45 Self Control Quotes: A Daily Toolkit for Mastery

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A list of inspiring self control quotes created to help you build discipline, master your emotions, and visualize your dreams!

The ability to regulate one’s own thoughts and emotions is the cornerstone of personal and professional excellence – especially for those in leadership positions. Below is a collection of self control quotes curated from some of history’s greatest leaders, thinkers, and philosophers. Whether you’re seeking to cultivate discipline, find calm in chaos, or simply stay on track with your goals, these wise words should prove to be a reliable source of inspiration as you tread the path toward self-mastery!

(by Jonathan M. Pham)

Short Self Control Quotes

  1. He who conquers himself is the mightiest warrior. – Confucius
  1. Self-control is strength. Calmness is mastery. – Morgan Freeman
  1. If you do not conquer self, you will be conquered by self. – Napoleon Hill
  1. Mastering others is strength. Mastering yourself is true power. – Lao Tzu
  1. Discipline is choosing between what you want now and what you want most. – Abraham Lincoln

short self control quotes

Quotes about the importance of self control

Positive Self Control Quotes

  1. With self-discipline, all things are possible. – Theodore Roosevelt
  1. Self-control is the chief element in self-respect, and self-respect is the chief element in courage. – Thucydides
  1. Your ability to discipline yourself to set clear goals and then to work toward them every day will do more to guarantee your success than any other single factor. – Brian Tracy
  1. Rule your mind or it will rule you. – Horace
  1. True mastery transcends any particular art. It stems from mastery of oneself – the ability, developed through self-discipline, to be calm, fully aware, and completely in tune with oneself and the surroundings. – Bruce Lee

Read more: 75 Positive Thinking Quotes – Inspire Your Best Self

true mastery transcends any particular art

Motivational quotes about self control

Lack of Self Control Quotes

  1. He who cannot obey himself will be commanded. That is the nature of living creatures. – Friedrich Nietzsche
  1. A man without self-control is like a city broken into and left without walls. – Proverbs 25:28
  1. One cannot uphold, and withstand other’s conduct if it has a lack of self-control. – Ehsan Sehgal
  1. It is a fact that the majority of a man’s griefs comes about through lack of self-control. – Napoleon Hill
  1. Self-discipline begins with the mastery of your thoughts. If you don’t control what you think, you can’t control what you do. – Napoleon Hill

Read more: 70 Self Reflection Quotes – Looking Inward to Move Forward

lack of self control quotes

No self control quote

Losing Self Control Quotes

  1. Speak when you are angry and you will make the best speech you will ever regret. – Ambrose Bierce
  1. What lies in our power to do, lies in our power not to do. – Aristotle
  1. The more we try to control the things outside of us the more we lose control of our mind. – Jennifer White
  1. Anger is one letter short of danger. – Eleanor Roosevelt
  1. If you lose self-control, everything will fall. – John Wooden

Read more: 50 Essential Emotional Intelligence Quotes for Success

if you lose self-control everything will fall

Quotes about self regulation

Patience and Self Control Quotes

  1. Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet. – Jean-Jacques Rousseau
  1. The strong man is not the good wrestler; the strong man is only the one who controls himself when he is angry. – Prophet Muhammad
  1. Endurance is nobler than strength, and patience than beauty. – John Ruskin
  1. A man who is a master of patience is master of everything else. – George Savile
  1. To lose patience is to lose the battle. – Mahatma Gandhi

Read more: 85 Resilience Quotes for Work – A Dose of Workplace Fortitude

to lose patience is to lose the battle

Quotes about self control and willpower

Self Leadership & Self Management Quotes

  1. Self-leadership is the DNA of life leadership. It is the core of leading yourself and others. – Gary Ryan Blair
  1. Self-leadership is about awareness, tolerance, and not letting your own natural tendencies limit your potential. – Scott Belsky
  1. You can’t lead others if you can’t lead yourself. – Andrew Bryant
  1. You have power over your mind—not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength. – Marcus Aurelius
  1. The first and best victory is to conquer self. – Plato

Read more: 110 Leadership Quotes to Unlock Greatness

the first and best victory is to conquer self

Quotes about self mastery

Self Discipline Quotes

  1. Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment. – Jim Rohn
  1. It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop. – Confucius
  1. Success isn’t always about greatness. It’s about consistency. – Dwayne Johnson
  1. We must all suffer one of two things: the pain of discipline or the pain of regret. – Jim Rohn
  1. Discipline equals freedom. – Jocko Willink

Read more: 40 Accountability Quotes – The Glue That Binds

discipline equals freedom

Discipline and self control quotes

Stoic Quotes about Self Control

  1. No man is free who is not master of himself. – Epictetus
  1. If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it. – Marcus Aurelius
  1. We suffer more often in imagination than in reality. – Seneca
  1. He who angers you conquers you. – Elizabeth Kenny
  1. Man conquers the world by conquering himself. – Zeno of Citium

man conquers the world by conquering himself

Quotes about impulse control

Funny Self Control Quotes

  1. I can resist everything except temptation. – Oscar Wilde
  1. I am so clever that sometimes I don’t understand a single word of what I am saying. – Oscar Wilde
  1. Giving up smoking is the easiest thing in the world. I know because I’ve done it thousands of times. – Mark Twain
  1. Getting mad at him for being who he is makes as much sense as getting mad at our desk for being a desk. – Marshall Goldsmith
  1. If A is a success in life, then A equals x plus y plus z. Work is x; y is play; and z is keeping your mouth shut. – Albert Einstein

funny self control quotes

Best self control quotes and sayings

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