A person without self-control is like a breached city, one with no walls.—Proverbs 25:28 CEB
The Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love, and self-discipline.—2 Timothy 1:7 NIV
Self-control is the ability to keep cool while someone is making it hot for you.—Unknown
If you would learn self-mastery, begin by yielding yourself to the One Great Master.—Johann Friederich Lobstein (1736–1784)
Conquer yourself. Till you have done this, you are but a slave; for it is almost as well to be subjected to another’s appetite as to your own.—Richard Burton (1861–1940)
For want of self-restraint many men are engaged all their lives in fighting with difficulties of their own making and rendering success impossible by their own cross-grained ungentleness; whilst others, it may be much less gifted, make their way and achieve success by simple patience, equanimity, and self-control.—Samuel Smiles (1812–1904)
To rule self and subdue our passions is the more praiseworthy, because so few know how to do it.—Francesco Guiccardini (1483–1540)
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 (1533–1592)
Every temptation that is resisted, every noble aspiration that is encouraged, every sinful thought that is repressed, every bitter word that is withheld, adds its little item to the impetus of that great movement which is bearing humanity onward toward a richer life and higher character.—John Fiske (1842–1901)
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)
Over the times you have no power.—To redeem a world sunk in dishonesty has not been given to you. Solely over one man do you have quite absolute, uncontrollable power.—Him redeem and make honest.—Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881)
A silly idea is current that good people do not know what temptation means. This is an obvious lie. Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is. … A man who gives in to temptation after five minutes simply does not know what it would have been like an hour later. That is why bad people, in one sense, know very little about badness. They have lived a sheltered life by always giving in.—C.S. Lewis (1898–1963)
Educate your children to self-control, to the habit of holding passion and prejudice and evil tendencies to an upright and reasoning will, and you have done much to abolish misery from their future lives and crimes to society.—Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790)
Self-discipline 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)
I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who conquers his enemies; for the hardest victory is over self.—Aristotle (384 BC–322 BC)
To enjoy freedom we have to control ourselves.—Virginia Woolf (1882–1941)
Self-control is a key factor in achieving success. We can’t control everything in life, but we can definitely control ourselves.―Jan Mckingley Hilado (b. 1991)
We are never going to enjoy stability, we are never going to enjoy spiritual maturity until we learn how to do what’s right when it feels wrong, and every time you do what’s right by a decision of your will using discipline and self control to go beyond how you feel, the more painful it is in your flesh, the more you’re growing spiritually at that particular moment.—Joyce Meyer (b. 1943)
Hold yourself responsible for a higher standard than anybody else expects of you. Never excuse yourself. Never pity yourself. Be a hard master to yourself-and be lenient to everybody else.—Henry Ward Beecher (1813–1887)
Most powerful is he who has himself in his own power.—Seneca (4 BC–AD 65)
If a man will understand how intimately, yea, how inseparably, self-control and happiness are associated, he has but to look into his own heart, and upon the world around. … Looking upon the lives of men and women, he will perceive how the hasty word, the bitter retort, the act of deception, the blind prejudice, and foolish resentment bring wretchedness and even ruin in their train.—James Allen (1855–1942)