The best time for you to hold your tongue is the time you feel you must say something or bust. – Billings, Josh
—Josh Billings (Henry Wheeler Shaw) (1818–85) American Humorist, Author, Lecturer
There’s only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that’s your own self. So you have to begin there, not outside, not on other people. That comes afterward, when you’ve worked on your own corner.
—Aldous Huxley (1894–1963) English Humanist, Pacifist, Essayist, Short Story Writer, Satirist
It is a man’s own mind, not his enemy or foe, that lures him to evil ways.
—Buddhist Teaching
The control centre of your life is your attitude.
—Anonymous
Abstainer: A weak person who yields to the temptation of denying himself a pleasure.
—Ambrose Bierce (1842–1913) American Short-story Writer, Journalist
You have to decide what your highest priorities are and have the courage—pleasantly, smilingly, nonapologetically—to say “no” to other things. And the way you do that is by having a bigger “yes” burning inside. The enemy of the “best” is often the “good”.
—Stephen Covey (1932–2012) American Self-help Author
He who cannot obey himself will be commanded. That is the nature of living creatures.
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German Philosopher, Scholar, Writer
Do you really think it is weakness that yields to temptation? I tell you that there are terrible temptations which it requires strength, strength and courage to yield to.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
I am always with myself and it is I who am my tormentor.
—Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910) Russian Novelist
The secret of success is learning how to use pain and pleasure instead of having pain and pleasure use you. If you do that, you’re in control of your life. If you don’t, life controls you.
—Tony Robbins (b.1960) American Self-Help Author, Entrepreneur
He who controls others may be powerful, but he who has mastered himself is mightier still.
—Laozi (fl.6th Century BCE) Chinese Philosopher, Sage
Heaven is on the other side of that feeling you get when you’re sitting on the couch and you get up and make a triple-decker sandwich. It’s on the other side of that, when you don’t make the sandwich. It’s about sacrifice…. It’s about giving up the things that basically keep you from feeling. That’s what I believe, anyway. I’m always asking, “What am I going to give up next?” Because I want to feel.
—Jim Carrey (b.1962) Canadian Actor, Comedian
Let not any one say that he cannot govern his passions, nor hinder them from breaking out and carrying him to action; for what he can do before a prince or a great man, he can do alone, or in the presence of God if he will.
—John Locke (1632–1704) English Philosopher, Physician
He that would be superior to external influences must first become superior to his own passions.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
I am, indeed, a king, because I know how to rule myself.
—Pietro Aretino (1492–1556) Italian Poet, Dramatist, Satirist
He that would govern others, first should be the master of himself, richly endued with depth of understanding and height of knowledge.
—Philip Massinger (1583–1640) English Playwright
Who to himself is law, no law doth need.
—George Chapman (c.1560–1634) English Poet, Playwright
Without discipline, there’s no life at all.
—Katharine Hepburn (1907–2003) American Actor, TV Personality
What makes resisting temptation difficult for many people is they don’t want to discourage it completely.
—Franklin P. Jones
Conquer thyself. Till thou has done this, thou art but a slave; for it is almost as well to be subjected to another’s appetite as to thine own.
—Robert Burton (1577–1640) English Scholar, Clergyman
Why are we so full of restraint? Why do we not give in all directions? Is it fear of losing ourselves? Until we do lose ourselves there is no hope of finding ourselves.
—Henry Miller (1891–1980) American Novelist
Concern should drive us into action and not into a depression. No man is free who cannot control himself.
—Karen Horney (1885–1952) German-born American Psychoanalyst
Ability is what you’re capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who conquers his enemies; the hardest victory is over self.
—Aristotle (384BCE–322BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Scholar
All men are tempted. There is no man that lives that can’t be broken down, provided it is the right temptation, put in the right spot.
—Henry Ward Beecher (1813–87) American Clergyman, Writer
There is a charm about the forbidden that makes it unspeakably desirable.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
The cyclone derives its powers from a calm center. So does a person.
—Norman Vincent Peale (1898–1993) American Clergyman, Self-Help Author
The constancy of sages is nothing but the art of locking up their agitation in their hearts.
