Great Throughts Treasury

This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.

Self-control

"Self-control and understanding, righteousness and courage, there is nothing in life more profitable than these." - Apocrypha NULL

"The greatest of virtues, self-control." - Apocrypha NULL

"The essence of all education is self-discovery and self-control. When education helps an individual to discover his own powers and limitations and, shows him how to get out of his heredity its largest and best possibilities, it will fulfill its real function, when children are taught not merely to know things but particularly to know themselves, not merely how to do things but especially how to compel themselves to do things, they may be said to be really educated. For this sort of education there is demanded rigorous discipline of the powers of observation, of the reason, and especially of the will." - William Congreve

"The perfection of virtue is from... long art and management, self-control." - Lord Shaftesbury, Anthony Ashley Cooper, 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury

"Self-control is promoted by humility. Pride is a fruitful source of uneasiness. It keeps the mind in disquiet. Humility is the antidote to this evil." - Lydia Sigourney, fully Lydia Huntley Sigourney, née Lydia Howard Huntley

"Educate your children of self-control, to the habit of holding passion and prejudice and evil tendencies subject to an upright and reasoning will, and you have done much to abolish misery from their future lives and crimes from society." - Daniel Webster

"Holding-in creates horrid poisons which wear us out before our time. There are more deaths caused by ingrown, suppurating self-control than the medical profession know of." - Robertson Davies

"Some wonder that children should be given to young mothers. But what instruction does the babe bring to the mother! She learns patience, self-control, endurance; her very arm grows strong so that she holds the dear burden longer than the father can." - Thomas Wentworth Higginson

"Thank God every morning when you get up that you have something to do which must be done, whether you like it or not. Being forced to work, or forced to do your best, will bred in you temperance, self-control, diligence, strength of will, content, and a hundred other virtues which the idle never know." - Charles Kingsley

"Aristocracies are infinitely more expert in the science of legislation than democracies ever can be. They are possessed of a self-control that protects them fro the errors of temporary excitement." - Alexis de Tocqueville, fully Alexis-Charles-Henri Clérel de Tocqueville

"Those two great medicines: Diet and Self-Control." - Max Bircher-Benner, fully Maximilian Oskar Bircher-Benner

"By thoughtfulness, by restraint and self-control, the wise man may make for himself an island which no flood can overwhelm." - Dhammapada NULL

"Freedom stretches as far as your self-control." -

"Peace is self-control at its widest - at the width where the “self” has been lost, and the interest has been transferred to coordinations wider than personality." - Alfred North Whitehead

"Self-reverence, self-knowledge, self-control. These three alone lead life to sovereign power." -

"Self-reverence, self-knowledge, self-control; these three alone lead to sovereign power." -

"The poorest education that teaches self-control, is better than the best that neglects it." - Author Unknown NULL

"I can foresee a day when education will routinely include inculcating essential human competencies such as self-awareness, self-control, and empathy, and the arts of listening, resolving conflicts, and cooperation." - Daniel Goleman

"The bedrock of character is self-discipline; the virtuous life, as philosophers since Aristotle have observed, is based on self-control." - Daniel Goleman

"Alcohol produces artificial happiness, artificial courage, artificial gaiety, artificial self-satisfaction, thus making life bearable for millions who would otherwise be unable to endure their condition. To them alcohol is a blessing. Unfortunately, as it acts by destroying conscience, self-control, and the normal functioning of the body, it produces crime, disease and degradation." - George Bernard Shaw

"Calmness of mind is one of the beautiful jewels of wisdom. It is the result of long and patient effort in self-control. Its presence is an indication of ripened experience and of an extraordinary knowledge of the laws and operations of thought." - James Allen

"Calmness of mind is one of the beautiful jewels of wisdom. It is the result of long and patient effort in self-control. Its presence is an indication of ripened experience and of a more than ordinary knowledge of the laws and operations of thought." -

"Everything morally right derives from one of four sources: it concerns either full perception or intelligent development of what is true; or the preservation of organized society, where every man is rendered his due and all his obligations are faithfully discharged; or the greatness and strength of a noble, invincible spirit; or order and moderation in everything said and done, whereby there is temperance and self-control." - Cicero, fully Marcus Tullius Cicero, anglicized as Tully NULL

