Self Control Quotes

I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who conquers his enemies, for the hardest victory is the victory over self.

Aristotle

Having first laid down self-control as a foundation for the soul, they build the other virtues on it.

Philo

Eating constitutes the greatest obstacle to self-control.

Mahavira

We sometimes do certain things because we see ourselves as the kind of person who does that sort of thing, and we resist doing other things because we’re “not that kind of person’.

Mark Leary

If you don’t control your emotions, your emotions will control your acts, and that’s not good.

Mariana Rivera

There has never been, and cannot be, a good life without self-control.

Leo Tolstoy

The man who has daily inured himself to habits of concentrated attention, energetic volition, and self-denial in unnecessary things. He will stand like a tower when everything rocks around him, and his softer fellow-mortals are winnowed like chaff in the blast.

William James

Deadlines are my spine.

John Leonard

Your future self will thank you.

I don’t call things Pleasures which Men say are best, but such as they seem to be most pleased with; how can I believe that a Man’s chief delight is in the Embellishments of the Mind, when I see him ever employ’d about and daily pursue the Pleasures that are contrary to them.

Bernard de Mandeville

We have a power to suspend the prosecution of this or that desire; as everyone may daily experiment in himself. This seems to me the source of all liberty.

John Locke

Self-discipline is about controlling your desires and impulses while staying focused on what needs to get done to achieve your goal.

Adam Sicinski

Strength of character consists of two things – power of will and power of self-control.

Ellen G White

True discipline achieves a balance of producing, but not pushing; of diligence, not driving. Even discipline needs to be disciplined.

We must make automatic and habitual, as early as possible, as many useful actions as we can, and guard against the growing into ways that are likely to be disadvantageous to us, as we should guard against the plague.

William James

Life is not made by the dreams you dream, but by the choices that you make.

Be self-disciplined. This means finding someone wise or smart and choosing to follow them. To be disciplined is to follow in a good way. To be self-disciplined is to follow in a better way

Corita Kent

Self command is the main elegance.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Self-control refers to the alignment of thoughts, feelings, and actions with enduringly valued goals in the face of momentarily more alluring alternatives.

Angela Duckworth

What is needed, however, isn't just that people working together be nice to each other. It is discipline.

Discipline is hard--harder than trustworthiness and skill and perhaps even than selflessness. We are by nature flawed and inconstant creatures. We can't even keep from snacking between meals. We are not built for discipline. We are built for novelty and excitement, not for careful attention to detail. Discipline is something we have to work at.

Atul Gawande

Self-control is strength, right thought is mastery, calmness is power.

James Allen

It isn’t suffering that leads to hopelessness. It’s suffering you think you can’t control.

Angela Duckworth

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

Grenville Kleiser

Motivation gets you going, but discipline keeps you growing.

John C Maxwell

Small disciplines repeated with consistency every day lead to great achievements gained slowly over time.

John C Maxwell

It is not enough to have great qualities; We should also have the management of them.

La Rochefoucauld

The more disciplined you become, the easier life gets.

Steve Pavlina

What we do upon some great occasion will probably depend on what we already are: and what we are will be the result of previous years of self-discipline.

H P Liddon

We all have dreams. But in order to make dreams come into reality, it takes an awful lot of determination, dedication, self-discipline, and effort.

Jesse Owens

We don’t have to be smarter than the rest; we have to be more disciplined than the rest.

Warren Buffett

That aim in life is highest which requires the highest and finest discipline.

Thoreau

Discipline yourself to do the things you need to do when you need to do them, and the day will come when you will be able to do the things you want to do when you want to do them.

Zig Ziglar

Mental toughness is many things and rather difficult to explain. Its qualities are sacrifice and self-denial. Also, most importantly, it is combined with a perfectly disciplined will that refuses to give in. It’s a state of mind-you could call it character in action.

Vince Lombardi

One painful duty fulfilled makes the next plainer and easier.

Hellen Keller

Self-respect is the fruit of discipline; the sense of dignity grows with the ability to say no to oneself.

Abraham J Heschel

Do not consider painful what is good for you.

Euripides

You will never have a greater or lesser dominion than that over yourself…the height of a man’s success is gauged by his self-mastery; the depth of his failure by his self-abandonment. And this law is the expression of eternal justice. He who cannot establish dominion over himself will have no dominion over others.

Leonardo da Vinci

The first and greatest victory is to conquer self.

Plato

The only discipline that lasts is self-discipline.

Bum Philips

With self-discipline, most anything is possible.

Theodore Roosevelt

Self-command is the main discipline.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.

