Quotes About Self-control

A warrior of the Light is never in a hurry. Time works in his favor; he learns to master his impatience and avoids acting without thinking.

I can't control myself, that's my problem.

we feel obliged to repress our emotions and our desires, because they don't fit with what we call "maturity.

one must learn that which is necessary, and not simply what one wants

She had never allowed herself to be provoked; she had learned early that whenever a new situation presented itself, you had to remain cool and distant.

Jealously would kill you from inside, if you water the plant of jealousy with anger instead of hard work

Refraining—not habitually acting out impulsively—has something to do with giving up entertainment mentality. Through refraining, we see that there's something between the arising of the craving—or the aggression or the loneliness or whatever it might be—and whatever action we take as a result. There's something there in us that we don't want to experience, and we never do experience, because we're so quick to act.

think of a time when you were angry, when someone said or did something that you didn't like, a time when you wanted to get even or you wanted to vent. Now, what if you had been able to stop, breathe deeply, and slow the process down? Right on the spot you could connect with natural openness. You could stop, give space, and empower the wolf of patience and courage instead of the wolf of aggression and violence.

addictions stem from this moment when we meet our edge and we just can't stand it.

Before we can heal others with our speech, we need to get a handle on our own mind and its propensities.

Booker T. Washington was right when he said, "Let no man pull you so low as to make you hate him.

When you refrain from habitual thoughts and behavior, the uncomfortable feelings will still be there. They don't magically disappear. Over the years, I've come to call resting with the discomfort "the detox period," because when you don't act on your habitual reactions, it's like giving up an addiction. You're left with the feelings you were trying to escape. The practice is to make a wholehearted relationship with that.

You may very well have good reasons for resentment, frustration and anger. But that doesn't mean those negative responses are good for you, or that you must choose them.

Anger doesn't demand action. When you act in anger, you lose self-control.

To abandon yourself to rage is often to bring upon yourself the fault of another.

Always shun whatever may make you angry.

Anger is the poorest of counselors, and revenge is suicide.

Anger would inflict punishment on another; meanwhile, it tortures itself.

Anger simply means that your personal power - your personal space, your personal sense of being - has been violated

Anger is like a ruin, which, in falling upon its victim, breaks itself to pieces.

Anger is poison. You must purge it from your mind or else it will corrupt your better nature.

Like a cube of ice, anger cannot be eliminated by applying force, only by applying warmth, compassion and kindness.

To seek to extinguish anger utterly is but a bravery of the Stoics. We have better oracles: 'Be angry, but sin not.' 'Let not the sun go down upon your wrath.'

We can get angry: it's even healthy to get angry from time to time.