Restraining Quotes

• Take not from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Freedom, Libertarian Party, Democracies Have

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• A wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, which shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government, and this is necessary to close the circle of our felicities.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Wise, Wisdom, Men

  Thomas Jefferson (2011). “Jefferson on Freedom: Wisdom, Advice, and Hints on Freedom, Democracy, and the American Way”, p.65, Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

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• [Our Constitution] is an instrument for the people to restrain the government.

  Patrick Henry

  Government, People, Tyranny Founding Fathers

  77 Copy quote

• It's politely assumed that democracy is a means of containing and restraining violence. But violence comes not from genes but from ideas

  Edward Bond

  Mean, Ideas, Democracy

  10 Copy quote

• Those who restrain their desires, do so because theirs is weak enough to be restrained.

  William Blake

  Inspirational, Artist, Thought Provoking

  William Blake, “The Marriage Of Heaven And Hell”

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• The whole country wants civility. Why don't we have it? It doesn't cost anything. No federal funding, no legislation is involved. One answer is the unwillingness to restrain oneself. Everybody wants other people to be polite to them, but they want the freedom of not having to be polite to others.

  Judith Martin

  Country, Freedom, Equality

  87 Copy quote

• Willpower is what separates us from the animals. It's the capacity to restrain our impulses, resist temptation - do what's right and good for us in the long run, not what we want to do right now. It's central, in fact, to civilisation.

  Roy Baumeister

  Running, Animal, Discipline

  "Why willpower matters – and how to get it" by Jon Henley, www.theguardian.com. February 7, 2012.

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• No one is truly free, they are a slave to wealth, fortune, the law, or other people restraining them from acting according to their will.

  Euripides

  Freedom, Law, People

  31 Copy quote

• Sometimes our power resides not in what we do, but in what we don't do.

  Paulo Coelho

  Sometimes

  FaceBook post by Paulo Coelho from Oct 15, 2011

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• Success has less to do with what we can get ourselves to do and more to do with keeping ourselves from doing what we shouldn’t.

  Kenneth Cole

  51 Copy quote

• Destructive thoughts and emotions undermine the very causes of peace and happiness. If you think clearly about it, it makes no sense to think you’re seeking happiness, if you do nothing to restrain angry, spiteful, and malicious thoughts and emotions.

  Dalai Lama

  Thinking, Causes, Emotion

  40 Copy quote

• The freedom of the press is one of the great bulwarks of liberty, and can never be restrained but by despotic governments.

  George Mason

  Government, Liberty, Freedom Of The Press

  Virginia Bill of Rights article 12 (1776)

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• You will be able to check envy if you rejoice with the man whom you envy whenever he rejoices, and grieve whenever he grieves.

  Maximus the Confessor

  Christian, Men, Grieving

  30 Copy quote

• No one asks how to motivate a baby. A baby naturally explores everything it can get at, unless restraining forces have already been at work. And this tendency doesn't die out, it's wiped out.

  B. F. Skinner

  Education, Baby, Curiosity

  B. F. Skinner (1974). “Walden Two”, p.114, Hackett Publishing

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• You will have no sensation of a leash around your neck if you sit by the peg. It is only when you stray that you feel the restraining tug.

  Michael Parenti

  Political, Necks, Feels

  Michael Parenti (1996). “Dirty Truths”, p.150, City Lights Books

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• Restraining prayer, we cease to fight; Prayer keeps the Christian's armor bright; And Satan trembles when he sees The weakest saint upon his knees.

  William Cowper

  Christian, Prayer, Fighting

  William Cowper, “Olney Hymn 29: Exhortation To Prayer”

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• If I want to free myself from endless cycles of struggling with temptation, I need to keep rediscovering that the pain of the struggle is greater than the pain of the desire. If I develop the habit of restraining myself, I'll enjoy the relief of feeling the desires pass, and I'll remember that desires are not the problem. Feeling pushed around by them is. I'll continue to have desires, of course, because I'm alive, but they'll be more modest in their demands.

  Sylvia Boorstein

  Pain, Struggle, Temptation

  Sylvia Boorstein, Ph.D. (2007). “Pay Attention, for Goodness' Sake: Practicing the Perfections of the Heart--The Buddhist Path of Kindness”, p.54, Ballantine Books

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• Restraining, saving, assuring your checkbook balance...what does all taht amount to? If I go broke one day I'll just take out loans

  Novala Takemoto

  Balance, One Day, Doe

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• Nevertheless, scientific method is not the same as the scientific spirit. The scientific spirit does not rest content with applying that which is already known, but is a restless spirit, ever pressing forward towards the regions of the unknown, and endeavouring to lay under contribution for the special purpose in hand the knowledge acquired in all portions of the wide field of exact science. Lastly, it acts as a check, as well as a stimulus, sifting the value of the evidence, and rejecting that which is worthless, and restraining too eager flights of the imagination and too hasty conclusions.

  Archibald Garrod

  Science, Hands, Imagination

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• We have been restraining the growth of the cost of education-that is, tuition, room and board-to be within approximately one and a half percentage points of the consumer price index.

  Charles M. Vest

  Growth, Boards, Cost

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• The talker has found a hearer but not a listener; and though he may talk his very best for his own sake, you will find that his mental movements are erratic: they have no fixed centre and no definite object. His talk is like the water of a canal whose banks have given way, which rolls aimlessly hither and thither, without fulfilling any useful function, though it is the same water which was so helpful and serviceable, when it was confined within clearly marked limits by the restraining force of its earthy boundaries.

  Charles Dickens

  Water, Listening, May

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• The restraining grace of common sense is the mark of all valid minds.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Common Sense, Grace, Mind

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2015). “Essays of Ralph Waldo Emerson - Poetry and Imagination”, p.1, Editora Dracaena

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• What the law tried to do by a restraining power from without, the gospel does by an inspiring power from within.

  Catherine Booth

  Law, Doe

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• When God's people are removed from this earth, you might as well try to dam up Niagara Falls with toothpicks as to stem the flood of lawlessness that will engulf mankind. Thank God for the restraining Spirit today!

  Vance Havner

  Christian, Fall, People

  10 Copy quote

• Freedom of speech and of the press are essential to the enlightenment of a free people and in restraining those who wield power.

  Felix Frankfurter

  People, Freedom Of Speech, Enlightenment

  23 Copy quote