Quotes about Restraint

Under the Constitution, our government follows the model set out by Thomas Jefferson: "A wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned.

Just because something is good doesn't mean we should pursue it right now.

John Calvin wrote, "The evil in our desire typically does not lie in what we want, but in that we want it too much.

You cannot pray for someone and hate them at the same time. Even if you are asking God to restrain their evil actions, you should also be praying that He will change their hearts. Only eternity will reveal the impact of our prayers for others.

God does not discipline us to subdue us but to condition us for a life of usefulness and blessedness. In His wisdom, He knows that an uncontrolled life is an unhappy life, so He puts reins on our wayward souls that they may be directed into the paths of righteousness.

It has always been a mark of decaying civilizations to become obsessed with sex. When people lose their way, their purpose, their will, and their goals, as well as their faith . . . they go "a whoring." It is a form of diversion that requires no thought, no character, and no restraint.

Once it was necessary that the people should multiply and be fruitful if the race was to survive. But now to preserve the race it is necessary that people hold back the power of propagation.

To many, total abstinence is easier than perfect moderation.

Complete abstinence is easier than perfect moderation.

So if you can manage it, you shouldn't touch your partner, except for the sake of having children.

Nevertheless, they who restrain baser lusts, not by the power of the Holy Spirit obtained by the faith of piety, or by the love of intelligible beauty, but by desire of human praise, or, at all events, restrain them better by the love of such praise, are not indeed yet holy, but only less base.

But I am unwilling to utter all that may occur to those who think of it, yet cannot be spoken without irreverence.