Creep into thy narrow bed, Creep, and let no more be said! Vain thy onset! all stands fast. Thou thyself must break at last. Let the long contention cease! Geese are swans, and swans are geese. Let them have it how they will! Thou art tired; best be still.

-Arnold, Matthew
  New Poems,'The Last  Word'.

To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: Atimeto be born, and atimeto die; atimetoplant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; Atimetoweep, and atimeto laugh; atimetomourn, and a time to dance: A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.

-Bible (Old Testament)
Ecclesiastes 3:1^8.

Nothing and no one can destroy the Chinese people. Theyare relentless survivors† They yield, they bend to the wind, but they never break.

-Buck, Pearl ne¤  e Sydenstricker
  China, Past and Present, ch.1.

Man is to be held only by the slightest chains; with the idea that he can break them at pleasure, he submits to them in sport.

-Edgeworth, Maria
  Letters for Literary Ladies,'Letters of  Julia and Caroline', no.1.

   Words strain, Crack and sometimes break, under the burden, Under the tension, slip, slide, perish, Decay with imprecision, will not stay in place, Will not stay still.

-Eliot,T(homas) S(tearns)
  Four Quartets,'Burnt Norton', pt.5.

Never Give a Sucker an Even Break.

-Fields,W C originally  William Claude Dukenfield
  Title of film, but an earlier catchphrase of Fields's that may have originated in the1923 film Poppy.

The world breaks everyone and afterwards many are strong at the broken places. But those that will not break it kills. It kills the very good and the very gentle and the very brave impartially. If you are none of these you can be sure it will kill you too but there will be no special hurry.

-Hemingway, Ernest Millar
  Frederic Henry.  A Farewell to  Arms, ch.34.

   Je plie, et ne romps pas. I bend but do not break.

-La Fontaine,Jean de
  Fables, pt.1, no.22,'Le che"  ne et le roseau'. The reed speaks to the oak tree.

Was it for this the clay grew tall? öO what made fatuous sunbeams toil To break earth's sleep at all?

-Owen,Wilfred
  'Futility', collected in Poems (published1920).

Rompre l'os et sucer la substantifique moelle. Break the bone and suck out the very substance.

-Rabelais, Fran c° ois
  Gargantua, Prologue de l'auteur.

Sex is something I really don't understand too hot.You never know where the hell you are. I keep making up these sex rules for myself, and then I break them right away.

-Salinger,J(erome) D(avid)
The Catcher in the Rye, ch.9.

Break, break, break, On thy cold grey stones,O Sea! And I would that my tongue could utter The thoughts that arise in me.

-Tennyson
  Poems,'Break, Break, Break', stanza1.