Quotes About Self-denial

I was used to being perceived as having a good attitude. Self-control, self-effacement, self-denial. People like this, especially in girls.

She examined me, she looked at me critically and said, "Why are you trying to starve yourself?" To keep myself from feeling love, from feeling lust, from feeling anything at all.

I don't like this life; but I do it. Like a good girl.

The most saddening thing is to admit that I am not in love. I can only love (if that means self denial - or does it mean self fulfillment? Or both?) by giving up my love of self and ambitions - why, why, why, can't I combine ambition for myself and another?

Diana' What if she was here to show us a third way? Between pleasure-seeking and piety, between self-obsession and self-denial; a life which is lived to its fullest, with the fact that we are human animals and want to have fun seamlessly blending into the fact that what diminishes others, be it homelessness, illness or war, diminishes all of us?

I could no longer participate in an exchange requiring acrobatics of self-denial.

In the context of tragedy, all polite behavior is self-denial.

Real Christians accept suffering as a normal part of following Christ, just as mothers accept labor as a normal part of delivering a baby. "No pain, no gain" applies to world evangelism as well as exercise programs! Until we can accept suffering, sacrifice and self-denial as routine and normal, we will never see the Great Commission fulfilled in our generation.

it is self-denial and abstinence that maim and deform the soul.

Though lip service is paid to the gospel of grace, many Christians live as if only personal discipline and self-denial will mold the perfect me. The emphasis is on what I do rather than on what God is doing. In this curious process God is a benign old spectator in the bleachers who cheers when I show up for morning quiet time.

True admiration," said Mrs. Keith, "is one half respect and the other half self-denial.

But all the things that God would have us do are hard for us to do -- remember that -- and hence, he oftener commands us than endeavors to persuade. And if we obey God, we must disobey ourselves; and it is in this disobeying ourselves, wherein the hardness of obeying God consists.

Concerning the harsh treatment of the body for our Lord's sake, I would say, avoid anything that would cause the shedding even of a drop of blood.

Protect me from what I want.

To sum it up: Discipline + Self-denial = Cents for the Kingdom!

Humans are born with awareness; we are born to perceive the truth, but we accumulate knowledge, and we learn to deny what we perceive. We practice not being aware, and we master not being aware.

If anything like this is true, then we would be denied even our self-congratulatory distinction of being the only animal that makes self-congratulatory distinctions.

Morality, Schlick was convinced, is not tied to self-denial: "It does not come dressed in a nun's habit." Quite the contrary: "Moral behavior springs from pleasure and pain; if one acts nobly, it is because one enjoys doing so…. Values are not dictated from above, but lie within; it is human nature to be good.

There are the those whose own vulgar normality is so apparent and stultifying that they strive to escape it. They affect flamboyant behaviour and claim originality according to the fashionable eccentricities of their time. They claim brains or talent or indifference to mores in desperate attempts to deny their own mediocrity.

Virtue, though often mocked and ridiculed, is as beautiful as wickedness is ugly. Self-denial curiously spawns joyful happiness, while selfishness and arrogance produce desperation and obsession. Being faithful to duty brings great fulfillment, while following unchecked passions eventually leads us to despise ourselves. And the greatest truth of all: There is no higher end, no more glorious life, no better aim, than to live in the fear and favor of Almighty God.

Christian marriage is marked by discipline and self-denial . . . Christianity does not therefore depreciate marriage; it sanctifies it."5

It is in these dark, intense, and lonely times that ascetics' souls awaken. I think that anyone who has been stretched in ministry knows that the real battle was fought at Gethsemane, not Calvary. To be sure, only Calvary provided payment for our sins and thus was absolutely necessary, but Gethsemane was the real spiritual battleground where Jesus made the final decision to be obedient. In a wrenching, courageous act of self-denial, Jesus proved the mettle of his faith.

In the beginning of the spiritual life, we ought to be faithful in doing our duty and denying ourselves. After that, unspeakable pleasures followed. In difficulties we only need to turn to Jesus Christ and beg His grace, and then everything became easy.

if we obey God, we must disobey ourselves; and it is in this disobeying ourselves, wherein the hardness of obeying God consists.