Quotes and aphorisms on self-control. Self-Control is essential to accomplish success in life. As a matter of fact your ability to discipline yourself, to set clear goals, and then to work toward them everyday, will do more to guarantee your success than any other single factor. You must try to be the master of your fate and the captain of your soul, always keeping in mind that willpower is what separates us from the animals, that is the capacity to restrain our impulses, resist temptation, trying to do what’s right and good for us in the long run, not what we want to do right now. This fact is certainly central to our civilization. Self-control is the ability to control the expression of our passions and emotions, since one of the greatest challenge is just to control oneself, because you are always responsible for how you act, no matter how you can feel. We must always remember that.
So the following quotes are a means to improve our willpower and consequently find a possible key to success. Successful people strive no matter what they feel by applying their will to overcome apathy, doubt or fear. Once you are disciplined new wonders can happen. As the saying goes, conquer yourself and you conquer the world! These self-control quotes will inspire you to stay disciplined and achieve massive growth, since even if you don’t have super powers, you can at least develop your self-control. It’s up to you, you can do it. Then of course you can also read our articles about the importance of self-control in rearing children and about all the self-words to improve your mind and life. Therefore enjoy our efforts and please don’t forget to support our work. Thank you a lot.
Self control makes the man. A man without discipline is a boy full of reactions, rather than a man of good actions.
Greek Proverb
Self-control – what lies in our power to do, it lies in our power not to do.
Aristotle
Man cannot live without self-control.
Isaac Singer
A little kingdom I possess, where thoughts and feelings dwell; And very hard the task I find of governing it well.
Louisa May Alcott
Self-reverence, self-knowledge, self-control. These three alone lead one to sovereign power.
Lord Tennyson
Not being able to govern events, I govern myself.
Michel de Montaigne
In the midst of movement and chaos keep stillness inside of you.
Deepak Chopra
No man is free who cannot command himself.
Pythagoras
You can’t always control the wind, but you can control your sails.
English proverb
The true value of the human being is determined by the measure and the sense in which one has attained liberation from the self.
Albert Einstein
The good Lord gave you a body that can stand most anything. It’s your mind you have to convince.
Vince Lombardi
Self respect is the root of discipline. The sense of dignity grows with the ability to say no to oneself.
Abraham J Heschel
Rule your mind or it will rule you.
Horace
The ability to subordinate an impulse to a value is the essence of the proactive person.
Stephen Covey
Do not bite at the bait of pleasure till you know there is no hook beneath it.
Thomas Jefferson
If you learn self-control, you can master anything.
Author unknown
He who is living without discipline is exposed to grievous ruin … Who hath a harder battle to fight than he who striveth for self-mastery? And should be our endeavor, even to master self, and thus daily to grow stronger than self and go on unto perfections.
Thomas à Kempis
The highest possible stage in moral culture is when we recognize that we ought to control our thoughts.
Charles Darwin
If a man doesn’t delight in himself and the force in him and feel that he and it are wonders, how is all life to become important to him?
Sherwood Anderson
We improve ourselves by victories over ourselves. There must be contest, and we must win.
Edward Gibbon
The main factor behind success is self-control.
Rig Veda
If we don’t discipline ourselves, the world will do it for us.
William Feather
When we direct our thoughts properly, we can control our emotions.
W. Clement Stone
Self-control is strength. Right thought is mastery. Calmness is power.
James Allen
Most powerful is he who has himself in his own power.
Seneca
If you lose self-control everything will fall.
John Wooden
By constant self-discipline and self-control you can develop greatness of character.
Grenville Kleiser
It is a man’s own mind, not his enemy or foe, that lures him to evil ways.
Buddha
I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who conquers his enemies; for the hardest victory is over self.
Aristotle
Self-discipline, the key to eternal life, is doing something that needs to be done whether or not you find it convenient. Self-discipline is usually motivated by our convictions, our internal hopes, and our desires.
Robert L. Simpson
The best time for you to hold your tongue is the time you feel you must say something or bust.
Josh Billings
What man’s mind can create, man’s character can control.
Thomas Edison
The first and best victory is to conquer self. To be conquered by self is, of all things, the most shameful and objectionable.
Plato
It is not necessary to react to everything you notice.
Author unknown
Your success depends mainly upon what you think of yourself and whether you believe in yourself.
William Boetcker
Self-discipline 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
Those who can command themselves, command others.
William Hazlitt
When the fight begins within himself, a man’s worth something.
Robert Browning
Prudent, cautious self-control, is wisdom’s root.
Robert Burns
Seek always for the answer within. Be not influenced by those around you, by their thoughts or their words
Eileen Caddy
I never prod my nose into other man’s porridge.
Miguel De Cervantes
I’ve always seen myself as a winner, even as a kid. If I hadn’t, I just might have gone down the drain a couple of times. I’ve got something inside of me, peasant-like and stubborn, and I’m in it ‘til the end of the race.
Truman Capote
Ultimately, the only power to which man should aspire is that which he exercises over himself.
Elie Wiesel
I think self-awareness is probably the most important thing towards being a champion.
Billie Jean King
Our destiny changes with our thoughts; we shall become what we wish to become, do what we wish to do, when our habitual thoughts correspond with our desires.
Orison Swett Marden
He who conquers himself is the mightiest warrior.
