quotations about abstinence
Against diseases here the strongest fence
Is the defensive virtue, abstinence.
ROBERT HERRICK
Abstinence
Refrain tonight,
And that shall lend a kind of easiness
To the next abstinence: the next more easy;
For use almost can change the stamp of nature.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
Hamlet
Refin'd himself to Soul, to curb the Sense;
And made almost a Sin of Abstinence.
JOHN DRYDEN
The Character of a Good Parson
I never stole a thing, a toy or a kiss
My conscience is a clear as can be
And when I was a teen, all the sex that I missed
Was an abstinence blessing to me
ALICE COOPER
"It's Much Too Late"
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.
ANNE BRONTË
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
Abstinence is perfectly reasonable in theory ... it just doesn't work in practice. It's like dieting. You can go a day or two, maybe even a week. But eventually that pizza just smells too good.
TOM PERROTTA
The Abstinence Teacher
Abstinence from low pleasures is the only means of meriting or of obtaining the higher.
WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR
Imaginary Conversations
Abstainer, n. A weak person who yields to the temptation of denying himself a pleasure.
AMBROSE BIERCE
The Devil's Dictionary
Abstinence is whereby a man refraineth from anything which he may lawfully take.
THOMAS ELYOT
The Governour
Abstinence is the best remedy for those diseases arising from gluttony.
GALEN
attributed, Day's Collacon
The great sexual energy that one has on abstinence can be transformed into art, poetry, dance, and inventions.
GIRDHAR JOSHI
Some Mistakes Have No Pardon
Having eaten a little yesterday, I am sensibly better to-day, for abstinence makes me ill for the present, whatever its ultimate effects may be.
HUGH SWINTON LEGARÉ
Diary of Brussels