Philip Roth Quotes

I wanted to wipe the grin off his face with a fist. I resisted the urge. Who says I have no self-control?

Men are victims of their own impulses.

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

I've learned to check the hasty words that rise to my lips, and when I feel that they mean to break out against my will, I just go away for a minute, and give myself a little shake for being so weak and wicked.

I'm not a table-flipper.

He submits to be seen through a microscope, who suffers himself to be caught in a fit of passion.

Above all things, I must not get angry. If I do get angry I knock all the teeth out of the mouth of the poor wretch who has angered me.

I'm not as impatient as I used to be. I used to hit people if I didn't like what they were saying. Just lash out. 'Bam - shut up! Hahahah!' I was terrible.

Patience is the ability to idle your motor when you feel like stripping your gears.

I had trouble with my temper all the way through the minor leagues.

I struggle with control.

It is much easier to suppress a first desire than to satisfy those that follow.

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

Human nature is you get carried away, so we have to protect ourselves from ourselves.

Many people lose their tempers merely from seeing you keep yours.

When a man is a prey to his emotions, he is not his own master, but lies at the mercy of fortune: so much so, that he is often compelled, while seeing that which is better for him, to follow that which is worse.

I chose not to react to everyone's opinion.

I feel there are very few people who can control their anger.

No flipping tables over any more for me.

I can't fully rule out that I lose my temper sometimes.

I had to fight with myself not to hurt people, some serious mental wars.

I am quite a calm player. I do have a go at players and refs in the heat of the moment, but I never throw my toys out of the pram.

I get so angry. I just go through so many different patches in a game. It's so hard for me to find that balance. It's a tug-of-war all the time.

A man without self-restraint is like a barrel without hoops, and tumbles to pieces.

The Fremen were supreme in that quality the ancients called "spannungsbogen" -- which is the self-imposed delay between desire for a thing and the act of reaching out to grasp that thing.