Restraint Quotes - Page 18

• If the general attitude of Canadians toward their mighty neighbor to the south could be distilled into a single phrase, that phrase would probably be "Oh, shut up." The Americans talked too much, mainly about themselves. Their torrid love affair with their own history and legend exceeded-painfully-the quasi-British Canadian idea of modesty and self-restraint. ... They were forever busting their buttons in spasms of insufferable yahoo pride or all too publicly agonizing over their crises.

  Bruce McCall

  Attitude, Pride, Ideas

  Bruce McCall (1999). “Thin Ice: Coming of Age in Canada”, Vintage

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• All life is an experiment. Place yourself in the middle of the stream of power and wisdom which animates all whom it floats, and you are without effort impelled to truth, to right and a perfect contentment. I wish to write such rhymes as shall not suggest a restraint, but contrariwise the wildest freedom. Immortality. I notice that as soon as writers broach this question they begin to quote. I hate quotation. Tell me what you know.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Hate, Writing, Perfect

  Journal, May 1849

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• In every age the church is threatened by heresy, and heresy is bound up in false doctrine. It is the desire of all heretics to minimize the importance of doctrine. When doctrine is minimized, heresy can exercise itself without restraint.

  R. C. Sproul

  Exercise, Age, Church

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• ....there are three prerequisites to going out into the world to walk for pleasure. One must have free time, a place to go, and a body unhindered by illness or social restraints.

  Rebecca Solnit

  Three, Going Out, World

  Rebecca Solnit (2001). “Wanderlust: A History of Walking”, p.178, Penguin

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• Birth-control through self-restraint is the most desirable, sensible and totally harmless method.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Self, Birth Control, Method

  Mahatma Gandhi (1947). “Self Restraint V. Self-indulgence”

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• The tendencies of the times favor the idea of self-government, and leave the individual, for all code, to the rewards and penalties of his own constitution, which work with more energy than we believe, whilst we depend on artificial restraints.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Believe, Government, Self

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1870). “The Prose Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson”, p.531, Рипол Классик

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• Children are wickeder than adults, they have no sense of restraint.

  Gregory Maguire

  Children, Adults

  Gregory Maguire (2013). “The Wicked Years Complete Collection: Wicked, Son of a Witch, A Lion Among Men, and Out of Oz”, p.56, Harper Collins

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• Religious liberty is about freedom of action in matters of religion generally, and the scope of that liberty is directly correlated to the civil restraints placed upon religious practice.

  Clarence Thomas

  Religious, Freedom, Practice

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• In the Heart's cavity, the sole Brahman as an ever-persisting 'I' shines direct in the form of the Self. Into the Heart enter thyself, with mind in search or in deeper plunge. Or by
  restraint of life-movement be firmly poised in the Self.

  Ramana Maharshi

  Heart, Self, Shining

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• Because by definition they lack any sense of mutuality or wholeness, our specializations subsist on conflict with one another. The rule is never to cooperate, but rather to follow one's own interest as far as possible. Checks and balances are all applied externally, by opposition, never by self-restraint. Labor, management, the military, the government, etc., never forbear until their excesses arouse enough opposition to force them to do so.

  Wendell Berry

  Military, Government, Self

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• We live in a very low state of the world, and pay unwilling tribute to government founded on force. There is not, among the most religious and instructed men of the most religious and civil nations, a reliance on the moral sentiment, and a sufficient belief in the unity of things to persuade them that society can be maintained without artificial restraints, as well as the solar system; or that the private citizen might be reasonable, and a good neighbor, without the hint of a jail or a confiscation.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Religious, Men, Jail

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2006). “Ralph Waldo Emerson: Selected Essays, Lectures and Poems”, p.265, Bantam Classics

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• There must be a law if there is to be liberty. Try to play a piano and you will run into laws as fixed as the decrees of the Medes and Persians. But through those statutes you reach the songs, drudgery leads to delight. The law of Christ brings the liberty of Christ. Keep His statutes, and they become songs. The other side of commandment is conquest. What seems restraint to the outsider means release to you.

