Lewis B. Smedes Quotes

He that is master of himself will soon be master of others.

Be strong-be strong in the discipline of self. How many otherwise good men squander their strength and dissipate their will and literally destroy their lives because they have not the power of self-discipline.

Not being able to govern events, I govern myself.

I am pretty controlled I have to say.

If you want to control other people, first control yourself.

Temperance is simply a disposition of the mind which binds the passion.

Cultivate within yourselves the mighty power of self-discipline.

Your most important asset is the conscious control of your own life.

Ask counsel of him who rules himself well.

You can indulge your righteous rage but the things it comes out of are pretty cheap. The trick is to make yourself an instrument of your own policy. Whether you like it or not, that's the highest effectiveness man has achieved.

He who controls others may be powerful, but he who has mastered himself is mightier still.

Those who can command themselves command others.

He who reigns within himself and rules passions, desires, and fears is more than a king.

I am, indeed, a king, because I know how to rule myself.

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

Control thy passions lest they take vengence on thee.

He that would govern others, first should be The master of himself.

I wasn't blessed with the natural ability to rein myself in.

Ultimately, the only power to which man should aspire is that which he exercises over himself.

Every act of self-discipline increases your confidence, trust, and belief in yourself and your abilities.

This work somehow awakened my dormant powers of will and I began to practice self-control. At first my resolutions faded like snow in April, but in a little while I conquered my weakness and felt a pleasure I never knew before - that of doing as I willed.

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

I have seen so much obstructed potential among people who lack personal discipline, who just slough it off, whatever it is, and who think that nothing matters very much. I want my daughter to have what I think of as a capacity for self-discipline. Not the sort of self-discipline that diminishes her own wild passions, but that makes it safer for her to own those wild passions.

The greatest power of ruling consists in the exercise of self-control.

It is a fact that the majority of a man's griefs comes about through lack of self-control.