If the burden is too much and stays too long, even love bends, cracks, comes close to breaking and sometimes does break

The bow too tensely strung is easily broken.

If you do not bend, you will break.

The adaptable prevail. Determined, but flexible.

If the burden is too much and stays too long, even love bends, cracks, comes close to breaking and sometimes does break. But when it's in a thousand pieces around your feet, that doesn't mean it's no longer love.

Tension weakens the bow; the want of it, the mind.

If the burden is too much and stays too long, even love bends, cracks, comes close to breaking and sometimes does break. But even when it's in a thousand pieces around your feet, that doesn't mean it's no longer love.

...too much leniency emboldens sin...

The young bamboo can be easily bent, but the full grown bamboo breaks when it is bent with force. It is easy to bend the young heart towards God, but the untrained heart of the old escapes the hold whenever it is so drawn. (233)

If the young sapling bends, the old twig if it resists the wind, can only break.

The bow cannot always stand bent, nor can human frailty subsist without some lawful recreation.

The vow that binds too strictly snaps itself.

- Tristram to Queen Isolt, The Last Tournament

Ane Bow that is ay bent
Worthis unsmart, and dullis on the string;
Sa dois the mynd that is ay diligent,
In ernistfull thochtis, and in studying.

For if he who resolveth bravely oftentimes falleth short, how shall it be with him who resolveth rarely or feebly?

To kerke the narre from God more farre, Has bene an old-sayd sawe; And he that strives to touche a starre Oft stombles at a strawe.