Duff Cooper Quotes

Be bold, but not too bold. Have courage, but not too much.

If the impulse to daring and bravery is too fierce and violent, stay it with guidance and instruction.

Candor and generosity, unless tempered by due moderation, leads to ruin.

I am bound to add that the excess in too little has ever proved in me more dangerous than the excess in too much; the last may cause indigestion, but the first causes death.

It needs courage to throw oneself forward, but it needs no less to hold oneself back.

There are limits beyond which your folly will not carry you.

Self-restraint may be alien to the human temperament, but humanity without restraint will dig its own grave.

It's the wise man who stays home when he's drunk.

There is a mistaken idea, ancient but still with us, that an overdose of anything from fornication to hot chocolate will teach restraint by the very results of its abuse.

Partake of love as a temperate man partakes of wine; do not become intoxicated.

In avoiding one vice fools rush into the opposite extreme.

Just because I’m resisting the wine doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate the bouquet.

It is said that the propriety even of old Cato often yielded to the exciting influence of the grape.

I am sensible that my keenness of temper, and a vanity to be distinguished for the day, make me too often splash in life.... I amresolved to restrain myself and attend more to decorum.

Those who walk in the Way should avoid sensualism as those who carry hay would avoid coming near the fire.

Who contains himself goes seldom wrong.

I stand astonished at my own moderation

Moderation is a fear of falling into that envy and contempt which those who grow giddy with their good fortune quite justly draw upon themselves. It is a vain boasting of the greatness of our mind.

If unable to abstain from drinking, a man may get drunk three times a month; if he does it more than three times he is culpable; if he gets drunk twice a month it is better; if once a month, this is still more laudable; and if one does not drink at all what can be better? But where can I find such a man? If such a man were found he would be worthy of the highest esteem.

Don't be impatient when it takes too long. Or drink it all even when it tastes to strong.

While expressing your desires, you would need to exercise control in order to prevent them from doing harm to you or to others.

It’s a great advantage not to drink among hard drinking people.