Murray Kempton Quotes

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 hardest victory is the victory over self.

I can see now that I should have been strong enough to conquer myself.

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

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

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

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

We gain the strength of the temptation we resist.

Terrible is the fight put up by the senses. Fight bravely! Conquer them you must.

Well, any time you do anything good, it's man versus himself, right? That's the art, the challenge.

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

There's a victory, and defeat; the first and best of victories, the lowest and worst of defeats which each man gains or sustains at the hands not of another, but of himself.

A little kingdom I possess, where thoughts and feelings dwell; And very hard the task I find of governing it well.

The ego is kind of a big, unwieldy thing. It's not so easily tamed or subdued.

I don't think I'm naturally a good person. I think some people have an innate goodness to them, and I am sort of proud of the fact that I kind of keep myself in check, probably because I have awesome parents.

Make yourself do unpleasant things so as to gain the upper hand of your soul.

I've been learning a lot in my years, it's not just the fight itself, its a lot mentally fighting each other, that's something I learned later days. I realize now it's very important.

All day long and all night through, One thing only must I do: Quench my pride and cool my blood, Lest I perish in the flood.

Men, not children or servants, tempered and taught to the end; Cleansed of servile panic, slow to dread or despise, Humble because of knowledge, mighty by sacrifice.

All mental discipline and symmetrical growth are from activity of the mind under the yoke of the will or personal power.

No confict is so severe as his who labors to subdue himself.

To gain the spiritual ascendancy over ourselves, and the influences with which we are surrounded, through a rigid course of self-discipline, is our first consideration, it is our first labor, before we can pave the way for our children to grow up without sin unto salvation.

There is a direct relationship between self-discipline and self-esteem.

Weak minds make treaties with the passions they cannot overcome, and try to purchase happiness at the expense of principle; but the resolute will of a strong man scorns such means, and struggles nobly with his foe to achieve great deeds.

Self-Conquest is the greatest of victories. Mighty is he who conquers himself.