Thomas Hardy Quotes

If you did everything your mind told you to do, you do some really strange stuff. You'll probably be in jail, you'll be in trouble. But, it's all about control. We all have to control our feelings. That's the thing that separates us from animals.

Protect me from what I want.

I struggle with control.

Never do anything when you are in a temper, for you will do everything wrong.

Time is your friend; impulse is your enemy.

A lot of people do impulsive things. They just go with their moves. I used to do that. Once I was able to control my mind, I was able to control my actions.

Strong feelings are fine; it's the overreactions that mess us up.

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

I must keep my head and not give in to desire, for desire is what causes women to drown.

That whatever a man says, promises, or resolves in passion he must stick to later on when he is cold and sober--this demand is among the heaviest burdens that weigh on humankind.

Do not suffer a sudden impression to overbear your judgment.

You’re crowding me. I need— room.”... What I needed were boundaries. I needed willpower. I needed to be caged up, since yet again I was proving I couldn’t be trusted in Patch’s presence. I should have been bolting for the door, and yet … I wasn’t.

If it were in my power, I would be wiser; but a newly felt power carries me off in spite of myself; love leads me one way, my understanding another.

It is the moment when our resolution seems about to become irrevocable--when the fatal iron gates are about to close upon us--that tests our strength. Then, after hours of clear reasoning and firm conviction, we snatch at any sophistry that will nullify our long struggles, and bring us the defeat that we love better than victory.

But just as it sometimes happens that the most temperate people, who have never acquired the habit of drinking alcohol, or even a taste for it, are tormented by the fear that somehow or other they will one day find themselves drunk, so Isabelle perpetually feared that she might be betrayed into an impulsive act that was destructive to such order as reason had imposed on life. Therefore she was forever running her faculty of analysis over in her mind with the preposterous zeal of an adolescent running a razor over his beardless chin.

I'll forbear; And am fallen out with my more headier will To take the indisposed and sickly fit For the sound man.

Love increases through righteous restraint and decreases through impulsive indulgence.

I was actually permitting myself to experience a sickening sense of disappointment: but rallying my wits, and recollecting my principles, I at once called my sensations to order; and it was wonderful how I got over the temporary blunder-how I cleared up the mistake of supposing Mr. Rochester's movements a matter in which I had any cause to take vital interest.

It's hard to be strong and be weak at the same time. So I spent a lot of time sitting still. Sitting still for hours, not moving a muscle. Really concentrated work, so I'm ready. I'm ready for my performance.

The appetites will rule if the mind is vacant.

Those who follow where their genitals lead them often wind up in tedious company.

Tell your lizard (brain) to shut up.

CONTROL MYSELF?!! I'm a MONSTER! Monsters don't control themselves! That's the whole IDEA!

It is hard to fight desire; but to control it is the sign of a reasonable man.