Quotes about Moderation

Hence while in respect of its substance and the definition that states what it really is in essence virtue is the observance of the mean, in point of excellence and rightness it is an extreme.

There is no such thing as observing a mean in excess or deficiency, nor as exceeding or falling short in observance of a mean.

Neither should we forget the mean, which at the present day is lost sight of in perverted forms of government; for many practices which appear to be democratical are the ruin of democracies, and many which appear to be oligarchical are the ruin of oligarchies. Those who think that all virtue is to be found in their own party principles push matters to extremes; they do not consider that disproportion destroys a state.

Virtue is a mean between two vices, that which depends on excess and that which depends on defect.

Praising the lean and sallow abstinence.

Our danger is not from scarcity, but from abundance. We are constantly tempted to excess.

Appetite must not be your god.

I never smoke to excess - that is, I smoke in moderation, only one cigar at a time.

The perfection of wisdom, and the end of true philosophy is to proportion our wants to our possessions, our ambitions to our capacities, we will then be a happy and a virtuous people.

All diets are wholesome. Some are wholesomer than others, but all the ordinary diets are wholesome enough for the people who use them. Whether the food be fine or coarse it will taste good and it will nourish if a watch be kept upon the appetite and a little starvation introduced every time it weakens.

When you are right, you cannot be too radical; When you are wrong, you cannot be too conservative.

Nothing is enough to the man for whom enough is too little.