What is strain?

Famous quotes containing the word strain:

    That strain again, it had a dying fall;
    O, it came o’er my ear like the sweet sound
    That breathes upon a bank of violets,
    Stealing and giving odor. Enough, no more,
    ‘Tis not so sweet now as it was before.
    William Shakespeare (1564–1616)

    O Master, let me walk with thee
    In lowly paths of service free;
    Tell me thy secret; help me bear
    The strain of toil, the fret of care;
    Washington Gladden (1836–1918)

    You are all alike, you respectable people. You can’t tell me the bursting strain of a ten-inch gun, which is a very simple matter; but you all think you can tell me the bursting strain of a man under temptation. You daren’t handle high explosives; but you’re all ready to handle honesty and truth and justice and the whole duty of man, and kill one another at that game. What a country! What a world!
    George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)