Selected self control quotes

1. I lack what the English call character, by which they mean the power to refrain.

2. It's in the private places of the heart that freedom is made or unmade by the discipline we create there.

3. There can be no self-government without self-discipline. There can be no self-government without self-control. There can be no liberty unless it is grounded in moral discipline and the ability to do what is right.

4. The answer to crime is not gun control, it is law enforcement and self-control.

5. Man must cease attributing his problems to his environment, and learn again to exercise his will - his personal responsibility in the realm of faith and morals.

6. Indignation is a submission of our thoughts, but not of our desires.

7. A quick temper will make a fool of you soon enough.

8. If you make an ass out of yourself, there will always be someone to ride you.

9. To attempt the destruction of our passions is the height of folly. What a noble aim is that of the zealot who tortures himself like a madman in order to desire nothing, love nothing, feel nothing, and who, if he succeeded, would end up a complete monster!

10. A man of pleasure is a man of pains.

11. Every man is a damn fool for at least five minutes every day; wisdom consists in not exceeding the limit.

12. To the rational being only the irrational is unendurable, but the rational is endurable.

13. How shall I be able to rule over others, that have not full power and command of myself?

14. We have some control over when we retire. However, we have very little control over how long we will live.

15. Under pressure, the mouth speaks when the brain is disengaged, and, sometimes unwittingly, the gearshift is in reverse when it should be in neutral.

16. A man who allows wild passion to arise within, himself burns his heart, then after burning adds the wind that thereto which ignites the fire again, or not, as the case may be.

17. Calmness of mind is one of the beautiful jewels of wisdom. It is the result of long and patient effort in self-control. Its presence is an indication of ripened experience, and of a more than ordinary knowledge of the laws and operations of thought.

18. No temptation can gravitate to a man unless there is that is his heart which is capable of responding to it.

19. We all have dreams. But in order to make dreams come into reality, it takes an awful lot of determination, dedication, self-discipline, and effort.

20. Venerate four characters: the sanguine who has checked volatility and the rage for pleasure; the choleric who has subdued passion and pride; the phlegmatic emerged from indolence; and the melancholy who has dismissed avarice, suspicion and asperity.

21. He disliked emotion, not because he felt lightly, but because he felt deeply.

22. The best remedy for a short temper is a long walk.

23. The hardest thing is to take less when you can get more.

24. Drink the first. Sip the second slowly. Skip the third.

25. I take it as a man's duty to restrain himself.

26. I am angry nearly every day of my life, but I have learned not to show it; and I still try to hope not to feel it, though it may take me another forty years to do it.

27. I saved a girl from being attacked last night. I controlled myself.

28. Bad men live that they may eat and drink, whereas good men eat and drink that they may live.

29. Speech is human, silence is divine, yet also brutish and dead: therefore we must learn both arts.

30. Passion is a sort of fever in the mind, which ever leaves us weaker than it found us.

31. A fence to wisdom is silence.

32. Take control of your consistent emotions and begin to consciously and deliberately reshape your daily experience of life.

33. Put forth thy leaf, thou lofty plane, East wind and frost are safely gone; With zephyr mild and balmy rain The summer comes serenely on; Earth, air, and sun and skies combine To promise all that's kind and fair:- But thou, O human heart of mine, Be still, contain thyself, and bear.

34. As long as I have you there is just one other thing I'll always need -- tremendous self control.

35. Self-control is something for which I do not strive. Self-control means wanting to be effective at some random point in the infinite radiations of my spiritual existence.

36. 'The market does not beat them. They beat themselves, because though they have brains they cannot sit tight.'

37. We repeat again: strength of character does not consist solely in having powerful feelings, but in maintaining one's balance in spite of them. Even with the violence of emotion, judgment and principle must still function like a ship's compass, which records the slightest variations however rough the sea.

38. My soul knows my meat is doing bad things, and is embarrassed. But my meat just keeps right on doing bad, dumb things.'

39. Isn't that what it means to be civilized? That you can wait to get what you want?

40. Abstinence is as easy to me as temperance would be difficult.

41. Irony: Do not let yourself be governed by it, especially not in unproductive moments. In productive ones try to make use of it as one more means of seizing life.

