Rita Rudner Quotes

I recognize myself to a lesser or greater extent in everything I read, good and bad, and that's part of being a human being if you're honest enough. And obviously the darker parts are the things you don't let control you.

There is good and there is bad in every human heart, and it is the struggle of life to conquer the bad with the good.

Human Nature Baby, grab it and growl.

It is not so much the being exempt from faults, as having overcome them, that is an advantage to us.

If you want to overcome the whole world, overcome yourself.

Man is neither good nor bad; he is born with instincts and abilities.

We ride through life on the beast within us. Beat the animal, but you can't make it think.

No emotion, merely as an emotion, is a sin, because we cannot directly control the arising of an emotion in our soul.

We make allowance for a certain degree of selfishness in men; because we know it to be inseparable from human nature, and inherent in our frame and constitution. By this reflexion we correct those sentiments of blame, which so naturally arise upon any opposition.

It is only through restraint that man can manage not to suppress himself.

They say best men are molded out of faults, And, for the most, become much more the better For being a little bad

This is a time in my life where I'm gonna behave like an elegant human being. Or not.

Natural inclinations are assisted and reinforced by education, but they are hardly ever altered or overcome.

Every human being has appetites difficult to control but far fewer have humility, gentleness, and an awareness of their weaknesses.

The growth of wisdom may be gauged exactly by the diminution of ill-temper.

Which of us can control his feelings?

I'm fighting against my will to control. I think that is what I am doing. I would like to accept things in life, in all matters of life I would like to accept, but it's so difficult. I think we all have this struggle.

Being angry is human. Staying angry is foolish.

Left to himself, man is half beast and half devil.

He whose intellect overcomes his lust is higher than the angels; he whose lust overcomes his intelligence is less than an animal.

Reflect upon the defects of your character: thoroughly realize their evils and the transient pleasures they give you, and firmly will that you shall try your best not to yield to them the next time.

Once we recognize our shadow's existence we must resist the enticing step of going with its flow.

Self-control is the only possible road to character development

I can't think of a greater single vehicle to goodness and a better world than if everyone battled their own natures

Over time you learn to know a bit more about yourself - you develop a certain amount of self-insight and self-awareness, and you know what you can absorb, and what you cannot; what gets to you and what doesn't. And I observe a lot. I see a lot around me. And over time you also get to understand the nature of man and the environments you are dealing with, and you can't always allow emotions and temper to flare up because you're displeased with something, or you want to change it.