Quotes about Restraint

We are wise to use moderation in all things, meaning to allow ourselves just enough but not too much of anything. This helps us live balanced lives and keeps the doors of our lives closed to the enemy.

If I prove extravagant, I shall be more so from ignorance than willfulness. I am not wholly insensible to the pleasures of the world, therefore shall not be governed entirely by necessity; but I flatter myself, at least, in being able to restrain their gratification within due bonds.

Our Constitution, by its separation of powers and its system of checks and balances, acts as a restraint upon efficiency by denying exclusive power to any branch of government. The logic of governmental efficiency, unchecked, runs straight on, not only to dictatorship, but also to torture, assassination, and other abominations.

An act of terrorism totally outside the bounds of international law and diplomatic tradition. ... a crisis that calls for firmness and restraint.

Personal liberty is not personal license.

My mother, who grew up in Pennsylvania, literally washed my mouth out with soap once for saying, 'Shut up!' to my sister. She would have washed my mouth out with gasoline if she knew how foul my mouth was racially when she wasn't around.

Prison is essentially a shortage of space made up for by a surplus of time; to an inmate, both are palpable.

Young man, the secret of my success is that an early age I discovered that I was not God.

The superior man limits his achievements.

It's the wise man who stays home when he's drunk.

A man who wants to control his animal passions easily does so if he controls his palate.

There are men steady and wise whose body, words and mind are self-controlled. They are the men of supreme self-control.