Quotes About Self-control

Abstinence works, I know it from my own personal life, abstinence works.

Life is tons of discipline.

I struggle in these situations not to let my madness govern me, and to let the positive aspects of my character define my life.

The life of a good man was a continual warfare with his passions.

Hold fast then to this sound and wholesome rule of life; indulge the body only as far as is needful for health.

An unrestricted satisfaction of every need presents itself as the most enticing method of conducting one's life, but it means putting enjoyment before caution, and soon brings its own punishment.

the appetite for thinking must be regulated, as all sensible people know, for it may stifle one's life.

Is it freedom to be a slave to the senses, to anger, to jealousies and a hundred other petty things that must occur every day in human life?

Even a child who's above average on self-control could improve their financial outcomes in mid-life if they improved their self-control skills early on.

Of course, I don't act in an extreme fashion in my day to day life. I don't think any of us live do. I think we all have that reserve somewhere and we pull upon it when we need it.

Does anybody who gave up smoking to save a pound a week have a pound at the end of the week? Not on your life.

You can't have a country or a city or a state that's worth a damn unluss you govern within yourself in your day-to-day life.

Take custody of your life. Show up, do your best, and let go of the rest.

I'm trying not to let the anger and the violence that erupt take over my life. I guess it comes with the growing process, I don't know. A little mellowing.

as scientifically sound health advice, "Everything in moderation" is as nourishing as white bread. The very people who need to eat more moderately are also the ones who seem to have the most difficulty actually doing so.

A recently interviewed geologist and abduction experiencer wrote me that his experiences have taught him that "We are a runaway species bent on self-destruction, because we (collectively) are unwilling to impose self controls to stop our growth and to plan for our future with forethought and higher purpose" (Bruce Cornet, letter to the author, December 1994).

As I've gotten older, I have taught myself to act "normal." I can do it well enough to fool the average person for a whole evening, maybe longer. But it all falls apart if I hear something that elicits a strong emotional reaction from me that is different from what people expect. In an instant, in their eyes, I turn into the sociopathic killer I was believed to be forty years ago.

The only time making a fist around the fork helps is when you want to stab someone because he's stealing your food. Now I know stabbing people is really rude, so I hold my fork in the grown-up way all the time, and I rely on discreet snarls to protect my dinner from predators.)

When I speak in casual conversation, I try to start a mental clock in my head. I actually learned this from Marty Nemko, a San Francisco career coach. He told me, "For the first thirty seconds after you start talking, imagine a green light in your head. After thirty seconds the light turns yellow. At sixty seconds, it's red." That's a good piece of advice for most any conversational situation. It takes some mental energy to monitor myself, but it works.

Patience! It was the least of my virtues.

Let us resolve to be masters, not the victims, of our history, controlling our own destiny without giving way to blind suspicions and emotions.

Let every lust be mortified, every duty performed, every grace exercised.

You didn't throw rocks at me! Yeah, but I thought about it.

The practice of personal accountability: We discipline our thoughts. We ask better questions. We take action.