Frederick William Robertson Quotes

I think self-discipline is something, it's like a muscle. The more you exercise it, the stronger it gets.

I have seen myself lose intolerance, narrowness, bigotry, complacence, pride and a whole bushel-basket of other intellectual vices through my contact with Nature and with men. And when you take weeds out of a garden it gives you room to grow flowers. So, every time I lost a little self-satisfaction, or arrogance, I could plant some broadness or love of my own in its place, and after a while the garden of my mind began to bloom and be fragrant and I found myself better equipped for my work and more useful to others as a consequence.

I don't think that one should beat himself or herself over the head if immediately you're not like Jesus Christ or, you know, Gandhi or whoever. But I think the idea is to... to look at those examples and try to... try to operate in a way that every day you live or every interaction you have pushes you further along to operating with that mindset.

There is no man that lives who does not need to be drilled, disciplined, and developed into something higher and nobler and better than he is by nature. Life is one prolonged birth.

In order for good to blossom it must be cultivated and exercised by constant practice, and to be truly righteous there is required a daily pruning of the evil growth of our characters by a daily repen- tance from sin.

Happie is hee that chastens himselfe.

We have real difficulty here because everyone thinks of changing the world, but where, oh where, are those who think of changing themselves? People may genuinely want to be good, but seldom are they prepared to do what it takes to produce the inward life of goodness that can form the soul. Personal formation into the likeness of Christ is arduous and lifelong.

God desires to change us from the inside out. Renewing our minds, starving our self-destructive tendencies, and teaching us to form new habits.

The test of progress is the amount of renunciation that one has attained.

Accustom yourself continually to make many acts of love, for they enkindle and melt the soul.

I'm on a missionary journey to become the best version of myself.

The grace thou hast will soon be less, if thou addest not more to it.

Being somebody who wants to be religious doesn't make me perfect and doesn't make me necessarily any better than anybody else. It maybe makes me better than I would have been if I didn't have that level.

To be good, we must do good; and by doing good we take a sure means of being good, as the use and exercise of the muscles increase their power.

The superior man acquaints himself with many sayings of antiquity and many deeds of the past, in order to strengthen his character thereby.

My future's about trying to be a better man.

Sufis teach that we first must battle and destroy the evil within ourselves by shining upon it the good within, and then we learn to battle the evil in others by helping their higher selves gain control of their lower selves.

For the majority of mankind, religion is a habit, or, more precisely, tradition is their religion. Though it seems strange, I think that the first step to moral perfection is your liberation from the religion in which you were raised. Not a single person has come to perfection except by following this way.

It's certainly not wrong to want to be a better person. God gave us that desire.

It's like a muscle - if you stop going to the gym or stop running, you get weak. The military teaches you these great values, but we don't keep up the discipline on our own, and we lose it. So wherever you go, keep that discipline up.

Try to be a better person everyday.

It is never too early to try and plant [good principles] in a child, and never too late to cultivate them in the most neglected person.

Whoever will cultivate their own mind will find full employment. Every virtue does not only require great care in the planting, but as much daily solicitude in cherishing as exotic fruits and flowers; the vices and passions (which I am afraid are the natural product of the soil) demand perpetual weeding. Add to this the search after knowledge. . . and the longest life is too short.

Do something everyday that you don't want to do; this is the golden rule for acquiring the habit of doing your duty without pain.

Rate the task above the prize; will not the mind be raised? Fight thine own faults, not the faults of others; will not evil be mended?