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Temperance Quotes

Browse 228 quotes about Temperance.

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Temperance Quotes

“For moral excellence is concerned with pleasures and pains; it is on account of pleasure that we do bad things, and on account of pain that we abstain from noble ones. Hence we ought to have been brought up in a particular way from our very youth, as Plato says, so as both to delight in and to be pained by the things that we ought; for this is the right education.”

PleasureVirtueMoralityEthicsPlatoTemperanceAristotle
Book:Nicomachean Ethics
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“Thus Epicurus also, when he designs to destroy the natural fellowship of mankind, at the same time makes use of that which he destroys. For what does he say? ‘Be not deceived, men, nor be led astray, nor be mistaken: there is no natural fellowship among rational animals; believe me. But those who say otherwise, deceive you and seduce you by false reasons.’—What is this to you? Permit us to be deceived. Will you fare worse, if all the rest of us are persuaded that there is a natural fellowship among us, and that it ought by all means to be preserved? Nay, it will be much better and safer for you. Man, why do you trouble yourself about us? Why do you keep awake for us? Why do you light your lamp? Why do you rise early? Why do you write so many books, that no one of us may be deceived about the gods and believe that they take care of men; or that no one may suppose the nature of good to be other than pleasure? For if this is so, lie down and sleep, and lead the life of a worm, of which you judged yourself worthy: eat and drink, and enjoy women, and ease yourself, and snore. And what is it to you, how the rest shall think about these things, whether right or wrong? For what have we to do with you? You take care of sheep because they supply us with wool and milk, and last of all with their flesh. Would it not be a desirable thing if men could be lulled and enchanted by the Stoics, and sleep and present themselves to you and to those like you to be shorn and milked? For this you ought to say to your brother Epicureans: but ought you not to conceal it from others, and particularly before every thing to persuade them, that we are by nature adapted for fellowship, that temperance is a good thing; in order that all things may be secured for you? Or ought we to maintain this fellowship with some and not with others? With whom then ought we to maintain it? With such as on their part also maintain it, or with such as violate this fellowship? And who violate it more than you who establish such doctrines? What then was it that waked Epicurus from his sleepiness, and compelled him to write what he did write?”

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Book:The Discourses
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“Remember that greed, envy, pride, anger, gluttony, laziness, lies, and pride cannot triumph against an intelligent mind, honest heart, and holistic soul who lives with faith, love, humility, patience, temperance, diligence, truthfulness, and generosity. ~Angelica Hopes, an excerpt from Speranza Odyssey Trilogy”

HonestyPatienceDiligenceTemperanceAngelica HopesSperanza Odyssey Trilogy
Book:Landscapes of a Heart, Whispers of a Soul
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“It is true that even then it [alcohol] was known and acknowledged that many were greatly injured by it; but none seemed to think the injury arose from the use of a bad thing, but from the abuse of a very good thing. The victims of it were to be pitied and compassionated, just as are the heirs of consumption and other hereditary diseases. Their failing was treated as a misfortune, and not as a crime, or even as a disgrace. If, then, what I have been saying is true, is it wonderful that some should think and act now as all thought and acted twenty years ago? and is it just to assail, condemn, or despise them for doing so? The universal sense of mankind on any subject is an argument, or at least an influence, not easily overcome. The success of the argument in favor of the existence of an overruling Providence mainly depends upon that sense; and men ought not in justice to be denounced for yielding to it in any case, or giving it up slowly, especially when they are backed by interest, fixed habits, or burning appetites.”

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Author:Abraham Lincoln
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“It is a mistake to think that Christians ought all to be teetotallers; Of course it may be the duty of a particular Christian, or of any Christian, at a particular time, to abstain from strong drink, either because he is the sort of man who cannot drink at all without drinking too much, or because he wants to give the money to the poor, or because he is with people who are inclined to drunkenness and must not encourage them by drinking himself. But the whole point is that he is abstaining, for a good reason, from something which he does not condemn and which he likes to see other people enjoying. One of the marks of a certain type of bad man is that he cannot give up a thing himself without wanting everyone else to give it up. That is not the Christian way. An individual Christian may see fit to give up all sorts of things for special reasons—marriage, or meat, or beer, or the cinema; but the moment he starts saying the things are bad in themselves, or looking down his nose at other people who do use them, he has taken the wrong turning. One great piece of mischief has been done by the modern restriction of the word Temperance to the question of drink. It helps people to forget that you can be just as intemperate about lots of other things. A man who makes his golf or his motor-bicycle the centre of his life, or a woman who devotes all her thoughts to clothes or bridge or her dog, is being just as "intemperate" as someone who gets drunk every evening. Of course, it does not show on the outside so easily: bridge-mania or golf-mania do not make you fall down in the middle of the road. But God is not deceived by externals.”

