It's that exact quote or something similar.

Thanks

Travis

I think people have been using the expression for hundreds, if no
thousands, of years.

Here is someone's sourcing a Chinese version, and translation from - I
believe - Sanskrit:

http://everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=586439
http://www.geocities.co.jp/bookend/9563/idiom/Oak_and_the_Reeds.html

Reminds me of the story about a young man from Harvard who was
interviewing for a job.  When the interview saw his college, he said: 
"Oh, I have a recommendation from Professor Finley for someone else. 
Do you know what he meant when he wrote:  'x is more like an oak than
a willow'?"

Since Finley was professor of Classics, one could imagine that there
is a classical Greek source for the quotation, or perhaps ALSO such a
source.

'The Bodhisattva of Great Mercy has a thousand hands and a thousand
eyes; which is the true eye?'

"The wind does not break a tree that bends" - Sukuma proverb (Africa)

"Mieux vaut prévenir que guérir" ("Better bend than break") - French Proverb

"The tree that does not bend with the wind will be broken by the wind"
- Mandarin Chinese proverb

"I will bend like a reed in the wind" - Paul Atreides (Dune)

Erpp... The French proverb actually says "Better to prevent than to
heal/cure." Not wuite the same, but I guess it's along the same lines.

There is a fable attributed to Aesop, "the tree and the reed" :

Well, little one," said a Tree to a Reed that was growing at its foot,
"why do you not plant your feet deeply in the ground, and raise your
head boldly in the air as I do?"

"I am contented with my lot," said the Reed. "I may not be so grand,
but I think I am safer."

"Safe!" sneered the Tree. "Who shall pluck me up by the roots or bow
my head to the ground?" But it soon had to repent of its boasting, for
a hurricane arose which tore it up from its roots, and cast it a
useless log on the ground, while the little Reed, bending to the force
of the wind, soon stood upright again when the storm had passed over.

Obscurity often brings safety.

A French moralist, Jean de la Fontaine (1621-1695), also wrote something similar : 

The Oak and the Reed

The Oak spoke one day to the Reed
"You have good reason to complain;
A Wren for you is a load indeed;
The smallest wind bends you in twain.
You are forced to bend your head;
While my crown faces the plains
And not content to block the sun
Braves the efforts of the rains.
What for you is a North Wind is for me but a zephyr.
Were you to grow within my shade
Which covers the whole neighbourhood
You'd have no reason to be afraid
For I would keep you from the storm.
Instead you usually grow
In places humid, where the winds doth blow.
Nature to thee hath been unkind."
"Your compassion", replied the Reed
"Shows a noble character indeed;
But do not worry: the winds for me
Are much less dangerous than for thee;
I bend, not break. You have 'til now
Resisted their great force unbowed,
But beware.
As he said these very words
A violent angry storm arose.
The tree held strong; the Reed he bent.
The wind redoubled and did not relent,
Until finally it uprooted the poor Oak
Whose head had been in the heavens
And roots among the dead folk.