Restraint Quotes - Page 16

• The power of the Web is obvious and undeniable. We diminish it at our peril. But what if the most potent social effect to spread outward from the Internet turns out to be disinhibition, the breaking down of personal restraints and the endless elevation of oneself? It may be already.

  Daniel Henninger

  What If, May, Internet

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• I am a soldier and accustomed to risking my life every day. I am full of the fire of youth; I cannot act with the restraint of an accomplished diplomat.

  Napoleon Bonaparte

  Fire, Soldier, Diplomats

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• Human rights and international criminal law both illustrate the contradictory potential of international law. On one level, the imposition of human rights norms is a restraint on interventionary diplomacy, especially if coupled with respect for the legal norm of self-determination. But on another level, the protection of human rights creates a pretext for intervention as given approval by the UN Security Council in the form of the R2P (responsibility to protect) norm, as used in the 2011 Libyan intervention. The same applies with international criminal accountability.

  Richard A. Falk

  Determination, Responsibility, Self

  Source: www.counterpunch.org

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• I think that mass communications as well as mass travel have made the whole world available to us in ways that they haven't been. As with any kind of freedom, the more of it that one has the greater the need for limit and restraint. But I think that it's a nice challenge to be saddled with.

  Pico Iyer

  Nice, Communication, Thinking

  Source: scottlondon.com

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• When indeed Religion is kindled into enthusiasm, its force like that of other passions is increased by the sympathy of a multitude. But enthusiasm is only a temporary state of Religion, and whilst it lasts will hardly be seen with pleasure at the helm. Even in its coolest state, it has been much oftener a motive to oppression than a restraint from it.

  James Madison

  Passion, Religion, Atheism

  James Madison, Ralph Ketcham “Selected Writings of James Madison”, Hackett Publishing

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• The early American knew that freedom was nothing more than the absence of external restraint on behavior; the government could not give you freedom, it could only take it away.

  Frank Chodorov

  Government, Giving, Liberty

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• Constitutions are checks upon the hasty action of the majority. They are the self-imposed restraints of a whole people upon a majority of them to secure sober action and a respect for the rights of the minority.

  William Howard Taft

  Rights, Self, People

  William Howard Taft, David Henry Burton (2002). “The Collected Works of William Howard Taft: Presidential messages to Congress”

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• I emphasize the reply that the liberty which a citizen enjoys is to be measured, not by the nature of the governmental machinery he lives under, whether representative or other, but by the relative paucity of the restraints it imposes on him.

  Herbert Spencer

  Liberty, Citizens, Libertarian

  "The man versus the state: with six essays on government, society, and freedom".

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• None of us like the concept of law because none of us like the restraints it puts on us. But when we understand that God has given us his law to aid us in guarding our souls, we see that the law is for our fulfillment, not for our limitation. The law reminds us that some things, some experiences, some relationships are sacred. When everything has been profaned, it is not just my freedom that has been lost- the loss is everyone's. God gave us the law to remind us of the sacredness of life, and our created legal systems only serve to remind us of the profane judgments we make.

  Ravi Zacharias

  Loss, Law, Soul

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• From a comparative perspective, the United States is unusual if not unique in the lack of restraints on freedom of expression. It is also unusual in the range and effectiveness of methods employed to restrain freedom of thought... Where the voice of the people is heard, elite groups must insure their voice says the right things.

  Noam Chomsky

  Unique, Expression, Voice

  "Though Control in the USA: The Case of the Middle East". "Index on Censorship" Magazine, July/August 1986.

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• We come to recognize that playfulness, as a philosophical stance, can be very serious indeed; and moreover, that it possesses an unfailing capacity to arouse ridicule and hostility in those among us who crave certainty, reverence, and restraint.

  Friedrich Nietzsche

  Fun, Philosophical, Serious

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• We can afford to exercise the self-restraint of a really great nation which realizes its own strength and scorns to misuse it.