UnderstandingEmpathyPatienceWineDrinkingTemperanceTeetotallers
Book:Mere Christianity
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“And Cyrus, they say, observed: 'How much trouble you have at your dinner, grandfather, if you have to reach out your hands to all these dishes and taste all these different kinds of food!' 'Why so?' said Astyages. 'Really now, don't you think this dinner much finer than your Persian dinners?' 'No, grandfather,' Cyrus replied to this; 'but the road to satiety is much more simple and direct in our country than with you; for bread and meat take us there; but you, though you make for the same goal as we, go wandering through many a maze, up and down, and only arrive at last at the point that we long since have reached.”

PhilosophyWisdomVirtueFoodHungerTemperancePersiaSatietySpartaCyrus
Book:Cyropaedia, Volume 1, books 1-4
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“It is the power of temperance, the steadying hand of wisdom, and the warmth of love for all that shapes my words even in the midst of the most heightened of disagreements. For if I allow temperance, wisdom and the warmth of love to guide any engagement I may have (even though it might be one with my most hostile enemy), I will have set the stage for a place where seemingly unassailable walls can come down, hands can be extended in unexpected friendship, and the impossible is made impossibly possible.”

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Author:Craig D. Lounsbrough
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“I have heard that, with some persons, temperance – that is, moderation – is almost impossible; and if abstinence be an evil (which some have doubted), no one will deny that excess is a greater. Some parents have entirely prohibited their children from tasting intoxicating liquors; but a parent’s authority cannot last for ever; children are naturally prone to hanker after forbidden things; and a child, in such a case, would be likely to have a strong curiosity to taste, and try the effect of what has been so lauded and enjoyed by others, so strictly forbidden to himself – which curiosity would generally be gratified on the first convenient opportunity; and the restraint once broken, serious consequences might ensue.”

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Author:Anne Brontë
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“What wisdom and what virtue there is in judging oneself truly and in remaining oneself! You have a part that only you can play; and your business is to play it to perfection, instead of trying to force fortune. Our lives are not interchangeable. Equally by aiming too high and by falling too low, one misses the path to the goal. Go straight ahead, in your own way, with God for guide.”

StudyHumilityVocationPrudenceTemperanceLimitationsStudiousness
Book:The Intellectual Life: Its Spirit, Conditions, Methods
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“Clémentine viewed good deeds as trickery; sensitivity, a weakness from which we must protect ourselves; modesty, an error that always disadvantages the charms of one who's pretty; sincerity, an idiocy that makes a fool; humility, an absurdity; temperance, a deprivation for the best years of one's life; and religion, laughable hypocrisy.”

ReligionHumilitySincerityModestyGood DeedsTemperanceLéonore S Story
Book:Aline and Valcour, or, the Philosophical Novel, Vol. III
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“The happiness of a Nation consists in true Religion, Piety, Justice, Prudence, Temperance, Fortitude, and the contempt of Avarice and Ambition. They in whomsoever these virtues dwell eminently, need not Kings to make them happy, but are the architects of their own happiness; and whether to themselves or others are not less than Kings.”

HappinessReligionJusticeFreedomLibertySelfishnessMonarchyTemperanceRepublicanismParliamentarianism
Book:Eikonoklastes. In answer to a book intitled, Eikon Basilike, the portraiture of his Sacred Majesty in his solitudes and sufferings. A new edition, corrected by the late Reverend Richard Baron.
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“The Napoleon of Temperance” or “Father of Prohibition,” activist Neal S. Dow helped to construct the “Maine Law” of 1851, outlawing the use of alcohol for reasons other than mechanical or medicinal purposes. He was the mayor of the city when “The Portland Rum Riot” broke out, leading to the militia shooting into the crowds. One person was killed and seven wounded when the people demanded to know why there was rum stored in the City Hall. Early in the American Civil War, on November 23, 1861, former mayor Dow was commissioned as a Colonel in the 13th Maine Infantry. On April 28th of the following year, he received a commission as Brigadier General in the Union Army. His service included commanding two captured Confederate forts near New Orleans and fighting in the siege of Port Hudson, Louisiana. During this skirmish he was wounded and later captured. General Dow was traded and gained his freedom 8 months later from General William H. F. Lee, the son of Robert E. Lee. Neal S. Dow died on October 2, 1897, and was buried in the Evergreen Cemetery in Portland. His home, the Neal S. Dow house built in 1829, was used as a stop for slaves on the “Maine Underground Railway” and is located at 714 Congress Street in Portland. The historic building is now the home of the Maine Women's Christian Temperance Union.”

