Wise Words on Self Control

“Getting Out of Your Own Way”
When engaging in sacrifice, our forefathers began to act out what would be considered a proposition, if it were stated in words: that something better might be attained in the future by giving up something of value in the present….Realize that reality was structured as if it could be bargained with. We learned that behaving properly now, in the present—regulating our impulses, considering the plight of others—could bring rewards in the future, in a time and place that did not yet exist. We began to inhibit, control and organize our immediate impulses, so that we could stop interfering with other people and our future selves...The future is a judgmental father….Sacrifice now, to gain later...What is implied by the idea that sacrifice will improve the future, in the most extreme and final of cases? Where does that basic principle find its limits? We must ask, to begin, “What would be the largest, most effective—most pleasing—of all possible sacrifices?” and then “How good might the best possible future be, if the most effective sacrifice could be made?”... If I leave some, even if I want it now, I won't have to be hungry later.”
Jordan Peterson

"What Is Life?"
Life is the sum of your choices.
Albert Camus

"Don't Even Think About It"
What ought not to be done, do not even think of doing.
Epictetu

"Where Strength Begins"
He is most powerful who has power over himself.
Seneca The Younger

“Slowly Turning”
...every time you make a choice you are turning a central part of you, the part of you that chooses, into something a little different from what it was before. And taking your life as a whole, with all your innumerable choices, all your life long you are slowly turning this central thing either into a heavenly creature or into a hellish creature: either into a creature that is in harmony with God, and with other creatures, and with itself, or else into one that is in a state of war and hatred with God, and with its fellow-creatures, and with itself. To be the one kind of creature is heaven: that is, it is joy and peace and knowledge and power. To be the other means madness, horror, idiocy, rage, impotence, and eternal loneliness. Each of us at each moment is progressing to the one state or the other.
C.S. Lewis

"The Plague Of Bad Habits"
To make our nervous system our ally instead of our enemy...we must make automatic and habitual, as early as possible, as many useful actions as we can, and guard against the growing into ways that are likely to be disadvantageous to us, as we should guard against the plague.
William James

"Control Yourself"
Bridle passions, and be yourself a free man.
John Clarke

"The Harnessed Steeds"
The way to avoid evil is not by maiming our passions, but by compelling them to yield their vigor to our moral nature. Thus they become, as in the ancient fable, the harnessed steeds which bear the chariot of the sun.
Henry Ward Beecher

"Equal Opportunity Destroyer"
Alcohol produces artificial happiness, artificial courage, artificial gaiety, artificial self-satisfaction, thus making life bearable for millions who would otherwise be unable to endure their condition. To them alcohol is a blessing. Unfortunately, as it acts by destroying conscience, self-control, and the normal functioning of the body, it produces crime, disease, and degradation.
George Bernard Shaw

“Let God be true, though every man a liar” (Romans 3:4).
That is the challenge in a nutshell: against all the supposed data to the contrary, to stick to the Word of God.

If you cock your ear today, you will hear many things that people say—unexamined and unchallenged folk wisdom straight from the pit of hell (James 3:15). You will hear it on the street, and you will hear it between your ears while driving the car and folding the laundry. The opposition described in Galatians 5:16-17 is an active and continuous warfare in the spirit realm, not a formal principle. Deal with it as a formal principle (i.e., don’t deal with it), and you will lose the war by forfeit.

God says, 'Be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect' (Romans 12:2). The mind is transformed as it aligns itself to God’s Word, the only reliable touchstone. Take captive every renegade thought (2 Corinthians 10:5), run it by the Word, and watch out for well-meaning little old ladies.
Andree Seu

"Free Spirit"
Everything that frees our spirit without giving us control of ourselves is ruinous.
Goethe

“My Feelings, My god?”
“I have never met a feeling that wouldn’t be a god if you let it. But here is no enduring stuff on which to build a life...’left to themselves {feelings} either vanish or become demons’...How does a godly woman keep her way? She takes her feelings to Scripture to have them named. She finds there a framework for her experience: Some yearnings are blessed and others censured.
Andree Seu/C.S. Lewis

"The Root of Discipline"
Self-respect is the root of discipline: The sense of dignity grows with the ability to say no to oneself.
Abraham Joshua Heschel

"Wisdom Simply Put"
Wisdom consists of the anticipation of consequences.
Norman Cousins

"Righteous Indignation"
Anyone can become angry. That is easy. But to be angry with the right person, to the right degree, at the right time, for the right purpose, and in the right way - this is not easy.
Aristotle

"Who Has Sorrow?"
Drink does not drown Care, but waters it, and makes it grow faster.
Benjamin Franklin
"Eating For Two"
We live off half of what we eat, and the doctors live off the other half.
Saying

"Gardening Routines"
Cultivate only the habits that you are willing should master you.
Elbert Hubbard

"Less Is More"
There is nothing better for the nurturing of the heart than to reduce the number of one's desires.
Mencius

"Where Goodness Springs"
Self-denial, the parent of all virtue.
Thomas Carlyle

"Not To Be Seen of Men"
Our self-denial must first of all be humble. Otherwise it is a contradiction in terms. If we deny ourselves in order to think ourselves better than other men, our self-denial is only self-gratification.
Thomas Merton

"I've Got The Power"
What it lies in our power to do, it lies in our power not to do.
"Aristotle"

"Cultivate Habits of Mind"
Right discipline consists, not in external compulsion, but in habits of mind which lead spontaneously to desirable rather than undesirable activities.
Bertrand Russell

"In Order To Obtain The Greater"
Self-command, by which we are enabled to abstain from present pleasure or to endure present pain, in order to obtain a greater pleasure or to avoid a greater pain in some future time.
Adam Smith