C.N. Douglas, comp. Forty Thousand Quotations: Prose and Poetical. 1917.
Self-control
I will be lord over myself.
Who to himself is law no law doth need.
Self-control is only courage under another form.
He that ruleth his spirit is better than he that taketh a city.
Those who can command themselves command others.
Most powerful is he who has himself in his power.
The constancy of sages is nothing but the art of locking up their agitation in their hearts.
What is the best government? That which teaches us to govern ourselves.
He overcomes a stout enemy that overcomes his own anger.
Real glory springs from the silent conquest of ourselves.
No conflict is so severe as his who labors to subdue himself.
No man is such a conqueror as the man who has defeated himself.
He who reigns within himself, and rules passions, desires, and fears, is more than a king.
In the supremacy of self-control consists one of the perfections of the ideal man.
Resolve to be thyself; and know that he who finds himself, loses his misery.
No man is free who cannot command himself.
He is a fool who cannot be angry; but he is a wise man who will not.
Chain up the unruly legion of thy breast. Lead thine own captivity captive, and be Cæsar within thyself.
It is in length of patience and endurance and forbearance that so much of what is good in mankind and womankind is shown.
Better conquest never canst thou make than arm thy constant and thy nobler parts against giddy, loose suggestions.
I think the first virtue is to restrain the tongue; he approaches nearest to the gods who knows how to be silent even though he is in the right.
Conquer thyself. Till thou hast done that thou art a slave; for it is almost as well for thee to be in subjection to another’s appetite as thy own.
When Alexander had subdued the world, and wept that none were left to dispute his arms, his tears were an involuntary tribute to a monarchy that he knew not, man’s empire over himself.
The Romans rightly employed the same word (virtus) to designate courage, which is, in a physical sense, what the other is in a moral; the highest virtue of all being victory over ourselves.
Who, in the midst of just provocation to anger, instantly finds the fit word which settles all around him in silence is more than wise or just; he is, were he a beggar, of more than royal blood, he is of celestial descent.
It is not the man who is beside himself, but he who is cool and collected,—who is master of his countenance, of his voice, of his actions, of his gestures, of every part of his play,—who can work upon others at his pleasure.
Over the time thou hast no power; to redeem a world sunk in dishonesty has not been given thee; solely over one man therein thou hast a quite absolute, uncontrollable power; him redeem, him make honest.
The man who could withstand, with his fellow-men in single line, a change of cavalry may lose all command of himself on the occurrence of a fire in to own house, because of some homely reminiscence unknown to the observing bystander.