Restraint Quotes

• Sometimes our power resides not in what we do, but in what we don't do.

  Paulo Coelho

  Sometimes

  FaceBook post by Paulo Coelho from Oct 15, 2011

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• When restraint and courtesy are added to strength, the latter becomes irresistible.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Strength, Don't Give Up, Courtesy

  Mahatma Gandhi (1947). “Teachings of Mahatma Gandhi”

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• Destructive thoughts and emotions undermine the very causes of peace and happiness. If you think clearly about it, it makes no sense to think you’re seeking happiness, if you do nothing to restrain angry, spiteful, and malicious thoughts and emotions.

  Dalai Lama

  Thinking, Causes, Emotion

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• There is always a limit to self-indulgence, but none to self-restraint.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Inspirational, Self, Limits

  Mahatma Gandhi (1928). “Young India”

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• Self-disciplined 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

  Motivational, Change, Bad Ass

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• Restraint never ruins one's health.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Ruins

  Mahatma Gandhi (2011). “The Way to God: Selected Writings from Mahatma Gandhi”, p.36, North Atlantic Books

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• The deepest feeling always shows itself in silence.

  Marianne Moore

  Silence, Feelings, Shows

  Marianne Moore (2016). “Observations: Poems”, p.14, Macmillan

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• Absolute liberty is absence of restraint; responsibility is restraint; therefore, the ideally free individual is responsible to himself.

  Henry Adams

  Responsibility, Liberty, Ignoring Facts

  Henry Adams (1986). “Mont-Saint-Michel and Chartres”, p.30, Penguin

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• Freedom without virtue is not freedom but license to pursue whatever passions prevail in the intemperate mind; man's right to freedom being in exact proportion to his willingness to put chains upon his own appetites; the less restraint from within, the more must be imposed from without.

  Edmund Burke

  Passion, Men, Mind

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• Restraint and discipline and examples of virtue and justice. These are the things that form the education of the world.

  Edmund Burke

  Discipline, Justice, Example

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

  James Russell Lowell

  Power, Self, Clear

  James Russell Lowell (1891). “The Poetical Works of James Russell Lowell”

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• An element of abstention, of restraint, must enter into all finer joys.

  Vida Dutton Scudder

  Motivational, Joy, Self Control

  Vida Dutton Scudder (1939). “The privilege of age: essays secular and spiritual”

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• I look forward to a great future for America - a future in which our country will match its military strength with our moral restraint, its wealth with our wisdom, its power with our purpose.

  John F. Kennedy

  Strength, Country, Military

  Kennedy, John F. (1964). “Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: John F. Kennedy, 1963”, p.817, Best Books on

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• He that would govern others, first should be the master of himself.

  Philip Massinger

  Success, War, Positivity

  1623 The Bondman, act1, sc.3.

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• 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.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Inspirational, Funny, Power

  Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Rabindranath Tagore (1968). “Wit and Wisdom of Gandhi, Nehru, Tagore: Being a Treasury of Over Ten Thousand Invaluable and Inspiring Thoughts, Views, and Obervations on about Eight Hundred Subjects of Popular Interest, Collected from the Speeches and Writings of These Three Great Leaders of Modern India”

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• Just because you can do something, it doesn't mean you need to - restraint is something I admire. At the end of the day, it is still a battle between good vs. crap.

  David Droga

  Creativity, Mean, The End Of The Day

  "Best bits: live chat with David Droga - when strategy and creativity collide". Live chat, www.theguardian.com. April 17, 2012.

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• Of all manifestations of power, restraint impresses men most.

  Thucydides

  Patience, Men, Politics

  Thucydides (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Thucydides (Illustrated)”, p.2245, Delphi Classics

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• Can a free people restrain crime without sacrificing fundamental liberties and a heritage of compassion?... Let us show that we can temper together those opposite elements of liberty and restraint into one consistent whole. Let us set an example for the world of a law-abiding America glorying in its freedom as well as its respect for law.

  Gerald R. Ford

  Freedom, Sacrifice, Compassion

  Gerald R. Ford's Address at Yale Law School's 150th anniversary, www.presidency.ucsb.edu. April 25, 1975.

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• But what is liberty without wisdom, and without virtue? It is the greatest of all possible evils; for it is folly, vice, and madness, without tuition or restraint.

  Edmund Burke

  Wisdom, Evil, Liberty

  Edmund Burke (2005). “Burke, Select Works”, The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd.

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• The best executive is one who has sense enough to pick good people to do what he wants done, and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they do it.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Inspirational, Relationship, Leadership

  Theodore Roosevelt (2015). “Theodore Roosevelt on Bravery: Lessons from the Most Courageous Leader of the Twentieth Century”, p.75, Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

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• A majority held in restraint by constitutional checks and limitations...is the only true sovereign of a free people. Whoever rejects it does of necessity fly to anarchy or to despotism.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Law, People, Majority

  First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1861.

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• He who controls others may be powerful, but he who has mastered himself is mightier still.

  Laozi

  Positive, Encouragement, Powerful

  Laozi, Archie J. Bahm (1996). “Tao Teh King”, p.36, Jain Publishing Company

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• We shall listen, not lecture; learn, not threaten. We will enhance our safety by earning the respect of others and showing respect for them. In short, our foreign policy will rest on the traditional American values of restraint and empathy, not on military might.

  Theodore C. Sorensen

  Respect, Military, Safety

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• Restraint does not mean weakness. It does not mean giving in.

  Jawaharlal Nehru

  Mean, Giving, Weakness

  Jawaharlal Nehru (1968). “Glorious thoughts of Nehru: being a treasury of over twelve thousand invaluable and inspiring thoughts, views and observations of Jawaharlal Nehru, collected from his writings and speeches and classified under four hundred subjects”

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• In itself, homosexuality is as limiting as heterosexuality: the ideal should be to be capable of loving a woman or a man; either, a human being, without feeling fear, restraint, or obligation.

  Simone de Beauvoir

  Gay, Men, Heterosexuality Is

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