AlcoholMmaTemperanceCaptain Hank BrackerMaine HistoryCivil War NarrativePortland Maine
Book:Salty & Saucy Maine: Sea Stories from Castine
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“Mammon ni mungu wa pesa wa kuzimu anayesimamia mambo yote ya kifedha ulimwenguni. Ni miongoni mwa mashetani saba waliotupwa na Mwenyezi Mungu hapa duniani kutokea mbinguni akiwemo Ibilisi, Beelzebub, Asmodeus, Leviathan, Amon na Belphegor. Ibilisi ni mungu wa kiburi, Beelzebub ni mungu wa uroho, Asmodeus ni mungu wa zinaa, Leviathan ni mungu wa wivu, Amon ni mungu wa hasira na Belphegor ni mungu wa uvivu. Jukumu la mashetani hawa ni kusimamia kwa uaminifu mkubwa kutokea kuzimu dhambi kubwa saba duniani ambazo ni kiburi, uroho, zinaa, wivu, hasira, uvivu na uchoyo. Dawa ya dhambi hizo ni busara, kiasi, ujasiri, imani, haki, tumaini na upendo.”

WorldLoveGodFaithHopeHeavenJusticeCourageHellHonestyPrideCharityLustWrathPrudenceFortitudeSlothTemperanceAlmighty GodMunguLuciferGluttonyLeviathanSeven Deadly SinsImaniMwenyezi MunguUpendoAsmodeusMbinguniHasiraHakiDunianiKiburiMammonIbilisiUaminifuUvivuAmonUjasiriBeelzebubBusaraKiasiKuzimuMalicious EnvyWivuBelphegorTumainiUrohoZinaaDhambi Kubwa SabaGod Of MoneyJukumu La MashetaniMashetani SabaMungu Wa PesaRole Of DevilsSeven Devils
Author:Enock Maregesi
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“We classify the positive traits that protect us from excess as strengths of temperance. What are the types of excess of special concern? Hatred—against which forgiveness and mercy protect us. Arrogance—against which humility and modesty protect us. Short-term pleasure with long-term costs—against which prudence protects us. And destabilizing emotional extremes of all sorts—against which self-regulation protects us.”

HateHumilityForgivenessMercyArroganceExcessModestyPrudenceTemperance
Book:Character Strengths and Virtues: A Handbook and Classification
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“Abstinence is the surety of temperance.”

TemperanceAbstinence
Book:Wit and Wisdom of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle: Being a Treasury of Thousands of Glorious, Inspiring and Imperishable Thoughts, Views and Observations of the Three Great Greek Philosophers, Classified Under about Four Hundred Subjects for Comparative Study
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“Except thou desire to hasten thine end, take this for a general rule, that thou never add any artificial heat to thy body by wine or spice.”

EndsBodyDesireWineAddHeatArtificialSpicesTemperance
Book:The Works of Sir Walter Ralegh: Kt. Political, Commercial, and Philosophical; Together with His Letters and Poems. The Whole Never Before Collected Together, and Some Never Yet Printed. To which is Prefix'd, a New Account of His Life by Tho. Birch
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“O madness to think use of strongest wines And strongest drinks our chief support of health, When God with these forbidden made choice to rear His mighty champion, strong above compare, Whose drink was only from the liquid brook.”

ThinkingMadeUseChoicesStrongSupportDrinkMadnessWineChiefsCompareChampionStrongestForbiddenLiquidBrooksTemperance
Book:The Poetical Works of John Milton: With a Life of the Author, Preliminary Dissertations on Each Poem, Notes Critical and Explanatory, an Index to the Subjects of Paradise Lost, and a Verbal Index to All the Poems
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