Restraint Quotes

“Among my most prized possessions are words that I have never spoken.”
― Orson Scott Card

“People hide their truest nature. I understood that; I even applauded it. What sort of world would it be if people bled all over the sidewalks, if they wept under trees, smacked whomever they despised, kissed strangers, revealed themselves?”
― Alice Hoffman, The Ice Queen

“The Fremen were supreme in that quality the ancients called "spannungsbogen" -- which is the self-imposed delay between desire for a thing and the act of reaching out to grasp that thing.”
― Frank Herbert, Dune

“What good is power when you're too wise to use it?”
― Ursula K. Le Guin, A Wizard of Earthsea

“When you give yourself to me, completely, I will bite you. Until then, my love, I will only nibble on you.”~Cole”
― Tina Carreiro, Power of the Moon

“The path of peace is not a passive journey. It takes incredible strength not to open a can of 'whoop-ass', justifiably, when ones button is pushed.”
― T.F. Hodge, From Within I Rise: Spiritual Triumph over Death and Conscious Encounters With the Divine Presence

“Even though we are tied down, it doesn’t stop us from flying. In fact, sometimes we dare to fly for the very reason that we are tied. There can be no freedom without restraint. Only one who has restraints knows what it means to have freedom.”
― Abhaidev, The Meaninglessness of Meaning

“The world needs someone they can admire from a distance; from a very far distance.”
― Michael Bassey Johnson

“Did someone actually have to do bad things to be a bad boy, or was it all about the potential? If it was the potential that counted, then maybe it was the restraint that was so sexy, knowing that he could do something dangerous and powerful but had the restraint not to.”
― Shanna Swendson, Enchanted, Inc.

“Ask yourself the three things you must always ask yourself before you say anything. 1) Does this need to be said 2) “Does this need to be said by me? 3) Does this need to be said by me now?”
― Craig Ferguson

“We must limit our actions to the essentials, as we’ve been overshooting the planet’s resources for the last half-century.”
― Suman Pokhrel

“Common man's patience will bring him more happiness than common man's power.”
― Amit Kalantri, Wealth of Words

“I'm sorry I was short with him--but I don't like a man to approach me telling me it for my sake.
"Maybe it was," said Wylie
"It's poor technique."
"I'd all for it," said Wylie. "I'm vain as a woman. If anybody pretends to be interested in me, I'll ask for more. I like advice."
Stahr shook his head distastefully. Wylie kept on ribbing him--he was one of those to whom this privilege was permitted. "You fall for some kinds of flattery," he said. "this 'little Napoleon stuff.'"
"It makes me sick," said Stahr, "but it's not as bad as some man trying to help you."
"If you don't like advice, why do you pay me?"
"That's a question of merchandise," said Stahr. "I'm a merchant. I want to buy what's in your mind."
"You're no merchant," said Wylie. "I knew a lot of them when I was a publicity man, and I agree with Charles Francis Adams."
"What did he say?"
"He knew them all--Gould, Vanderbilt, Carnegie, Astor--and he said there wasn't one he'd care to meet again in the hereafter. Well--they haven't improved since then, and that's why I say you're no merchant."
"Adams was probably a sourbelly," said Stahr. "He wanted to be head man himself, but he didn't have the judgement or else the character."
"He had brains," said Wylie rather tartly.
"It takes more than brains. You writers and artists poop out and get all mixed up, and somebody has to come in and straighten you out." He shrugged his shoulders. "You seem to take things so personally, hating people and worshipping them--always thinking people are so important-especially yourselves. You just ask to be kicked around. I like people and I like them to like me, but I wear my heart where God put it--on the inside.”
― F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Last Tycoon

“Her grey, sun-strained eyes stared straight ahead, but she had deliberately shifted our relations, and for a moment I thought I loved her. But I am slow-thinking and full of interior rules that act as brakes on my desires, and I knew that first I had to get myself definitely out of that tangle back home.”
― F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

“The ideas are louder when there are fewer of them.”
― David C. Day

“Having now finished the work assigned me, I retire from the great theatre of Action; and bidding an Affectionate farewell to this August body under whose orders I have so long acted, I here offer my Commission, and take my leave of all the employments of public life. (Address to Congress on Resigning Commission Dec 23, 1783)”
― George Washington, Writings

“Her husband seemed to her now like a person whom she had married without love as an excuse.”
― Kate Chopin, The Awakening

“There must be a better way than to invade Germania!”
― Michael G. Kramer, Full Story of the Anglo-Saxon Invasion

“You have less restraint rather than more as you grow older. Think it over and alter yourself, or we shan't have happy lives.”
― E.M. Forster, Howards End

“The difference between justice and vengeance is restraint.”
― Jeffrey Fry

“You don’t always need to speak. Just because something can be said doesn’t mean it should be. Not every situation needs your opinion, not every moment needs a reaction. Sometimes, silence is your smartest move — not out of fear, but out of clarity. It gives you space to think, to listen, to understand what’s really going on beneath the surface. Words can build or break — and once spoken, you can’t take them back.

Holding back isn’t suppression; it’s choosing not to waste energy where it won’t be valued or understood. It’s knowing the difference between what’s helpful and what’s just noise. In personal life, in work, in conflict — people who master silence often see more, understand more, and carry fewer regrets. In a world that’s quick to react, real strength is choosing to stay quiet — not because you have nothing to say, but because you know not everything needs to be said.”
― Abdul Wahid Sarguroh

“De som har makt over ordene bør være edru blant de rasende.”
― Per Fugelli

“My anger drained away. He was not my adversary. His road would be hard enough without the hurt we might do each other.”
― Madeline Miller, Circe

“I am convinced that I could live my whole life as a monk, despite the sweet animal carnality with which I am endowed, and which I have always managed to summon up.”
― Fyodor Dostoevsky, Demons

“I can control the restraint of my senses, and I can detach from anyone who hurts me with absolute ease”
― Leo Lourdes, A World of Yoga: 700 Asanas for Mindfulness and Well-Being

“Seduction lives in what’s held back. Not to hide, but to leave space for discovery. Without mystery, curiosity dies.”
― Marc Kandalaft

“Sometimes the most significant power lies in what is left unsaid, in restraint, in timing, in the ability to pause.”
― Egbearor Favour

“There's no end to the armory I could get by hanging out in the right bars, but I seldom carry the one gun I do own. Having a weapon makes you want to use it, and if you use yours the other person wants to use theirs, and then one of you gets badly hurt or dead, and the one who survives has to spend a lot of time explaining herself to the state's attorney. All of which takes time from more meaningful work, although you could argue that killing a drug dealer constitutes meaningful work.”
― Sara Paretsky, Critical Mass

“We stood near something that wanted to become revelation but lacked the discipline.”
― Mira Hadlow, Nearly: Poems

“Knowing is not owning.”
― Monika Ajay Kaul