Swami Sivananda Quotes

Self-control is the only possible road to character development

Sometimes it seems to me that all of life is a struggle to contain the natural impulses of the body and spirit, and that what we call character represents only the degree to which we are successful in this endeavor.

The discipline of desire is the background of character.

If thou wouldst conquer thy weakness, thou must never gratify it.

Strength instead of being the lusty child of passion, grows by grappling with and subduing them.

There is little that can withstand a man who can conquer himself.

They who overcome their desires once can overcome them always.

Who has a harder fight than he who is striving to overcome himself.

Self-control is true power.

Every time I say 'no' to a small temptation, I strengthen my will to say 'no' to a greater one.

The main thing about archery is a battle with yourself. You can ruin it all. Once you have learned the technique, the point is to recreate the perfect technique over and over and over.

Without discipline, there can be no freedom.

There are those who say that temptation can be barricaded beyond the door. The ones who think that stray desires can be driven out of the heart like the moneychangers from the temple. Maybe they can, if you patrol your weak points day and night, don't look, don't smell, don't dream.

Such power there is in clear-eyed self-restraint.

The people who need to overcome temptation to the highest degree have the hardest time doing it.

It is much easier to conquer a country than to conquer ourselves.

Self-control is only courage under another form.

True freedom is impossible without a mind made free by discipline.

There is no point in praying for victory over temptation if we are not willing to make a commitment to say no to it.

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

We usually know what we can do, but temptation shows us who we are.

Self-respect is the fruit of discipline; the sense of dignity grows with the ability to say no to oneself.

Victory in physical battles requires strength, muscles, and skill; but the fight is never tougher and victory is never sweeter than in the battles over self.

There is something good in men that really yearn for discipline.

No temptation can gravitate to a man unless there is that is his heart which is capable of responding to it.