Joanna Russ Quotes

The essence of chastity is not the suppression of lust, but the total orientation of one's life towards a goal. Without such a goal, chastity is bound to become ridiculous. Chastity is the sine qua non of lucidity and concentration.

If you would be chaste, you must be temperate.

Chastity more rarely follows fear, or a resolution, or a vow, than it is the mere effect of lack of appetite and, sometimes even, of distaste.

A true Brahmachari will not even dream of satisfying the fleshly appetite

Temperance is the nurse of chastity.

It is not enough to be abstinent with other people. You also have to be abstinent alone. The Bible says that lust in your heart is committing adultery. So you can't - a word that rhymes with congratulate - without lust.

Nothing so casts down the manly mind from it's height as the fondling of women and those bodily contacts which belong to the married state.

I thought that continence was a matter of our own strength, and I knew that I had not the strength: for in my utter foolishness I did not know the word of Your Scripture that none can be continent unless You give it.

I've only slept with men I've been married to. How many women can make that claim?

I have to say that one of the most important things Scientology has given me is the ability to keep my integrity together. I understand how people can get into unethical situations, and Scientology has always helped me keep my head clear and be in present time.

I many no longer depend on pleasant impulses to bring me before the Lord. I must rather response to principles I know to be right, whether I feel them to be enjoyable or not.

Men who refrain from sexual acts are frequently stronger, owing to their conservation of energy.

My quarrel with the advocates of contraceptives lies in their taking for granted that ordinary mortals cannot exercise self-control.

When it comes to killing my sin, I don't wait for the miracle, I act the miracle.

Each day I see all about me the fruits of commandment-keeping.

Nothing is so much to be shunned as sex relations.

I call not that virginity a virtue, which resideth onely in the bodies integrity; much less if it be with a purpose of perpetually keeping it: for then it is a most inhumane vice. - But I call that Virginity a virtue which is willing and desirous to yield it self upon honest and lawfull terms, when just reason requireth; and until then, is kept with a modest chastity of body and mind.

Virtue is only a conflict by which we get the mastery of our failings; that, by which every man proves his peculiar power of understanding the will and spirit of God, is only a silent working of the inner man.

No one can ask honestly or hopefully to be delivered from temptation unless he has himself honestly and firmly determined to do the best he can to keep out of it.

Self-respect leads to self-discipline.

Can we ever break free of the devices and desires of our own hearts? Might not our conscience be telling us what we most want to hear?

Be the master of your will but the servant of your conscience.

Lean on thyself until thy strength is tried; Then ask God's help; it will not be denied. Use thine own sight to see the way to go; When darkness falls ask God the path to show. Think for thyself and reason out thy plan; God has His work and thou hast thine. Exert thy will and use for self-control; God gave thee jurisdiction of thy soul. All thine immortal powers bring into play; Think, act, strive, reason, and look up and pray.

The path of self-purification is hard and steep. One has to become absolutely passion-free in thought, speech and action to rise above the opposing currents of love and hatred, attachment and repulsion. I know that I have not in me as yet that triple purity in spite of constant ceaseless striving for it. That is why the world's praise fails to move me, indeed it very often stings me. To conquer the subtle passions seems to me to be harder far than the physical conquest of the world by the force of arms.

Many couples have made commitments to sexual purity, but instead of adopting a lifestyle that supports this commitment, they continue relationships that encourage physical expression and place themselves in dangerous settings. The path you take with your feet should never contradict the conviction of your heart.