  Adrian Rogers

  Running, Song, Mean

  Adrian Rogers (2002). “The Incredible Power of Kingdom Authority: Getting an Upper Hand on the Underworld”, p.17, B&H Publishing Group

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• ...let's talk about soccer scores. There are a few things that people all around the world need to admit to themselves. Trade restraints slow economic growth, the euro is not a reserve currency and scoreless sports ties are boring.

  P. J. O'Rourke

  Soccer, Sports, Ties

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• I am convinced that the majority of people to-day have good, generous feelings which they can never know, never experience, because of some fear, some repression. I do not believe that people would be villains, thieves, murderers and sexual criminals if they were freed from legal restraint.

  D. H. Lawrence

  Freedom, Believe, People

  D.H. Lawrence (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of D.H. Lawrence (Illustrated)”, p.9398, Delphi Classics

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• No man ever feels the restraint of law so long as he remains within the sphere of his liberty -- a sphere, by the way, always large enough for the full exercise of his powers and the supply of all his legitimate wants.

  J. G. Holland

  Exercise, Men, Law

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• A certain degree of ceremony is a necessary outwork of manners, as well as of religion; it keeps the forward and petulant at a proper distance, and is a very small restraint to the sensible and to the well-bred part of the world.

  Lord Chesterfield

  Distance, Degrees, World

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• One thinking it is right to speak all things, whether the word is fit for speech or unutterable.

  Sophocles

  Thinking, Speech, Speak

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• The Persians are called the French of the East; we will call the Arabs Oriental Italians. A gifted noble people; a people of wildstrong feelings, and of iron restraint over these: the characteristic of noblemindedness, of genius.

  Thomas Carlyle

  Iron, People, Feelings

  Thomas Carlyle (2016). “Heroes and Hero Worship: The Historian”, p.43, 北戴河出版

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• Why a tender curb upon the youthful burning boy?
  Why a little curtain of flesh on the bed of our desire?

  William Blake

  Boys, Desire, Bed

  William Blake, David Fuller (2000). “William Blake: Selected Poetry and Prose”, p.120, Pearson Education

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• The good diarist writes either for himself alone or for a posterity so distant that it can safely hear every secret and justly weigh every motive. For such an audience there is need neither of affectation nor of restraint. Sincerity is what they ask, detail, and volume; skill with the pen comes in conveniently, but brilliance is not necessary; genius is a hindrance even; and should you know your business and do it manfully, posterity will let you off mixing with great men, reporting famous affairs, or having lain with the first ladies in the land.

  Virginia Woolf

  Writing, Men, Land

  Virginia Woolf (1967). “Collected essays”

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• [Restraints on the press] in all ages, have debauched morals, depressed liberty, shackled religion, supported despotism, and deluged the scaffold with blood.

  James Madison

  Blood, Age, Liberty

  James Madison (1865). “Letters and other writings of James Madison”, p.512

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• Conservatives believe government's principal functions are the preservation of freedom and removal of restraints on the individual. Liberalism's ascent in the first two-thirds of this century reflected the new belief that government should also confer capacities on individuals. Liberalism's decline in the final third of this century has reflected doubts about whether government can be good at that, or whether government that is good at that is good for the nation's character.

  George Will

  Believe, Character, Government

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• The divine within you is stronger than anything that is without you. Therefore, be not afraid of anything. Rely on your own Inner Self, the Divinity within you. Tap the source through looking within. Improve yourself. Build your character. Purify the heart. Develop the divine virtues. Eradicate evil traits. Conquer all that is base in you. Endeavor to attain all that is worthy and noble. Make the lower nature the servant of the higher through discipline, Tapas, self-restraint and meditation. This is the beginning of your freedom.

  Sivananda

  Character, Heart, Self

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• Thus I alone, where all my freedom grew,
  In prison pine with bondage and restraint;
  And with remembrance of the greater grief
  To banish the less, I find my chief relief.

  Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey

  Freedom, Grief, Remembrance

  Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey (Illustrated)”, p.36, Delphi Classics

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• Self-restraint is feeling your oats without sowing them.

  Shannon Fife

  Oats, Self, Feelings

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