Quotes About Self-control

You never need to be frightened by your own thoughts.

Do we really need policing — whether by God or by each other — in order to stop us from behaving in a selfish and criminal manner?

We may find the attractions of a particular member of the opposite sex irresistible, even though the better judgment of our better self tells us that a liaison with that person is not in anyone's long-term interests.

He reasoned that, as there was nothing he could do about his feelings, he must avoid acting on them.

By its very nature, discipline is rooted in self-admiration. (Think of discipline as a battery, useful but short-lived.) We admire ourselves for being so wonderful. The discipline itself, not the creative outflow, becomes the point.

When he's cheerful his tongue runs away with him, and he's depressed he can be unkind. So it's common sense not to let him into every are of your life.

But if you think that only what is yours is yours, and that what is not your own is, just as it is, not your own, then no one will ever coerce you, no one will hinder you, you will blame no one, you will not accuse anyone, you will not do a single thing unwillingly, you will have no enemies, and no one will harm you, because you will not be harmed at all.

You can have your cake and eat it; the only trouble is, you get fat

at my age, one must ration one's excitement

He composed himself inwardly. Sparing the world his awkwardness, hiding vulnerability. Preserving his pride.

No proper life could be made from the pursuit of blinding pleasure followed by limp exhaustion.

foolish men say things in anger that they later regret and an angry tongue does not mean one is guilty.

Sometimes, when the past catches up, you just can't stop yourself.

The only way to go beyond work is through work. It is not that work itself is valuable; we surmount work by work. The real value of work lies in the strength of self-denial

Take the advice I sometimes have to give to myself: Don't say something permanently painful just because you are temporarily ticked off.

Don't say something permanently painful just because you are temporarily ticked off.

When a family member's behavior threatens to knock the nice right out of us, we can pause. Recalculate. Punch in a different destination for the words now downloading from our brains onto our tongues. We can program them to first stop at gentleness, swing by to pick up respect, and finally — arrive with grace. Then our mouths can utter pleasant words rather than those that are caustic, cutting, and unkind.

Set a guard over my mouth, LORD; keep watch over the door of my lips. (Psalm 141:3)

A closed mouth gathers no foot.

They'll only get your goat if you show them where you keep your hay.

Getting drunk was something for the weak, a crutch for people who were not strong enough to live their own lives, to stand on their own two feet. Drinking was running away from something.

Andy opened her mouth and screamed as loud as she could. It felt good, but she couldn't scream for the rest of her life.

Lydia's vingers stuitten op de lege bodem van de chipszak. Ze voelde zich ellendig. Ze had die chips helemaal niet gewild. Na de eerste hap proefde ze ze eigenlijk niet eens meer.

The typical human life seems to be quite unplanned, undirected, unlived, and unsavored. Only those who consciously think about the adventure of living as a matter of making choices among options, which they have found for themselves, ever establish real self-control and live their lives fully.