  Woodrow Wilson

  Exercise, Self, Realizing

  Woodrow Wilson, Mario R. DiNunzio (2006). “Woodrow Wilson: Essential Writings and Speeches of the Scholar-president”, p.385, NYU Press

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• Well aware that the opinions and belief of men depend not on their own will, but follow involuntarily the evidence proposed to their minds; that Almighty God hath created the mind free, and manifested his supreme will that free it shall remain by making it altogether insusceptible of restraint; that all attempts to influence it by temporal punishments, or burthens, or by civil incapacitations, tend only to beget habits of hypocrisy and meanness, and are a departure from the plan of the holy author of our religion.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Religious, Men, Hypocrisy

  Thomas Jefferson (2011). “Jefferson on Freedom: Wisdom, Advice, and Hints on Freedom, Democracy, and the American Way”, p.34, Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

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• As long as we observe love for others and respect for their rights and dignity in our daily lives, then whether we are learned or unlearned, whether we believe in the Buddha or God, follow some religion or none at all, as long as we have compassion for others and conduct ourselves with restraint out of a sense of responsibility, there is no doubt we will be happy.

  Dalai Lama

  Kindness, Believe, Responsibility

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• Whatever the occasion, do not neglect alcohol. No other refreshment will do. Yes, alcohol kills brain cells, but it's very selective. It only kills the brain cells that contain good sense, shame, embarrassment, and restraint.

  P. J. O'Rourke

  Funny, Humorous, Drinking

  P.J. O'Rourke (2015). “Thrown Under the Omnibus”, p.42, Atlantic Books Ltd

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• Liberty has restraints but no frontiers.

  David Lloyd George

  Freedom, Liberty, Frontiers

  International Liberal Conference, July 1928.

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• I was the last one to join the cast of the west Wing and when I started it was just a peripheral character - the focus was to be on the staff, not the First Family. When I did the pilot, my contract was for just three years and it was confined to maybe three or four episodes every season. The only restraint I had was that I could not play another President while the show was on the air. So, I kind of backed into one of the great events of my life and certainly my career.

  Martin Sheen

  Character, Focus, President

  Source: www.empireonline.com

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• The permaculture's whole principle of having to work with nature, rather than fight against it, is not just an ethical restraint. It's also about realizing you're not the one in control. Nature is not only a nurturer but also a great destroyer.

  David Holmgren

  Fighting, Realizing, Ethical

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

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• I still believe in the American Dream. I see it in terms of freedom, and a government that trusts its people to exercise freedom, that this is not a government that allows you to give, that allows you to explore, and doesn't dampen your own creativity - in the broadest sense - with a lot of dictums or dogmas or restraints. So, insofar as we can remain a free country that allows for the interplay of personal energies. I think this is still a country that is not only working towards a dream, but actually is the dream in action.

  John Updike

  Country, Dream, Believe

  Source: www.achievement.org

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• I am not haunted by memories of Vietnam. But I must admit I never thought we would again witness in my lifetime the specter of politicians picking targets and ruling out offensive measures in the absurd hope that the enemy would respond to our restraint by yielding to our demands.

  John McCain

  Memories, Enemy, Target

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• The absence of effective State, and, especially, national, restraint upon unfair money-getting has tended to create a small class of enormously wealthy and economically powerful men, whose chief object is to hold and increase their power. The prime need is to change the conditions which enable these men to accumulate power which is not for the general welfare that they should hold or exercise. We grudge no man a fortune which represents his own power and sagacity, when exercised with entire regard to the welfare of his fellows.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Powerful, Exercise, Men

  Theodore Roosevelt, Henry Cabot Lodge (2017). “The Complete Works of Theodore Roosevelt”, p.3154, Madison & Adams Press

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• Have you heard about the women who stabbed her husband 37 times? I admire her restraint.

  Roseanne Barr

  Husband, Admire, Heard

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• People whose lives are barren and insecure seem to show a greater willingness to obey than people who are self-sufficient and self-confident. To the frustrated, freedom from responsibility is more attractive than freedom from restraint.

  Eric Hoffer

  Responsibility, Insecure, Self

  ERIC HOFFER (1963). “THE TRUE BELIEVER”

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• [Industrialism's soon diminishing] capacity to supply human needs could be prevented if men exercised any restraint or foresight in their present frenzied exploitation.

  Bertrand Russell

  Men, Needs, Capacity

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• Our character is determined by what we do if every restraint were removed.

  Lettie Cowman

  Character, Determined, Ifs

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