Restraint Quotes

If there is any person to whom you feel a dislike, that is the person of whom you ought never to speak.

Beware the fury of the patient man.

He who has the greatest power put into his hands will only become the more impatient of any restraint in the use of it.

Don't talk about what you have done or what you are going to do.

The best revenge is to be unlike him who performed the injury.

Let none say, I will not drinke water.

Nothing is more like a wise man than a fool who holds his tongue.

Let silence be your general rule; or say only what is necessary and in few words.

Even in war moral power is to physical as three parts out of four.

It is, indeed, a fact that, in the midst of society and sociability every evil inclination has to place itself under such great restraint, don so many masks, lay itself so often on the procrustean bed of virtue, that one could well speak of a martyrdom of the evil man. In solitude all this falls away. He who is evil is at his most evil in solitude: which is where he is at his best - and thus to the eye of him who sees everywhere only a spectacle also at his most beautiful.

It never was my thinking that made the big money for me. It always was my sitting.

Think a lot, say little, and write nothing.

Silence is the greatest ornament of the woman.

I never use my sword when the lash suffices, nor the lash when my tongue is enough.

I have often regretted my speech, never my silence.

Meekness: Uncommon patience in planning a revenge that is worth while.

Complete abstinence is easier than perfect moderation.

The more you know the less you need to say.

If one must drink, then let one drink thrice a month, for more is bad. If one gets drunk twice a month, it is better; if one gets drunk once a month, that is better still; and if one doesn't drink at all, that is the best of all.

If an injury has to be done to a man it should be so severe that his vengeance need not be feared.

Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.

Without freedom, no art; art lives only on the restraints it imposes on itself, and dies of all others.

Temperance is a mean with regard to pleasures.

It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.