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Self-Discipline
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“Self-restraint may be alien to the human temperament, but humanity without restraint will dig its own grave.”
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“Getting to know ourselves and learning to control ourselves are the two great tasks of life. Don't make up strange and exotic 'penances.' Simply say no to yourself once a day, and you will be on the road to sanctity for the rest of your life.”
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“Nothing ever really sets human nature free, but self-control.”
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“I am not impressed by external devices for the preservation of virtue in men or women. Marriage laws, the police, armies and navies are the mark of human incompetence.”
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“... when I have jobs I dread, I am for takin' 'em by the forelock and grapplin' with 'em at once.”
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“The business of self-command she settled very easily; — with strong affections it was impossible, with calm ones it could have no merit.”
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“As far as your self-control goes, as far goes your freedom.”
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“It is hard work to control the workings of inclination and turn the bent of nature; but that it may be done, I know from experience. God has given us, in a measure, the power to make our own fate.”
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“Laws and principles are not for the times when there is no temptation: they are for such moments as this, when body and soul rise in mutiny against their rigor; stringent are they; inviolate they shall be. If at my individual convenience I might break them, what would be their worth?”
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“I try to teach my heart to want nothing it can't have.”
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“Remember that you will never reach a higher standard than you yourself set. Then set your mark high, and step by step, even though it be by painful effort, by self-denial and sacrifice, ascend the whole length of the ladder of progress.”
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“I did and still do find a serious error in the emphasis of spiritual masters and hagiographers of all faiths on self-denial and austerity as an end in itself, instead of a means. L'art pour l'art. We must do the good because it is good, not because it is difficult.”
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“Many thrive on frugal fare / Who would perish of excess.”
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“If you don't control your self, some one or thing else will.”
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“My whole theory for the improvement of society is based on a belief in the discipline and the education of the individual to self-control and right doing, for the sake of right doing. I have never seen fundamental improvements imposed from the top by ordinances and laws.”
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“I find that self-denial is painful for a moment, but very agreeable in the end.”
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“You have control over three things — what you think, what you say, and how you behave. To make a change in your life, you must recognize that these gifts are the most powerful tools you possess in shaping the form of your life.”
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“The mind's health, as well as the body's, is promoted by occasional privation or abstinence.”
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“O blessed poverty, who bestows eternal riches on those who love and embrace her!”
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“... until you are master over the earth and air and water and fire in yourself, how can you be master of the elements of Nature?”
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“People who keep stiff upper lips find that it's damn hard to smile.”
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“If you can't control yourself, you'll never control a situation.”
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“The success of life, the formation of character, is in proportion to the courage one has to say to one's ownself: 'Thou shalt not.'”
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“The poorest education that teaches self-control is better than the best that neglects it.”
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“... self-control, in every station and to every individual, is indispensable, if people would retain that equanimity of mind, which, depending on self-respect, is the essential of contentment and happiness.”
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“... self-control ... is a thing one can best achieve alone ...”