Quotes About Self-control

The first and best victory is to conquer self

The man who makes everything that leads to happiness depends upon himself, and not upon other men, has adopted the very best plan for living happily. This is the man of moderation, the man of manly character and of wisdom.

For a man to conquer himself is the first and noblest of all victories. He was a wise man who invented beer

The first and greatest victory is to conquer yourself.

The first and greatest victory is to conquer yourself; to be conquered by yourself is of all things most shameful and vile.

It's not at all uncommon to find a person's desires compelling him to go against his reason, and to see him cursing himself and venting his passion on the source of the compulsion within him. It's as if there were two warring factions, with passion fighting on the side of reason. But I'm sure you won't claim that you had ever, in yourself or in anyone else, met a case of passion siding with his desires against the rational mind, when the rational mind prohibits resistance.

Even now I'm well aware that if I allowed myself to listen to him I couldn't resist but would have the same experience again. He makes me admit that, in spite of my great defects, I neglect myself and instead get involved in Athenian politics. So I force myself to block my ears and go away, like someone escaping from the Sirens, to prevent myself sitting there beside him till I grow old.

For a man to conquer himself is the first and noblest of all victories.

I am inclined to think that these muscles and bones of mine would have gone off long ago to Megara or Boeotia—by the dog they would, if they had been moved only by their own idea of what was best. (tr Jowett)

Self conquest is the greatest of victories.

Are not they temperate from a kind of intemperance?

He who desires to be happy must pursue and practice temperance and run away from intemperance as fast as his legs will carry him.

Menaklukan diri sendiri adalah kemenangan yang paling akbar.

Temperance, I replied, is the ordering or controlling of certain pleasures and desires; this is curiously enough implied in the saying of 'a man being his own master;' and other traces of the same notion may be found in language. No

Need we hire a herald, or shall I announce, that the son of Ariston (the best) has decided that the best and justest is also the happiest, and that this is he who is the most royal man and king over himself; and that the worst and most unjust man is also the most miserable, and that this is he who being the greatest tyrant of himself is also the greatest tyrant of his State? Make the proclamation yourself, he said. And

que es dueño de sí mismo es también esclavo, y el que es esclavo, dueño; ya que en todos estos dichos se habla de una misma persona.

He who is the victim of his passions and the slave of pleasure will of course desire to make his beloved as agreeable to himself as possible.

At that point they all agreed not to get drunk that evening; they decided to drink only as much as pleased them.

Self-conquest is the greatest of victories and vice versa

un hombre valiente, que sepa combatir sus pasiones, sea resistiéndolas a pie firme, sea huyendo de ellas, porque el valor, Laques, se extiende a todas estas cosas.

Temperance, which they nickname Unmanliness...

But we also need to be careful about turning too easily and exclusively to our junk. To television, to the Internet. To movies, sports, and hobbies. To numbing wastes of time, if not to shameful lacks of self-control. Let's be honest, sometimes it's just easier to shop than to deal with our lives.

I am not usually such a sluggard, he said, as we walked quickly along the street, but yesterday evening I got a novel. I ought not to read novels. When I do, I am apt to make a single mouthful of it; and that is what I did last night. I started the book at nine and finished it at two this morning; and the result is that I am as sleepy as an owl even now.

The true test of a man's spirituality is not his ability to speak, as we are apt to think, but rather his ability to bridle his tongue.