Strive not against the stream. [ Proverb ]

Be our joy three-parts pain!
Strive, and hold cheap the strain;
Learn, nor account the pang;
Dare, never grudge the throe! [ Browning ]

All strive to give to the rich man. [ Proverb ]

Into contradicting
Be thou never led away;
When with the ignorant they strive,
The wise to folly fall away. [ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe ]

The first men that our Saviour dear
Did choose to wait upon Him here,
Blest fishers were; and fish the last
Food was, that He on earth did taste:
I therefore strive to follow those,
Whom He to follow Him hath chose. [ Izaak Walton ]

Strive
In offices of love how me may lighten
Each other's burden. [ Milton ]

I will this dreary blank of absence make,
A noble task-time, and will therein strive
To follow excellence, and to overtake
More good than I have won since yet I live. [ Francis Kemble ]

Let us no more contend, nor blame
Each other, blam'd enough elsewhere, but strive
In offices of love, how we may lighten
Each other's burden, in our share of woe. [ Milton ]

There's nothing ill can dwell in such a temple:
If the ill spirit have so fair a house,
Good things will strive to dwell with it. [ William Shakespeare ]

Who would ever care to do brave deed,
Or strive in virtue others to excel.
If none should yield him his deserved meed
Due praise, that is the spur of doing well?
For if good were not praised more than ill,
None would choose goodness of his own free will. [ Spenser ]

We must strive to make of humanity one single family. [ Mazzini ]

Whoever may
Discern true ends will grow pure enough
To love them, brave enough to strive for them,
And strong enough to reach them, though the road be rough. [ E. B. Browning ]

Better strive with an ill ass than carry the wood one's self. [ Proverb ]

They only fall that strive to move, or lose that care to keep. [ Owen Meredith ]

Kill the lion's whelp; you will strive in vain when he is grown. [ Proverb ]

Let us not strive to rise too high, that we may not fall too low. [ Friedrich Schiller ]

As adversaries in law, strive mightily; but eat and drink as friends. [ William Shakespeare ]

It is the nature of intellect to strive to improve in intellectual power. [ Hosea Ballou ]

The wit which we strive to possess spoils that which we naturally possess. [ Gresset ]

It is the duty of every one to strive to gain and deserve a good reputation. [ Atterbury ]

God gives strength to bear a great deal, if we only strive ourselves to endure. [ Hans Andersen ]

We cannot of ourselves estimate the degree of our success in what we strive for. [ Bulwer-Lytton ]

Habits are soon assumed; but when we strive to strip them off, 'tis being flayed alive. [ Cowper ]

When workmen strive to do better than well, they do confound their skill in covetousness. [ William Shakespeare ]

Our natures are like oil; compound us with anything, yet still we strive to swim upon the top. [ Beaumont and Fletcher ]

My God, help me always resolutely to strive, and, through life and death, to force my way unto Thee. [ Christian Scriver ]

Let us strive to improve ourselves, for we cannot remain stationary; one either progresses or retrogrades. [ Mme. Du Deffand ]

It is the temper of the highest hearts, like the palm-tree, to strive most upwards when it is most burdened. [ Sir P. Sidney ]

If you are about to strive for your life, take with you a stout heart and a clean conscience and trust the rest to God. [ J. Fenimore Cooper ]

It is the very nature of grace to make a man strive to be most eminent in that particular grace which is most opposed to his bosom sin. [ Thomas Brooks ]

We must strive to make ourselves really worthy of some employment. We need pay no attention to anything else; the rest is the business of others. [ Bruyere ]

Let us beware of losing our enthusiasms. Let us ever glory in something, and strive to retain our admiration for all that would ennoble, and our interest in all that would enrich and beautify our life. [ Phillips Brooks ]

The truly great and good in affliction bear a countenance more princely than they are wont, for it is the temper of the highest hearts, like the palm tree, to strive most upwards when it is most burdened. [ S. P. Sidney ]

There is a moral excellence attainable by all who have the will to strive after it; but there is an intellectual and physical superiority which is above the reach of our wishes, and is granted to a few only. [ Crabb ]

The desire of excellence is the necessary attribute of those who excel. We work little for a thing unless we wish for it. But we cannot of ourselves estimate the degree of our success in what we strive for; that task is left to others. With the desire for excellence comes, therefore, the desire for approbation. And this distinguishes intellectual excellence from moral excellence; for the latter has no necessity of human tribunal; it is more inclined to shrink from the public than to invite the public to be its judge. [ Bulwer-Lytton ]