Abstinence Quotes - Page 4

• Alas! this time is never the time for self-denial, it is always the next time. Abstinence is so much more pleasant to contemplate upon the other side of indulgence.

  George MacDonald

  Self, Next, Sides

  George Macdonald (2016). “Sir Gibbie”, p.30, George Macdonald

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• This is the magnanimity of authorship, when a writer having a topic presented to him, fruitful of beauties for common minds, waives his privilege, and trusts to the judicious few for understanding the reason of his abstinence.

  Charles Lamb

  Understanding, Mind, Topics

  Charles Lamb (1864). “Eliana: Being the Hitherto Uncollected Writings of Charles Lamb”, p.25

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• What I learned from this movie, 40 Days and 40 Nights: Abstinence can be a very good thing. Especially from box offices where this film is playing.

  Joel Siegel

  Night, Office, Film

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• All my heroes, I guess, like John Wayne and all those guys, they drank and they smoked and did all the manly things. It was expected of you. And now abstinence in all kinds of forms is a part of living. It's a pretty - I don't smoke anymore, I quit that 42 years ago

  Larry Hagman

  Hero, Years, Guy

  Source: www.pbs.org

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• When I finally embraced abstinence it was because of the simple urge to work a longer day. Thus, without joining Alcoholics Anonymous, I was at last able to leave Piss-Artists Notorious.

  Clive James

  Funny, Humorous, Drinking

  Clive James (2012). “Always Unreliable: Memoirs”, p.303, Pan Macmillan

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• You always hold the key of repentance to unlock the prison door. If they throw the word diversity at you, grab hold of it and say, "I am already diverse, and I intend to stay diverse." If the word is tolerance, grab that one, too, saying, "I expect you to be tolerant of my lifestyle-obedience, integrity, abstinence, repentance." If the word is choice, tell them you choose good, old-fashioned morality.

  Boyd K. Packer

  Integrity, Doors, Keys

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• Avoid the necessity of a physician, if you can, by careful attention to your diet. Eat what best agrees with your system, and resolutely abstain from what hurts you, however well you may like it. A few days' abstinence, and cold water for a beverage, has driven off many an approaching disease.

  Lydia M. Child

  Hurt, Health, Water

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• I think I'm an abstinence symbol. If I take my shirt off, people will not have babies.

  Jesse Eisenberg

  Baby, Thinking, People

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• Confronted with this double madness of the labourers killing themselves with over-production and vegetating in abstinence, the great problem of capitalist production is no longer to find producers and to multiply their powers but to discover consumers, to excite their appetites and create in them fictitious needs.

  Paul Lafargue

  Needs, Madness, Problem

  Paul Lafargue (1984). “Selected Marxist Writings of Paul Lafargue”

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• There is a great deal of political pressure to only talk about abstinence, and to deny support for condoms and education on using them. This policy will lead to the unnecessary deaths of many people.

  Hillary Clinton

  People, Support, Political

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• And we can't discharge that moral responsibility by passing out contraceptives. Contraceptives have been circulating all over Uganda, and it is not clear how many people are using the things. The best contraceptive in this case is abstinence.

  Eugene Rivers

  Responsibility, Uganda, People

  "Silence is Death". Interview with Eva Thorne, bostonreview.net. April/May 1999.

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• Denial of one appetite sharpens the others.

  Mason Cooley

  Denial, Appetite

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• You can't go into the ring and be a nice guy. I would go a month, two months, without having sex. It worked for me because it made me a vicious animal. You can't fight if you have any compassion or anything like that.

  Jake LaMotta

  Sex, Nice, Fighting

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• All we are asking for is balance. I would like to think that I could walk into a public library and find not only works by Gloria Steinem but also those of Phyllis Schlafly. I would like to think a teenager could be taught in sex education that a serious alternative to abortion is teenage abstinence, or should pregnancy occur, that adoption might be preferable. I am not trying, as the ad says, to shove religion down anyone's throat. But I do think everyone has a right, and that the Christian voice is being chocked off.

  Cal Thomas

  Christian, Sex, Teenage

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• Idiots must stop claiming that atheism is a religion. Religion is defined as the belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power. And atheism is… precisely not that. Atheism is a religion like abstinence is a sex position

  Bill Maher

  Sex, Atheism, Belief

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• The state, by relieving idleness, improvidence, or misconduct from punishment, and depriving abstinence and foresight of the reward, which have been provided for them by nature, may indeed destroy wealth, but most certainly will aggravate poverty.

  Nassau William Senior

  Punishment, Poverty, May

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• If you are poor, avoid wine as a costly luxury; if you are rich, shun it as a fatal indulgence. Stick to plain water.

  Herman Melville

  Wine, Luxury, Water

  Herman Melville (1855). “Israel Potter: His Fifty Years of Exile”, p.76

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• Jesus has many lovers of His kingdom of heaven, but he has few bearers of His Cross. Many desire His consolation, but few desire His tribulation. He finds many comrades in eating and drinking, but He finds few hands who will be with Him in His abstinence and fastingBut those who love Jesus purely for Himself, and not for their own profit or convenience, bless Him as heartily in temptation and tribulation and in all other adversities as they do in time of consolation. And if He never sent them consolation, they would still bless and praise Him.

  Thomas a Kempis

  Jesus, Drinking, Adversity

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• I was a teenager, we were pretty much fully indoctrinated, thanks to sexual scare tactics. I remember so many public-health commercials with a B-actor in a fake alley background warning us to use protection or telling us the only real safe choice was abstinence. We were highly frightened of sex from day one. There was no free-swinging '90s.

  Michael Stipe

  Sex, Real, Teenager

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

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• Atheism is not a religion. Abstinence is not a sex position.

  Richard Dawkins

  Sex, Religion, Atheism

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• Real filth is the one inside. The rest simply washes off. There is only one type of dirt that cannot be cleansed with pure waters, and that is the stain of hatred and bigotry contaminating the soul. You can purify your body through abstinence and fasting, but only love will purify your heart.

  Elif Safak

  Real, Heart, Water

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• Joy is everywhere; it is in the earth's green covering of grass: in the blue serenity of the sky: in the reckless exuberance of spring: in the severe abstinence of grey winter: in the living flesh that animates our bodily frame: in the perfect poise of the human figure, noble and upright: in living, in the exercise of all our powers: in the acquisition of knowledge. . . Joy is there everywhere.

  Rabindranath Tagore

  Spring, Winter, Exercise

  Rabindranath Tagore (2016). “SĀDHANĀ - The Realisation of life”, p.64, Rabindranath Tagore

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• When I was writing 'The Abstinence Teacher,' I really tried to immerse myself in contemporary American evangelical culture.

  Tom Perrotta

  Teacher, Writing, Culture

  "The Exchange: Tom Perrotta" by Sarah Larson, www.newyorker.com. September 21, 2011.

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• I am always shocked that there are still a handful of defenders of the dubious practice of abstinence, surely the worst idea since chocolate-covered ants.

  Dick Cavett

  Practice, Ideas, Chocolate

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• Conservation is a positive exercise of skill and insight, not merely a negative exercise of abstinence and caution.

  Aldo Leopold

  Exercise, Skills, Negative

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