42. The real enemy is not outside, but inside. ... External enemies are not permanent; if you respect him, the enemy will become your friend. But there is one enemy who is always an enemy, whom you should never compromise, that is the enemy inside your heart. You cannot change all these bad thoughts into your friend, but you have to confront and control them.

43. Spare no effort to suppress selfishness, unless that effort would entail sorrow.

44. Good-breeding is opposed to selfishness, vanity, or pride. Never weary your company by talking too long or too frequently.

45. Hands, do what you're bid: Bring the balloon of the mind That bellies and drags in the wind Into its narrow shed.

46. Si deinde ad impulsus innatos et ad animi affectus spectamus, paternitas conscia necessariam declarat dominationem, quam ratio et voluntas in eosdem exerceant necesse est.

47. At worst, they were vile creatures who needed to be wiped from the face of the earth. At best, such behavior shows a dangerous lack of self-control. The first business of a warrior is self-restraint

48. Man cannot live without self-control

49. A mans dignity is never upheld by losing his self-control

50. I wish I was as smart as Zeforah,' said Hamar, her voice drippingly sweet. 'She always knows just how much is enough

51. To promise not to do a thing is the surest way in the world to make a body want to go and do that very thing.

52. Don't tell me about impulse control, sir. How much impulse control should I have when a million Chinese are coming over a hill after me.

53. Ira furor brevis est.

54. Some people approach every problem with an open mouth.

55. It is easy to see that, even in the freedom of early youth, an American girl never quite loses control of herself; she enjoys all permitted pleasures without losing her head about any of them, and her reason never lets the reins go, though it may often seem to let them flap.

56. Virtues, n. pl. Certain abstentions.

57. Self-denial is indulgence of a propensity to forgo.

58. Hatred comes from the heart; contempt from the head; and neither feeling is quite within our control.

59. The choicest pleasures of life lie within the ring of moderation.

60. For a warrior, to be inaccessible means that he touches the world around him sparingly. And above all, he deliberately avoids exhausting himself and others. He doesn't use and squeeze people until they have shriveled to nothing, especially the people he loves.

61. Self-discipline, as a virtue or an acquired asset, can be invaluable to anyone.

62. If there is no means to prevent drunkenness, a man may become drunk thrice a month; if he oversteps this limit he makes himself guilty of a punishable offence. If he is drunk only twice a month, that is better - if only once, that is more praiseworthy. What could be better than that he should not drink at all? But where shall we find a man who never drinks? If, however, such a man is found, he deserves every respect.

63. A man who is a master of patience is master of everything else.

64. Absolute liberty is absence of restraint; responsibility is restraint; therefore, the ideally free individual is responsible to himself.

65. He who cannot resist temptation is not a man.

66. Ten seconds on the lips and a lifetime in the hips.

67. Everything that emancipates the spirit without giving us control over ourselves is harmful.

68. When I have money, I get rid of it quickly, lest it find a way into my heart.

69. To mark all that I say in conversation, merely to beget in others, a good opinion of myself, and examine it.

70. Resolved, never to do anything out of revenge.

71. 'She enjoys extremes, but in life her emotions are always in check.'

72. Some men have sufficient strength of mind to change their disposition, or at least to yield to imperative circumstances.

73. If you do not conquer self, you will be conquered by self.

74. That virtue which requires to be ever guarded is scarce worth the sentinel.

75. The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it.

76. Now don't stir. I'll be back in five minutes. And don't fall into any temptations while I am away.

77. You cannot make yourself feel something you do not feel, but you can make yourself do right in spite of your feelings.

78. Whenever anyone has offended me, I try to raise my soul so high that the offense cannot reach it.

79. Avoid making irrevocable decisions while tired or hungry. N.B.: Circumstances can force your hand. So think ahead!

80. Why should we desire the destruction of human passions? Take passions from human beings and what is left? The great object should be not to destroy passions, but to make them obedient to the intellect. To indulge passion to the utmost is one form of intemperance - to destroy passion is another. The reasonable gratification of passion under the domination of the intellect is true wisdom and perfect virtue.

81. 'I'm trying very hard to maintain my composure.'

82. Action, excitement; Jedi crave not these things