Quotations about Self-Control


Self-respect is the root of discipline: The sense of dignity grows with the ability to say no to oneself. ~Abraham Joshua Heschel, The Insecurity of Freedom: Essays on Human Existence, 1967


Not being able to govern events, I govern myself, and apply myself to them, if they will not apply themselves to me. ~Michel de Montaigne, Essays, 1588


How like herrings and onions our vices are in the morning after we have committed them. ~Samuel Taylor Coleridge


The best day of your life is the one on which you decide your life is your own. No apologies or excuses. No one to lean on, rely on, or blame. The gift is yours - it is an amazing journey - and you alone are responsible for the quality of it. This is the day your life really begins. ~Bob Moawad


I have been my own disciple and my own master. And I have been a good disciple but a bad master. ~Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin


All men are tempted. There is no man that lives that can't be broken down, provided it is the right temptation, put in the right spot. ~Henry Ward Beecher, Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit, 1887


The cyclone derives its powers from a calm center. So does a person. ~Norman Vincent Peale


Those who flee temptation generally leave a forwarding address. ~Lane Olinghouse


It is a man's own mind, not his enemy or foe, that lures him to evil ways. ~Buddha


Being out of control is one of the worst feelings in the world, sometimes even worse than pain. It is its own kind of pain. ~Danzae Pace


The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. ~Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1891


You must admit you have self-control before you can use it. ~Carrie Latet


What makes resisting temptation difficult for many people is they don't want to discourage it completely. ~Franklin P. Jones


Do you really think it is weakness that yields to temptation? I tell you that there are terrible temptations which it requires strength, strength and courage to yield to. ~Oscar Wilde


It's all right letting yourself go, as long as you can get yourself back. ~Mick Jagger


I bid you conquer in your warfare against your four great enemies, the world, the devil, the flesh, and above all, that obstinate and perverse self-will, unaided by which the other three would be comparatively powerless. ~Augustus William Hare and Julius Charles Hare, Guesses at Truth, by Two Brothers, 1827


I am,
indeed,
a king,
because I know how
to rule myself.
~Pietro Aretino, 10 May 1537


You have to decide what your highest priorities are and have the courage - pleasantly, smilingly, nonapologetically - to say 'no' to other things. And the way to do that is by having a bigger 'yes' burning inside. The enemy of the 'best' is often the 'good.' ~Stephen Covey


If we resist our passions, it is more because of their weakness than because of our strength. ~François, duc de La Rochefoucauld


For every man there exists a bait which he cannot resist swallowing. ~Friedrich Nietzsche


The first attribute that characterizes the greater man from the m*o*o*n is his thicker layer of inhibition. ~Martin H. Fischer


Heaven is on the other side of that feeling you get when you're sitting on the couch and you get up and make a triple-decker sandwich. It's on the other side of that, when you don't make the sandwich. It's about sacrifice.... It's about giving up the things that basically keep you from feeling. That's what I believe, anyway. I'm always asking, "What am I going to give up next?" Because I want to feel. ~Jim Carrey, from a Michael Fleming interview in the March 2004 issue of Playboy magazine


An element of abstention, of restraint, must enter into all finer joys. ~Vida D. Scudder


Conscience whispers, but interest screams aloud. ~J. Petit-Senn


Not using faults does not mean that one does not have them. ~Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin


The trouble with resisting temptation is it may never come your way again. ~Korman's Law


Who is fit to govern others?
He who governs himself.
You might as well have said: nobody.
~Augustus William Hare and Julius Charles Hare, Guesses at Truth, by Two Brothers, 1827


There is no allurement or enticement, actual or imaginary, which a well-disciplined mind may not surmount. The wish to resist more than half accomplishes the object. ~Charlotte Dacre, The Passions, 1811


Most people want to be delivered from temptation but would like it to keep in touch. ~Robert Orben


Nothing makes it easier to resist temptation than a proper bringing-up, a sound set of values - and witnesses. ~Franklin P. Jones


About the only time losing is more fun than winning is when you're fighting temptation. ~Tom Wilson


There is a charm about the forbidden that makes it unspeakably desirable. ~Mark Twain


Do not bite at the bait of pleasure till you know there is no hook beneath it. ~Thomas Jefferson


We like slipping, but not falling; our real anxiety is to be tempted enough. ~Augustus William Hare and Julius Charles Hare, Guesses at Truth, by Two Brothers, 1827


If passion drives you, let reason hold the reins. ~Benjamin Franklin


A silly idea is current that good people do not know what temptation means. This is an obvious lie. Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is.... A man who gives in to temptation after five minutes simply does not know what it would have been like an hour later. That is why bad people, in one sense, know very little about badness. They have lived a sheltered life by always giving in. ~C.S. Lewis


Opportunity may knock only once, but temptation leans on the doorbell. ~Author Unknown


You are a puppet, but in the hands of the infinite, which may be your own. ~Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin


Abstainer, n. A weak person who yields to the temptation of denying himself a pleasure. ~Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary, 1911