A man who has not passed through the inferno of his passions has never overcome them.
Only the disciplined ones in life are free. If you are undisciplined, you are a slave to your moods and your passions.
Experience proves that in this life peace and satisfaction are had, not by the listless but by those who are fervent in God's service. And rightly so. For in their effort to overcome themselves and to rid themselves of self-love, they rid themselves of the roots of all passion and unrest.
Strength of mind rests in sobriety; for this keeps your reason unclouded by passion.
Virtue does not consist in the absence of the passions, but in the control of them.
I tend to wear my emotions on my sleeve. I've had my share of mood swings, believe me. But it's a powerful thing when you realize that you have dominion over your behavior and your passions.
Women can less easily surmount their coquetry than their passions.
Spiritual health is no more stable than bodily; and though we may seem unaffected by the passions we are just as liable to be carried away by them as to fall ill when in good health.
Even those who have the weakest souls could acquire absolute mastery over all their passions if we employed sufficient ingenuity in training and guiding them.
Whoever desires Paradise, proceeds towards goodness; whoever fears Hell, refrains from the impulses of passions; whoever believes firmly in death, detests wordly life; and whoever recognises the worldly life, the trials and tribulations (of life) become slight for him.
Nevertheless the passions, whether violent or not, should never be so expressed as to reach the point of disgust.
Temperance is reason's girdle and passion's bridle, the strength of the soul and the foundation of virtue.
This, indeed, is one of the eternal paradoxes of both life and literature-that without passion little gets done; yet, without control of that passion, its effects are largely ill or null.
Examine from time to time what are the dominant passions of your soul, and having ascertained this, mold your life, so that in thought, word, and deed you may as far as possible counteract them.
He who reigns within himself and rules passions, desires, and fears is more than a king.
Subdue your passion or it will subdue you.
Anyone who seeks to destroy the passions instead of controlling them is trying to play the angel.
A man who cannot control his temper is not very likely to control his passions.
An unreflective mind is a poor roof. Passion, like the rain, floods the house. But if the roof is strong, there is shelter. Whoever follows impure thoughts Suffers in this world and the next. In both worlds he suffers And how greatly.
All passions that suffer themselves to be relished and digested are but moderate.
A strong human spirit with control over appetites of the flesh is master over emotions and passions and not a slave to them. That kind of freedom is as vital to the spirit as oxygen is to the body! Freedom from self-slavery is true liberation!
Women can more easily conquer their passion than their coquetterie.
The health of the soul is as precarious as that of the body; for when we seem secure from passions, we are no less in danger of their infection than we are of falling ill when we appear to be well.
Charity bestowed upon those who are worthy of it is like good seed sown on a good soil that yields an abundance of fruits. But alms given to those who are yet under the tyrannical yoke of the passions are like seed deposited in a bad soil. The passions of the receiver of the alms choke, as it were, the growth of merits.
Such excess of passion is quite out of fashion