1 Corinthians 9:27

The main factor behind success is self-control.

Rig Veda

God’s abounding love and presence in the heart will give the power of self-control and will mold and fashion the mind and character. The grace of Christ in the life will direct the aims and purposes and capabilities into channels that will give moral and spiritual power – power which the youth will not have to leave in this world, but which they can carry with them into the future life and retain through the eternal ages.

Ellen G White

Self-control – what lies in our power to do, it lies in our power not to do.

Aristotle

The power of self-restraint strengthens by exercise. That which at first seems difficult, by constant repetition grows easy, until right thoughts and actions become habitual.

Ellen G White

An urge is an alert (not a command). You get to decide whether to put a space between wanting to do something and actually doing it.

Shahroo Izadi

Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.

Victor Frankl

All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.

1 Corinthians 6:12

Tis easier to suppress the first desire, than to satisfy all that follow it.

Benjamin Franklin

Vincit omnia qui se vincit = He who conquers himself conquers all.

The spirit that is kept gentle under provocation will speak more effectively in favour of the truth than will any argument, however forcible.

Ellen G White

Seek freedom and become captive of your desires. Seek discipline and find your liberty.

Frank Herbert

It is not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves.

Edmund Hilary

No man is free who cannot command himself.

Pythagoras

Those who can command themselves command others.

Hazlitt

The command of one’s self is the greatest empire a man can aspire unto, and consequently to be subject to our passions the most grievous slavery.

Drexelius

They conquer self who believe they can.

Herle

But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's meat, nor with the wine which he drank.

Daniel 1:8

He who conquers self overcomes the greatest difficulty of life.

Annie E Lancaster

The greatest hero is not he who subdues nations, but he who conquers himself.

J Jeffrey

Conquer thyself; till thou hast done that thou art a slave; for it is almost as well for thee to be in subjection to another’s appetite as thy own.

R Burton

Self-control lies at the bottom of all government.

E Eggleston

Would you control others? Learn first to control yourself.

P C Baker

Self-control and self-discipline are the beginnings of practical wisdom; and these must have their root in self-respect. Hope springs from it – hope which is the companion of power, and the mother of success; for whoso hopes strongly has within him the gift of miracles.

Samuel Smiles

Self-denial is the best riches.

Seneca

Self-denial is the hardest lesson in life.

Nyssen

Self-denial is the most exalted pleasure.

Austen

He who reigns within himself, and rules passions, desires, and fears, is more than a king.

John Milton

If you do not conquer self, you will be conquered by self.

Napoleon Hill

With a noble object in view, self-denial is sweet.

C Billings Smith

Self-denial is a virtue of the highest quality, and he who has it not, and does not strive to acquire it, will never excel in anything.

Bishop Conybeare

Self-denial, however distressing for the present, will eventually produce more lasting pleasure than unwise, unworthy and criminal gratifications.

E Rich

Every act of self-denial will bring its own reward with it, and make the next step in duty and in virtue easier and more pleasant than the former.

Martha L Ramsey

Teach self-denial, and make its practice pleasurable, and you create for the world a destiny more sublime than ever issued from the brain of the wildest dreamer.

Sir W Scott

Self-denial does not belong to religion as characteristic of it; it belongs to human life; the lower nature must always be denied when you are trying to rise to a higher sphere.

H W Beecher

Self-government is the highest virtue.

Milton

He only is fit to govern others that can govern himself.

Solon

That is the best government that teaches us to govern ourselves.

Goethe

The great principle of self-government consists in calling ourselves to account, both for what we know, and what we do, and for the discipline which we exercise over the processes of our minds.

Abercrombie

True self-control is not about bringing our selves under our own control, but under the power of Christ.

David Mathis

The first and best victory is to conquer self. To be conquered by self is, of all things, the most shameful and objectionable.

Plato

We improve ourselves by victories over ourselves.

Edward Gibbon

I will be calm. I will be mistress of myself.

Jane Austen

Self-control is the chief element in self-respect, and self-respect is the chief element in courage.

Thucydides

Educate your children to 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 and crimes from society.

Benjamin Franklin

Such power there is in clear-eyed self-restraint.

James Russell Lowell

Prudent, cautious self-control, is wisdom’s root.

Robert Burns

No man is fit to command another that cannot command himself.

William Penn

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 Gandhi

A little kingdom I possess, where thoughts and feelings dwell; And very hard the task I find of governing it well.

Louisa May Alcott

Such power there is in clear-eyed self-restraint.

James Russell Lowell

Prudent, cautious self-control, is wisdom’s root.

Robert Burns