Quotes about Abstinence

Abstinence is a path of choosing between profound suffering or abject failure.  Moderation is a more humane choice.

Abstinence is a perpetual cycly of holiness, misery and corruption.  Balance brings more fulfillment and less suffering.

When you doubt, abstain.

Refrain tonight, and that shall lend a hand of easiness to the next abstinence; the next more easy; for use can almost change the stamp of nature, and either curb the devil, or throw him out with wondrous potency.

The whole duty of man is embraced in the two principles of abstinence and patience: temperance in prosperity, and patient courage in adversity.

To set the mind above the appetites is the end of abstinence, which if not a virtue, is the groundwork of a virtue.

Abstinence is as easy to me, as temperance would be difficult.

If the appetite alone hath sinned, let it alone fast, and it sufficeth. But if the other members also have sinned, why should they not fast, too. . . . Let the eye fast from strange sights and from every wantonness, so that that which roamed in freedom in fault-doing may, abundantly humbled, be checked by penitence. Let the ear, blameably eager to listen, fast from tales and rumors, and from whatsoever is of idle import, and tendeth least to salvation. Let the tongue fast from slanders and murmurings, and from useless, vain, and scurrilous words, and sometimes also, in the seriousness of silence, even from things which may seem of essential import. Let the hand abstain from . . . all toils which are not imperatively necessary. But also let the soul herself abstain from all evils and from acting out her own will. For without such abstinence the other things find no favor with the Lord.

To many, total abstinence is easier than perfect moderation.

Against diseases the strongest fence is the defensive virtue, abstinence.

If he be really and seriously seeking to live a good life, the first thing from which he will abstain will always be the use of animal food, because . . . its use is simply immoral, as it involves the performance of an act which is contrary to the moral feeling - killing.

If a man aspires towards a righteous life, his first act of abstinence is from injury to animals.

He that can apprehend and consider vice with all her baits and seeming pleasures, and yet abstain, and yet distinguish, and yet prefer that which is truly better, he is the true wayfaring Christian. I cannot praise a fugitive and cloistered virtue, unexercised and unbreathed, that never sallies out and sees her adversary, but slinks out of the race, where that immortal garland is to be run for, not without dust and heat. Assuredly we bring not innocence into the world, we bring impurity much rather: that which purifies us is trial, and trial is by what is contrary.

(Paraphrased: As long as an individual's heart is filled with the tendency towards what is other-than-God Most High, there is no Certitude about God.) When certitude about God Most High does occur in the heart . . . the heart becomes tranquil through the Majesty of God; then it abstains from what is other-than-God. So, it stands weak and is compelled to cry out to God for help. Then He who responds to the necessitous when they cry out to Him, responds to it. That radiant light settles into the heart and the darkness of preoccupation with what is other-than-God is extinguished therewith. Then the reality of the Realm (al-Malakut) becomes visible to it, and that is what Harithah meant when he said to the Messenger of God: "It is as if I see the Throne of my Lord distinctly." And the Messenger of God said, "The Light of God Most High is faith in one's heart."

Abstinence is whereby a man refraineth from anything which he may lawfully claim.

Blessed is the man who, having nothing to say, abstains from giving us wordy evidence of the fact.

All philosophy lies in two words, "sustain" and "abstain."

If we would have peace as individuals, we must supplant enmity with forbearance, which means to refrain or abstain from finding fault or from condemning others. . . . We shall have power to do this if we really cherish in our hearts the ideals of Christ, who said: "Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee; Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift." (Matt. 5:23-24) Note the Savior did not say if you have ought against him, but if you find that another has ought against you.

Since the law organizes justice, the socialists ask why the law should not also organize labor, education, and religion. Why should not law be used for these purposes? Because it could not organize labor, education, and religion without destroying justice. We must remember that law is force, and that, consequently, the proper functions of the law cannot lawfully extend beyond the proper functions of force. When law and force keep a person within the bounds of justice, they impose nothing but a mere negation. They oblige him only to abstain from harming others. They violate neither his personality, his liberty, nor his property. They safeguard all of these. They are defensive; they defend equally the rights of all.

Boys should abstain from all use of wine until their eighteenth year, for it is wrong to add fire to fire.

TEETOTALER, n. One who abstains from strong drink, sometimes totally, sometimes tolerably totally.

ABSTAINER, n. A weak person who yields to the temptation of denying himself a pleasure. A total abstainer is one who abstains from everything but abstention, and especially from inactivity in the affairs of others.