Quotes About Willpower

Wer Großes will, muß sich zusammenraffen; In der Beschränkung zeigt sich erst der Meister, Und das Gesetz nur kann uns Freiheit geben.

Je höher ein Mensch,« sagte Goethe, »desto mehr steht er unter dem Einfluß der Dämonen, und er muß nur immer aufpassen, daß sein leitender Wille nicht auf Abwege gerate.« "The higher a man is," said Goethe, "the more he is under the influence of demons, and he must take heed lest his guiding will counsel him to a wrong path".

He who is firm in will moulds the world to himself.

Denken ist einfach, handeln ist schwer, und die eigenen Gedanken in die Tat umzusetzen ist die schwierigste Sache auf der Welt. To think is easy. To act is difficult. To act as one thinks is the most difficult.

It is not enough to know, we must also apply; it is not enough to will, we must also do.

The most effective self-control is not through willpower and exerting effort to stifle impulses and unwanted behaviors. It comes from effectively harnessing the unconscious powers of the mind to much more easily do the self-control for you.

Avoid temptation. Very few people could quit smoking without ridding their house of cigarettes. Alcoholics avoid bars to stop drinking. Protect yourself by protecting your environment. Decrease the time when you are exposed to rich foods to avoid testing your "willpower." One of the best ways to do this is to throw all the rich foods out of the house. Just as important is to replace harmful foods with those used in the McDougall Program for Maximum Weight Loss.

Thanks to God that he gave me stubbornness when I know I am right.

Any man could, if he were so inclined, be the sculptor of his own brain." —Santiago Ramón y Cajal, Spanish neuroanatomist and Nobel Laureate

Strength is a matter of the made-up mind.

Strength is a matter of a made up mind.

St. Thérèse could not, of course, have suffered all the attacks on the will that we endure. But she deliberately did her utmost to avoid all distraction, both before and after her entry into Carmel. ... And we, too, could seek to strengthen our will by avoiding every distraction that does not belong to our station in life, and with the will strong, even these distractions would cease to turn us more than momentarily from our path.

By morning she was dead. She had not died of starvation or committed suicide by any conventional means. She had simply willed herself to die, and being a strong-willed woman, she had succeeded. She had missed dying on her birthday by two days.

He had tried everything, cutting down (many devices), pipes, cigars, even cold turkey. He had quit once in Rome, for seven hours after breakfast, during the last two of which his (first) wife was begging him to take it up again.

If you think you can do it, you can.

The lesson in running brooks is that motion is a great purifier and health-producer. When the brook ceases to run, it soon stagnates. It keeps in touch with the great vital currents when it is in motion, and unites with other brooks to help make the river. In motion it soon leaves all mud and sediment behind. Do not proper work and the exercise of will power have the same effect upon our lives?

Any place in our lives and heart where we are exerting our will and ways over God's will and ways will inevitably drain us of energy and resources. Exertion=Exhaustion. On the other hand, death to self requires only that we lay down at the foot of the cross and give up the right to run our lives. We say with Christ, "Not my will but Yours be done Father." The Crucified life is the entrance into true rest. #ComeAndDie

The whole idea of motivation is a trap. Forget motivation. Just do it. Exercise, lose weight, test your blood sugar, or whatever. Do it without motivation. And then, guess what? After you start doing the thing, that's when the motivation comes and makes it easy for you to keep on doing it.

pois nas mulheres, e em particular nas do nosso tipo, por melhor que seja a disposição dos nossos corações, há sempre uma parte rainha que se autogoverna e que tem suas próprias razões de Estado, e dentre estas a mais forte é a que manda jamais se confundir a vontade com o ato.

Having once aroused in our mind enough faith in our own will-power to create a universe of contemplation and forget everything else, there are few limitations to the happiness we may enjoy.

I do not think that there is any other quality so essential to success of any kind as the quality of perseverance. It overcomes almost everything, even nature.

we may lead a horse to water we cannot make him drink; and that while we can shut a man up in a penitentiary we cannot make him penitent.

self respect. self reliance. self control.

I did everything. I ran my life exactly as I wanted to, all the time. I never listened to anybody. I'm pig-headed.