Confucius
The highest possible stage in moral culture is when we recognize that we ought to control our thoughts.
Charles Darwin
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
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
Control yourself or someone else will control you.
Author unknown
We improve ourselves by victories over ourselves. There must be contest, and we must win.
Edward Gibbon
It is as proper to have pride in oneself as it is ridiculous to show it to others.
Francois De La Rochefoucauld
He who controls others may be powerful, but he who has mastered himself is mightier still.
Lao-Tzu
Such power there is in clear-eyed self-restraint.
James Russell Lowell
He that would govern others, first should be the master of himself.
Philip Massinger
Why are we so full of restraint? Why do we not give in all directions? Is it fear of losing ourselves? Until we do lose ourselves there is no hope of finding ourselves.
Henry Miller
He who reins within himself and rules passions, desires, and fears is more than a king.
John Milton
He who cannot obey himself will be commanded. That is the nature of living creatures.
Friedrich Nietzsche
The best fighter is never angry.
Lao Tzu
Clean your own yard first before asking others to clean theirs.
Bosnian Proverb
Do not yell “dinner” until your knife is in the loaf.
Canadian Proverb
Don’t jump high in a room with a low ceiling.
Czechoslovakian Proverb
Don’t make a mouse of yourself, or else you will be eaten by cats.
German Proverb
Don’t talk about a rope in the house of someone whose father was hung.
Irish Proverb
He who angers you conquers you.
Elizabeth Kenny
Don’t be too bold, or you will burn your eyes; but don’t be too slow, or you will lose your share.
Lithuanian Proverb
No conflict is so severe as his who labors to subdue himself.
Thomas Kempis
Stop letting people who do so little for you control so much of your mind, feelings, and emotions.
Author unknown
We may think there is willpower involved, but more likely change is due to want power. Wanting the new addiction more than the old one. Wanting the new me in preference to the person I am now.
George Sheehan
Anger doesn’t demand action. When you act in anger, you lose self-control.
Joe Hyams
If you do not conquer self, you will be conquered by self.
Napoleon Hill
Don’t bite off more than you can chew.
Spanish Proverb
Don’t let anyone know about your secret money.
Spanish Proverb
It doesn’t matter whether you are pursuing success in business, sports, the arts, or life in general: The bridge between wishing and accomplishing is discipline.
Harvey Mackay
Don’t speak unless you can improve on the silence.
Spanish Proverb
My will shall shape my future. Whether I fail or succeed shall be no man’s doing but my own. I am the force; I can clear any obstacle before me or I can be lost in the maze. My choice; my responsibility; win or lose, only I hold the key to my destiny.
Elaine Maxwell
Self-respect will keep a man from being abject when he is in the power of enemies, and will enable him to feel that he may be in the right when the world is against him.
Bertrand Russell
There never has been, and cannot be, a good life without self-control.
Count Leo Tolstoy
Self-control, stop, think, what could happen? Is that what you want?
Author unknown
Pride… is the direct appreciation of oneself.
Arthur Schopenhauer
What we do upon some great occasion will probably depend on what we already are; and what we are will be the result of previous years of self-discipline.
H.P. Liddon
In essence, if we want to direct our lives, we must take control of our consistent actions. It’s not what we do once in a while that shapes our lives, but what we do consistently.
Tony Robbins
We have a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.
Author unknown
Freedom is born of self-discipline. No individual, no nation, can achieve or maintain liberty without self-control. The undisciplined man is a slave to his own weaknesses.
Alan Valentine
Believe that you can whip the enemy, .and you have won half the battle.
General J.E.B. Stuart
I am always with myself and it is I who am my tormentor.
Count Leo Tolstoy
Seek always for the answer within. Be not influenced by those around you, by their thoughts or their words.
Eileen Caddy
Silence is not always a sign of weakness; it’s also a sign of strong self-control.
Author unknown
Stop letting people who do so little for you control so much of your mind, feelings, and emotions.
Author unknown
There never has been, and cannot be, a good life without self-control.
Count Leo Tolstoy
To rule self and subdue our passions is the more praiseworthy because so few know how to do it.
Guiana
A man without self-control is like a city broken into and left without walls.
Author unknown
Prudent, cautious self-control, is wisdom’s root.
Robert Burns
The secret of success is learning how to use pain and pleasure instead of having pain and pleasure use you. If you don’t, life controls you.
Anthony Robbins
I cannot trust a man to control others if he cannot control himself.
Robert E. Lee
You can’t control the fact people will annoy you, but what you can control is your reaction.
Author unknown
In that power of self-control lies the seed of eternal freedom.
Paramahansa Yogananda
Seek always for the answer within. Be not influenced by those around you, by their thoughts or their words.
Eileen Caddy
Challenge yourself all the days of your life.
Author Unknown
Govern thyself then you will be able to govern the world.
Author Unknown
Mastering self-control, the act of restraining one’s emotions is the true key to success.
Timothy Pina
To enjoy freedom we have to control ourselves.
Virginia Woolf
Your brain shall be your servant instead of your master. You will rule it instead of allowing it to rule you.
Charles Popplestone
To handle yourself, use your head; to handle others, use your heart.
Donald Laird
Self-determination is fine but needs to be tempered with self-control.
Author unknown
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The importance of self-control
