Alan Watts Quotes

The hardest thing for me is restraint.

I have to reign myself in a lot.

You must first have a lot of patience to learn to have patience.

I don't think I have ever been out of control.

The art of living consists in knowing which impulses to obey and which must be made to obey.

I despise people who can't control themselves.

It is a fact that the majority of a man's griefs comes about through lack of self-control.

Emotional self-control is the result of hard work, not an inherent skill.

My fault, my failure, is not in the passions I have, but in my lack of control of them.

Anyone who seeks to destroy the passions instead of controlling them is trying to play the angel.

Little hearts, little souls give little lusts big power. Big hearts give little lusts little power.

Patience means restraining one's inclinations.

Temper is a weapon that we hold by the blade.

It is in self-limitation that a master first shows himself.

If we resist our passions, it is more due to their weakness than our strength.

They who overcome their desires once can overcome them always.

Instinct must be thwarted just as one prunes the branches of a tree so that it will grow better.

Patience is the support of weakness; impatience the ruin of strength.

Temperance is simply a disposition of the mind which binds the passion.

O never give me over to my own heart's desires, nor let me follow my own imaginations!

The irony is that Washington was, in reality, very much like Benedict Arnold. The big difference was that Washington was ultimately able to control his emotions, something Arnold never learned to do.

I've got to really try and manage my patience out there.

Every time I say 'no' to a small temptation, I strengthen my will to say 'no' to a greater one.

It's tough at times to not play.

Self-control might be as passionate and as active as the surrender to passion.