The inflexible will break
Surely the inspiration for the "Because what has hardened will never win" lines in Andrei Tarkovsky's Stalker movie.
Men are born soft and supple;
dead, they are stiff and hard.
Plants are born tender and pliant;
dead, they are brittle and dry.
Thus whoever is stiff and inflexible
is a disciple of death.
Whoever is soft and yielding
is a disciple of life.
The hard and stiff will be broken.
The soft and supple will prevail.
Tao Te Ching – Verse 76
Translation by Stephen Mitchell