Russell M. Nelson Quotes

In that power of self-control lies the seed of eternal freedom.

Even those who have the weakest souls could acquire absolute mastery over all their passions if we employed sufficient ingenuity in training and guiding them.

The degree to which you resist is the degree to which you are free.

The undisciplined are slaves to moods, appetites and passions

I believe that discipline and self-love are the total secrets to freedom.

If you set out to seek freedom, then learn above all things to govern your soul and your senses . . . only through discipline may a man learn to be free.

One may gain political and social independence, but if one is a slave to his passions and desires, one cannot feel the pure joy of real freedom

An unreflective mind is a poor roof. Passion, like the rain, floods the house. But if the roof is strong, there is shelter. Whoever follows impure thoughts Suffers in this world and the next. In both worlds he suffers And how greatly.

Virtue does not consist in the absence of the passions, but in the control of them.

Roam in the world as a lion of self-control; see that the frogs of weakness don’t kick you around.

Who then is free? The wise who can command his passions, who fears not want, nor death, nor chains, firmly resisting his appetites and despising the honors of the world, who relies wholly on himself, whose angular points of character have all been rounded off and polished.

Become strong again in spirit, strong in will, strong in endurance, strong to bear all sacrifices

Strong as our passions are, they may be starved into submission, and conquered without being killed.

So with the man who has daily inured himself to habits of concentrated attention, energetic volition, and self-denial in unnecessary things. He will stand like a tower when everything rocks around him, and when his softer fellow-mortals are winnowed like chaff in the blast.

I have discovered that my freedom is within me, and nothing can destroy it.

Self-discipline, although difficult, and not always easy while combating negative emotions, should be a defensive measure.

As far as your self-control goes, as far goes your freedom.

Some men, who begin by saying that the world is a hell, often end by saying that it is a heaven when they succeed in the practice of self-control.

My third maxim was to try always to conquer myself rather than fortune, and to change my desires rather than the order of the world, and generally to accustom myself to believing that there is nothing entirely in our power except our thoughts, so that after we have done our best regarding things external to us, everything in which we do not succeed is for us absolutely impossible.

He that would be superior to external influences must first become superior to his own passions.

He who conquers others is strong; he who conquers himself is mighty" - Lao-tsu One who can control his thoughts has conquered himself.

I was a prisoner, but I always felt free because I was not frightened So for me real freedom is freedom from fear.

Vain indeed is all overweening pride in the conquest even of the entire universe if one has not conquered one's own passions.

Faith is a state of mind that can be conditioned through self-discipline. Faith will accomplish.

The principal use of prudence, of self-control, is that it teaches us to be masters of our passions, and to so control and guide them that the evils which they cause are quite bearable, and that we even derive joy from them all.