"Personal health is preserved by learning about one’s own constitution, by finding out what is good or bad for oneself, by continual self-control in eating habits and comforts (but just to the extent needed for self-preservation), by forgoing sensual pleasures, and lastly, by the professional skill of those to whose science these matters belong." - Cicero, fully Marcus Tullius Cicero, anglicized as Tully NULL

"Self-control is not worth a farthing unless we build up a great self worth controlling." - Morris Raphael Cohen

"No matter what his present state, man can change for the better through self-control, discipline, and following proper diet and health laws. Why do you think you cannot change? Mental laziness is the secret cause of all weakness." - Paramahansa Yogananda, born Mukunda Lal Ghosh

"And if this is true, the inference clearly is that no man is voluntarily intermperate; but that the whole multitude of men lack temperance in their lives, either from ignorance, or from want of self-control, or both." - Plato NULL

"A man makes inferiors his superiors by heat; self-control is the rule." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

"A true teacher is always at home in the depths of the Self. He never sees a difference between himself and others, is never moved by false ideas or distinctions (for example, the idea tht he himself is an enlightened sage, that he has realized the truth and attained freedom, while the others around him pine away in bondage and ignorance). His courage and self-control are at times unshakable. No experience that he encounters can lead him astray." -

"By constant self-discipline and self-control you can develop greatness of character. " - Grenville Kleiser

"Very often in everyday life one sees that by losing one's temper with someone who has already lost his, one does not gain anything but only sets out upon the path of stupidity. He who has enough self-control to stand firm at the moment when the other person is in a temper, wins in the end. It is not he who has spoken a hundred words aloud who has won; it is he who has perhaps spoken only one word." - Hazrat Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan

"Industry, thrift, and self-control are not sought because they create wealth, but because they create character." - Calvin Coolidge, fully John Calvin Coolidge, Jr.

"Very often in everyday life one sees that by losing one's temper with someone who has already lost his, one does not gain anything but only sets out upon the path of stupidity. He who has enough self-control to stand firm at the moment when the other person is in a temper, wins in the end. It is not he who has spoken a hundred words aloud who has won; it is he who has perhaps spoken only one word. " - Inayat Khan, aka Hazrat Inayat Khan, fully Pir-O-Murshid Hazrat Inayat Khan

"Very often in everyday life one sees that by losing one's temper with someone who has already lost his, one does not gain anything but only sets out upon the path of stupidity. He who has enough self-control to stand firm at the moment when the other person is in a temper, wins in the end. It is not he who has spoken a hundred words aloud who has won; it is he who has perhaps spoken only one word." - Inayat Khan, aka Hazrat Inayat Khan, fully Pir-O-Murshid Hazrat Inayat Khan

"Every morning I wake up, give thanks to God, because you have something to do, whether you like the job it would not. Forced to work and the work will best preserve your modesty, self-control ability, diligence, persistence, satisfaction, and a hundred other virtues which are not known by people who are careless." - Charles Kingsley

"Let's get away from all the clever humans who put words in our mouth let's only say what our hearts desire." - Rumi, fully Jalāl ad-Dīn Muḥammad Rumi NULL

"One who chants the holy name of the Lord is immediately freed from the reactions of unlimited sins, even if he chants indirectly to indicate something else (sanketya), jokingly (parihasya), for musical entertainment (stobha), or even neglectfully (helana). This is accepted by all the learned scholars of the scriptures." - Shrimad Bhagavatam, or the Bhâgavata Purâna, Śrīmad Bhāgavatam, or Bhāgavata NULL

"What good would politics be, if it didn’t give everyone the opportunity to make moral compromises." - Thomas Mann, fully Paul Thomas Mann

"One of our greatest enemies is secret resentment. Freedom begins as we become conscious of it." - Vernon Howard, fully Vernon Linwood Howard

"O Lord! May our ears listen to nothing but auspicious words, may our eyes see nothing but auspicious things; may we have healthy bodies and be blessed with long life." - Rig Veda, or The Rigveda