Cornelia Otis Skinner Quotes

The literature of the inner life is very largely a record of struggle with the inordinate passions of the social self.

Discipline is wisdom and vice versa.

I have a mean streak and I am capable of cruelty. This does not mean that I am necessarily mean and cruel; instead, it means that I have to be vigilant about my capacity for cruelty and the mean bone in my body.

Protect me from what I want.

You can never control other people. You can only control yourself. I have definitely learned that.

Most of us actually stifle enough good impulses during the course of a day to change the current of our lives.

Once you get in a position where your rent is taken care of and you do have a job, you really get to deal with yourself and really become one with yourself. And you wake to your mind every day. That's your best friend and your worst enemy - your own brain.

Prudent people are very happy; 'tis an exceeding fine thing, that's certain, but I was born without it, and shall retain to my day of Death the Humour of saying what I think.

My best attribute is knowing when not to answer stupid questions.

I like to think I'm a very mature person.

I've had quite a lot to conquer in myself apart from writing. Not that I've been a pure angel when I come to the end of it.

There has never been any country at every moment so virtuous and so wise that it has not sometimes needed to be saved from itself.

It is the part of a fool to give advice to others and not himself to be on his guard.

To know your limitations is the hallmark of a wise person.

Be a listener only, keep within yourself, and endeavor to establish within yourself the habit of silence, especially in politics.

One of my worst fears is being a self-indulgent person.

What keeps us from abandoning ourselves entirely to one vice, often, is the fact that we have several.

Sometimes I wish I was less of a maniac; sometimes I wish I was more.

I'm a mature person.

When I was younger, I was angry. I was boisterous and loud. I was on top of the mountain, screaming at everybody, 'Look at me!' Now I'm more of a Taoist.

I know I've had an attitude that can explode, but I'm trying my best to not step out of bounds.

For self is the lord of self, self is the refuge of self; therefore curb thyself as the merchant curbs a good horse.

I see and praise what is better, but follow what is worse.

Self-mastery and self-discipline are the foundation of good relationships with others.

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