Viggo Mortensen
#46. I dressed to their murmurs in the other room, their voices soft but strained, and I wondered if men ever talked like this, if their sorrows ever spilled into these secret cadences.
Esmeralda Santiago
#47. Relations between Terra and Luna had been strained since the Lunans had eaten Neil Armstrong in 1960.
A. Lee Martinez
#48. During my time in orbit, I lost bone mass, my muscles atrophied, and my blood redistributed itself in my body, which strained my heart. Every day, I was exposed to ten times the radiation of a person on Earth, which will increase my risk of a fatal cancer for the rest of my life.
Scott Kelly
#49. On the haggard face of every man among these prisoners, the same expression sat. I know not what to liken it to. It had something of that strained attention which we see upon the faces of the blind and deaf, mingled with a kind of horror, as though they had all been secretly terrified.
Charles Dickens
#50. After that, she went silent again. It was a strained silence. I glanced at the calendar on the wall. Her period was not due yet. I imagined that something unpleasant might have happened at the office.
Haruki Murakami
#51. This was what few people realize - it's hard work to beat somebody. I have known many an interrogator who has strained a back, pulled a muscle, torn a tendon or a ligament, even broken fingers, toes, hands, and feet, not to mention going hoarse.
Viet Thanh Nguyen
#52. Taken together, the rhythms of real time show how Twitter becomes a place to come together when everyday social bonds are strained. It serves as a fleeting town square for people to share their sorrow, fear and hopes.
Alfred Hermida
#53. Throughout the performance Levin felt like a deaf person watching a dance. He was quite perplexed when the music stopped and felt very tired as a result of strained attention quite unrewarded.
Leo Tolstoy
#54. Dora appeared, placing Alex's coffee in front of him."Your girlfriend is a wonder, honey,"she siad to him, squeezing willows shoulder. Willow's smile turned strained at the word "girlfriend. He could see her wanting to correct the woman and then deciding to let it pass.
L.A. Weatherly
#55. He cannot speak clearly if his words must be strained through a Congressional gag.
Doris Kearns Goodwin
#56. I held his hand tighter and still squeezing I leant across and kissed his lips, the lips that apologised for his huff as they lovingly connected with mine, and I strained to keep at least one eye on the road.
Nicci Greene
#57. A gentleman's brain must be treated gently and never overburdened. It gets so little exercise. We don't want it strained.
Jayne Fresina
#58. I loved the sea. I loved steamers and sailboats and surf and sailors. And I yearned and strained to the sea, always the sea, for it is a lovely, vicious lonely thing. In its limitless variety I had a sort of HOME.
L. Ron Hubbard
#59. In more than 500 instances, from the Gulf of Alaska to Bar Harbor, Maine, FEMA has remapped waterfront properties from the highest-risk flood zone, saving the owners as much as 97 percent on the premiums they pay into the financially strained National Flood Insurance Program.
Bill Dedman
#60. How oddly holiness situated itself among the things of the world, how endlessly creation wrenched and strained under the burden of its own significance.
Marilynne Robinson
#61. A trustworthy leader goes the extra mile to remedy strained relationships, even when it doesn't appear to be required.
John C. Maxwell
#62. To understand the essence and workings of insanity, Gallus Vibius strained his mind so that he tore his judgment from its seat and could never get it back again: he could boast he became mad through wisdom.1
Michel De Montaigne
#63. What message, years of conflagration, have you: madness or hope? On thin cheeks strained by war and liberation bloody reflections still remain.
Alexander Blok
#64. She was in the mood for sounds of every kind now, and strained her ears to catch the faintest, in wayward enmity to her quiet of mind.
Thomas Hardy
#65. Then he folded his arms on his chest, so his biceps strained at the sleeves of his t-shirt, courtesy of the arm curl machine.
Jennifer Echols
#66. Before the civil war, Pottibakia was a normal member of the Comity of Nations. She erected tariff walls, broke treaties, persecuted minorities, obstructed at conferences unless she was convinced there was no danger of a satisfactory solution; then she strained every nerve in the cause of peace.
E. M. Forster
#67. Are you laughing at me?" I squawk. I laugh, too, my voice sounds so strained. Will's laughter picks up even more. "I can't help it. You make me happy.
Kristin Halbrook
#68. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory will swell when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.
Abraham Lincoln
#69. I did recording sessions as a musician as well as a background vocalist and enjoyed every minute of it. I remember singing harmony with Waylon Jennings on a few songs that were hits. Chet Atkins always put me up so high that I strained to hit every note. It was a lot of fun.
Ray Stevens
#70. I love him, she thought. I'm just not in love with him and also I don't love him. I've tried, I've strained to love him but I can't. I am building a life with a man I don't love, and I don't know what to do about it.
David Nicholls
#71. Human population growth is a problem in that most humans consume more than they need. The Earth's resources are now strained to sustain the needs and wants of the human population, which continues to escalate.
Sharon Gannon
#72. One day Samuel strained his back lifting a bale of hay, and it hurt his feelings more than his back, for he could not imagine a life in which Sam Hamilton was not privileged to lift a bale of hay. He felt insulted by his back, almost as he would have been if one of his children had been dishonest
John Steinbeck
#73. The way the vocal folds work is that they can get inflamed and in pain, but actual tears in the folds are somewhat rare. I've never torn anything. Been too strained plenty of times.