—Francois de La Rochefoucauld (1613–80) French Writer
No one can make you jealous, angry, vengeful, or greedy—unless you let him.
—Napoleon Hill (1883–1970) American Author, Journalist, Attorney, Lecturer
I will not be a slave to myself, for it is a perpetual, a shameful, and the most heavy of all servitudes; and this end I may gain by moderate desires.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca) (c.4 BCE–65 CE) Roman Stoic Philosopher, Statesman, Tragedian
In the midst of movement and chaos, keep stillness inside of you.
—Deepak Chopra (b.1946) Indian-born American Physician, Public Speaker, Writer
The highest possible stage in moral culture is when we recognize that we ought to control our thoughts.
—Charles Darwin (1809–82) English Naturalist
Not to have control over the senses is like sailing in a rudderless ship, bound to break to pieces on coming in contact with the very first rock.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869–1948) Indian Hindu Political leader
Govern thyself then you will be able to govern the world.
—Unknown
No one who cannot master himself is worthy to rule, and only he can rule.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
But the bravest man amongst us is afraid of himself. The mutilation of the savage has its tragic survival in the self-denial that mars our lives. We are punished for our refusals. Every impulse that we strive to strangle broods in the mind and poisons us. The body sins once, and has done with its sin, for action is a mode of purification. Nothing remains then but the recollection of a pleasure, or the luxury of a regret. The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. Resist it, and your soul grows sick with longing for the things it has forbidden to itself, with desire for what its monstrous laws have made monstrous and unlawful. It has been said that the great events of the world take place in the brain. It is in the brain, and the brain only, that the great sins of the world take place also.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
A little kingdom I possess,
Where thoughts and feelings dwell;
And very hard the task I find
Of governing it well.
—Louisa May Alcott (1832–88) American Novelist
Do you want to know the man against whom you have most reason to guard yourself?. Your looking-glass will give you a very fair likeness of his face.
—Richard Whately (1787–1863) English Philosopher, Theologian
Self-disciplined begins with the mastery of your thoughts. If you don’t control what you think, you can’t control what you do. Simply, self-discipline enables you to think first and act afterward.
—Napoleon Hill (1883–1970) American Author, Journalist, Attorney, Lecturer
The most precious of all possessions, is power over ourselves; power to withstand trial, to bear suffering, to front danger; power over pleasure and pain; power to follow our convictions, however resisted by menace and scorn; the power of calm reliance in scenes of darkness and storms. He that has not a mastery over his inclinations; he that knows not how to resist the importunity of present pleasure or pain, for the sake of what reason tells him is fit to be done, wants the true principle of virtue and industry, and is in danger of never being good for anything.
—John Locke (1632–1704) English Philosopher, Physician
Being out of control is one of the worst feelings in the world, sometimes even worse than pain. It is its own kind of pain.
—Danzae Pace
One of the most important, but one of the most difficult things for a powerful mind is, to be its own master. A pond may lie quiet in a plain; but a lake wants mountains to compass and hold it in.
—Joseph Addison (1672–1719) English Essayist, Poet, Playwright, Politician
Conscience whispers, but interest screams aloud.
—Jean Antoine Petit-Senn (1792–1870) Swiss Poet
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 H. Sigourney (1791–1865) American Poetaster, Author
Speak when you are angry and you will make the best speech you will ever regret.
—Ambrose Bierce (1842–1913) American Short-story Writer, Journalist
When the fight begins within himself, a man’s worth something.
—Robert Browning (1812–89) English Poet
Self-determination is fine but needs to be tempered with self-control.
—Anonymous
What are numbers knit
By force or custom? Man who man would be,
Must rule the empire of himself; in it
Must be supreme, establishing his throne
On vanquished will, quelling the anarchy
Of hopes and fears, being himself alone.
—Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822) English Poet, Dramatist, Essayist, Novelist
When we direct our thoughts properly, we can control our emotions…
—W. Clement Stone (1902–2002) American Self-help Guru, Entrepreneur
He that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is broken down, and without walls.
—The Holy Bible Scripture in the Christian Faith
Not being able to govern events, I govern myself, and apply myself to them, if they will not apply themselves to me.
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–92) French Essayist