Self-Control Quotes About Restraint & Judgment

Poem “If—,” opening lines.

Proverbs 21:5, King James Version.

Discourses of Epictetus, Book II, Chapter XVIII, “How we should struggle against appearances,” George Long translation; 1877 George Bell & Sons witness on Wikisource, cross-checked against Project Gutenberg #10661. This collection lightly normalizes Long’s “any thing” to “anything”; this longer record contains the shorter retained habit excerpt represented by a separate legacy quote URL.

Men of Invention and Industry, Chapter III, “John Harrison: Inventor of the Marine Chronometer”; Project Gutenberg #725. This is Smiles’s biographical narration, not Harrison speaking in first person.

Tao Teh King, chapter 16, James Legge translation; the following lines connect stillness with the recurring return of things to their root.

Cato on Old Age, in Cicero’s answer to the complaint that age reduces physical strength.

Thrift, Chapter I, “Industry,” Project Gutenberg #14418. After describing thrift as learned rather than instinctive, Smiles defines it as an acquired principle of conduct involving self-denial, reason, forethought and prudence.

Meditations, Book VIII, section 48, George Long translation.

The Art of Money Getting, opening economy section; Project Gutenberg #8581. Barnum contrasts rational saving with irrational spending in his nineteenth-century personal-finance rhetoric.

Dhammapada 39, Max Müller translation; its religious vocabulary belongs to the text’s discipline of watchful thought and should not be reduced to a clinical claim about anxiety.

Meditations 6.6; wording varies by translation.

Meditations, Book III, section 5, George Long translation; Project Gutenberg #6920/#15877. The sentence immediately precedes “A man then must stand erect, not be kept erect by others,” making the inward-reliance context explicit.

Beyond Good and Evil, aphorism 146, in Helen Zimmern’s public-domain English translation.

Poor Richard’s Almanack.

The Art of War, Chapter IV 'Tactical Dispositions,' section 1, Lionel Giles translation (1910), original scan leaf 82. The sentence about good fighters first making themselves secure against defeat opens the chapter's tactical argument; it remains ancient military-strategy reasoning rather than a universal self-help rule.

Enchiridion, section 33 in George Long’s public-domain translation, Project Gutenberg #10661. The line is the suggested reply after hearing that someone has spoken ill of you; it is Stoic self-command, not an instruction to accept abuse without boundaries.

James 1:20 in the King James Version, immediately following the instruction to be slow to wrath.

The Art of Money Getting, opening economy section; Project Gutenberg #8581. The passage reflects nineteenth-century saving-at-interest advice and is not a promised rate of return.

Cheerfulness as a Life Power; Project Gutenberg #18394. Marden is making a practical-moral argument, not a clinical claim.

Out from the Heart, “The Nature and Power of Mind,” represented New York R. F. Fenno & Company edition, Project Gutenberg #74178. Allen contrasts an undisciplined attitude toward experience with a mind disciplined by his moral ideals; the passage is historical conduct-of-life teaching, not medical or therapeutic guidance.

The Life of George Stephenson and of his Son Robert Stephenson, Chapter XI, “Chat Moss—Construction of the Railway”; represented 1868 revised edition, Project Gutenberg #46229. Smiles records Stephenson’s first-person recollection of the directors’ crisis over Chat Moss in quoted speech.

The Golden Sayings of Epictetus, saying XVII, Hastings Crossley translation.

Meditations, Book VII, section 61, George Long translation; the full sentence emphasizes readiness for sudden and unexpected onsets.

Cato on Old Age, Shuckburgh translation.

The Theory of Moral Sentiments, Part VI, Section II discussion of systems that make virtue consist in benevolence; historical spelling “œconomy” is retained.

The Simple Life, Chapter IV, “Simplicity of Speech,” Mary Louise Hendee translation, Project Gutenberg #23092; Wagner links sincerity, moderation and plain expression.

Dhammapada 163 in Max Müller’s translation; the verse contrasts actions harmful to oneself with the harder work of choosing what is beneficial and good.

The Mastery of Destiny, opening of “The Power of Purpose”; Wikisource 1909 text. The sentence is Allen’s own framing, not an attributed example.

Closing lines of Invictus; Henley ends a poem about hardship with a statement of inner command.

Plato, Symposium, Eryximachus speaking at approximately 188d–e near the end of his encomium of Eros; Benjamin Jowett English, Project Gutenberg #1600. The following exchange passes the speech to Aristophanes; speaker is physician Eryximachus, NOT Socrates. References to divine friendship and cosmology express ancient philosophical and religious views, not contemporary scientific findings.

Moral Letters to Lucilius, Letter 101.

Project Gutenberg #2680, correspondence appendix, Ad M. Caes. iii. 5. Marcus replies after Fronto agrees to moderate his prosecution in the Herodes Atticus dispute. The sentence concerns forensic restraint and personal feeling in that historical exchange.

Thrift, Chapter I, “Industry,” Project Gutenberg #14418. The sentence immediately follows the poetry example and presents substantial work as the product of repeated effort and failure; the absolute wording is Smiles’s rhetorical generalization.

Plato, Gorgias, approximately Stephanus 491d–e, Socrates answering Callicles’s question about ruling oneself. Callicles promptly disputes the value of temperance. Full sentence in Benjamin Jowett’s English translation, Project Gutenberg #1672, within the Gorgias dialogue proper (not Jowett’s introductory essay). Socrates is the local dramatic speaker; the line is not Plato’s autobiographical speech. An ancient ethical argument, not experimental mental-health evidence.

Of Peace of Mind, section XVII, Aubrey Stewart translation (1889), cross-checked against Project Gutenberg #64576 and Wikisource. Seneca recommends alternating solitude and company so that each corrects weariness with the other, then continues into advice about relaxation and rest.

Thrift, Chapter V, “Examples of Thrift,” Project Gutenberg #14418. In the chapter’s opening discussion of domestic management, Smiles develops thrift as orderly use of household resources and then calls it the spirit of order in human life.

The Water-Babies, represented by Project Gutenberg #1018. Tom recalls the mysterious Irishwoman’s warning while half asleep. The cleanliness language participates in Kingsley’s Victorian Christian moral fantasy and is not a scientific claim about character or hygiene.

Mysticism and Logic and Other Essays, within Russell’s philosophical discussion of human value and the world. The line is preserved as ethical argument rather than converted into a promise that circumstances are controllable.

Discourses of Epictetus, Book II, Chapter XVIII, “How we should struggle against appearances,” George Long translation; 1877 George Bell & Sons witness on Wikisource, cross-checked against Project Gutenberg #10661. This short catalog record is an excerpt of Long’s longer clause “Generally then if you would make any thing a habit, do it”; this collection lightly normalizes “any thing” to “anything.”

Considerations on Representative Government (1861), Chapter II, “The Criterion of a Good Form of Government,” Project Gutenberg #5669. Mill argues that preserving valuable social acquisitions requires continued energy, care and thoughtfulness rather than assuming gains maintain themselves. This is nineteenth-century political and institutional argument, not an empirical productivity or self-help guarantee.