John Darnielle
#74. The fibers of all things have their tension and are strained like the strings of an instrument.
Henry David Thoreau
#75. His collar pulled and his tie strained against the intrusion. He blinked. He was irresistibly aware of the oddness of moving things.
Jamie O'Neill
#76. The loss of a Netlimb was a queer sensation, a kind of panicked tickling as the brain strained to maintain its binary illusion that there actually was a limb where a limb no longer existed.
Gary A. Ballard
#77. From Satan or from God, what matter? Angel or Siren,
What matter, if you make - fairy with velvet eyes,
Rhythm, perfume, light, o my only queen -
The universe less hideous, each moment less strained?
Charles Baudelaire
#78. She was humming something melancholy and familiar. I strained to make it out - a folk song? a lullabye? - and then realized it was the theme to M*A*S*H. Suicide is painless. I went downstairs.
Gillian Flynn
#79. I have more enemies than I deserve," I said. "I am fighting a losing battle, me against the world. The next century is at stake. Time is running out and my optimism is sorely strained."
"Yeah?" he said. "I was young once too.
Felix Gilman
#80. Like those statues which must be made larger than "nature" in order that, viewed from below, or from a distance, they may appear to be of the "natural" size, certain truths must be "strained" in order that the public may form a just idea of them.
Philibert Joseph Roux
#81. I'm just trying to show the world what an imagination can do when it isn't strained by humanly limitations.
Lu Groblebe
#82. If dysfunction means that a family doesn't work, then every family ambles into some arena in which that happens, where relationships get strained or even break down entirely. We fail each other or disappoint each other. That goes for parents, siblings, kids, marriage partners - the whole enchilada.
Mary Karr
#83. Paltry affectation, strained allusions, and disgusting finery are easily attained by those who choose to wear them; they are but too frequently the badges of ignorance or of stupidity, whenever it would endeavor to please.
Oliver Goldsmith
#84. That was the damnedest thing about these demonic collaborator types. Even though they didn't work out and practice, they still got to run faster than we dedicated roadsters who actually sweated and strained for our ability to haul ass. Jerks.
Jim Butcher
#86. I can't even dial one phone number right away. But you strained your own body to go and see them. I was surprised. The frightened little me had always wondered how to swim through the vast ocean, but you didn't even want a ship. You wanted wings. I thought you were amazing.
Arina Tanemura
#87. Justice, though due to the accused, is due the accuser also. The concept of fairness cannot be strained till it is narrowed to a filament. We are to keep our balance true.
Benjamin Cardozo
#88. You're mine, Nissa." The words were guttural, strained.
She knew it. Deep inside her core the truth was there.
Savannah Stuart
#89. A too tight white shirt," she continued as though he hadn't interrupted, "strained across a great chest, really great biceps, and his head under the hood of the car, a little sweaty, a little messy, a lot handy."
"You sound like a pimp.
Lauren Layne
#90. His eyes went again to the crucifix above his head, reflected in the mirror. The strained arms, the arched spine. All that effort to open the gates of heaven for us and we (he thought) probably spend out first hours among the heavenly hosts settling old scores with relatives.
Alice McDermott
#91. How swiftly the strained honey
of afternoon light
flows into darkness
and the closed bud shrugs off
its special mystery
in order to break into blossom:
as if what exists, exists
so that it can be lost
and become precious
Lisel Mueller
#92. Free stopped so suddenly, Ruxs had to dodge him to avoid running into his back. Tech turned to look at his friend, wondering about the haunted look in his face. "Who's that in there?" he whispered harshly, his voice sounding strained as if he had to struggle to say the words. Tech
A.E. Via
#93. Beginning in the 1920s and 1930s, film has been a shadow thrown over the minds of all novelists. Ever since, novelists have strained to make themselves more relevant and, whether consciously or not, novel-writing has been influenced by cinematic doctrines - by turns, embracing and defying it.
Matthew Pearl
#94. What was irritating was that they sat there with their heads together as though he had ceased to exist. Neither looked around until he cleared his throat again, loud enough that he wondered whether he had strained something.
Robert Jordan
#95. Rose. Roza. Open your eyes." I've never heard heard his voice so strained, so frantic. "Don't go to sleep on me. Not yet.
Richelle Mead
#96. He laughed. A strained, ha, ha, ha, I may die of this laugh.
Tessa Dare
#97. You're like a monster, dude'", he says, light amusement coloring his strained voice. "'From a monster movie. The man who would not fucking quit
Ben H. Winters
#98. I remember, when I have preached at different times in the country, and sometimes here, that my whole soul has agonized over men, every nerve of my body has been strained and I could have wept my very being out of my eyes and carried my whole frame away in a flood of tears, if I could but win souls
Charles Spurgeon
#99. She didn't bother taking off her snow-crusted cloak; she came to us quickly, dripping and shivering, her eyes luminous and strained from trying to see beyond the world.
Patricia A. McKillip
#100. Without the media, the American people won't have the type of information they need to hold their leaders to account. The relationship between government and media has always been strained, and I think most of the time that's a healthy strain.
Dan Bartlett
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