Quotes About Moderation

“When the fear of death leaves us, the destructive craving for life leaves us too. We can then restrict our desires and our demands to our natural requirements. The dreams of power and happiness and luxury and far-off places, which are used to create artificial wants, no longer entice us. They have become ludicrous. So we shall use only what we really need, and shall no longer be prepared to go along with the lunacy of extravagance and waste. We do not even need solemn appeals for saving and moderation; for life itself is glorious, and here joy in existence can be had for nothing.”

— Jürgen Moltmann

“Moderation in temper is always a virtue; but moderation in principle is always a vice.”

— Thomas Paine

“Wisdom comes through suffering.
Trouble, with its memories of pain,
Drips in our hearts as we try to sleep,
So men against their will
Learn to practice moderation.
Favours come to us from gods.”

— Aeschylus

“The essence of war is violence and moderation in war is imbecility.
-Admiral Jacky Fisher of the British Navy”

— Erik Larson

“And so this added consideration - that she never get pregnant - contributed to the moderation of their coupling, which was almost always managed under conditions harsh enough to win the approval of New England's founding fathers”

— John Irving

“I've learned from my French husband and the way they eat, it's all about moderation. And that's really sustainable.”

— Kim Raver

“I'm reading a lot of different books, but I always think I have to switch it up a little bit. It's like food - everything in moderation, same with my books, same with my reading. You read books that are good for you and you learn a lot of stuff, then you read 'Fifty Shades of Grey,' which is like candy.”

— Shay Mitchell

“I want, once and for all,
not to know many things.
Wisdom requires moderation in knowledge
as in other things.”

— Friedrich Nietzsche

“I mean, moderation, not deprivation. That's my new way of living.”

— Carnie Wilson

“I work out, and I try to stay active and fit so I can enjoy certain foods that I like to eat. I try to keep everything in moderation. I used to be insane about it.”

— Cameron Mathison

“I say 'no' to nothing, 'yes' to moderation. That's how I approach everything. No matter if it's candy or foie gras. When you have the real deal, you're satisfied with that one bite. I say go full throttle and call it a day.”

— Carla Hall

“Massages are my favorite. Sometimes just getting myself outside for a walk if I'm really busy can be an indulgence. I love taking naps. I love to stay up too late with close friends. I believe in everything in moderation. I take what I like and leave what I don't.”

— Taylor Schilling

“Ben & Jerry's is an indulgent dessert that should be eaten in moderation. You should not be replacing more than one meal a day with ice cream. We do not consider a pint or a tub of ice cream to be a single serving.”

— Jerry Greenfield

“Marianne's abilities were, in many respects, quite equal to Elinor's. She was sensible and clever; but eager in everything: her sorrows, her joys, could have no moderation. She was generous, amiable, interesting: she was everything but prudent. The resemblance between her and her mother was strikingly great.”

— Jane Austen

“It may well have been, too, that the smiling moderation with which she faced and answered these blasphemies, that this tender and hypocritical rebuke appeared to her frank and generous nature as a particularly shameful and seductive form of that criminal attitude towards life which she was endeavouring to adopt. But she could not resist the attraction of being treated with affection by a woman who had just shewn herself so implacable towards the defenceless dead; she sprang on to the knees of her friend and held out a chaste brow to be kissed; ...”

— Marcel Proust

“I'm not a fanatic about exercising. For me, it's about moderation and balance.”

— Halle Berry

“Only actions give life strength; only moderation gives it charm.”

— Jean Paul

“An overall trend of political moderation in Latin America makes for far less interesting headlines, but it also makes for far better lives for our people.”

— Oscar Arias

“There is moderation even in excess.”

— Benjamin Disraeli

“For while we are enclosed in these confinements of the body, we perform as a kind of duty the heavy task of necessity; for the soul from heaven has been cast down from its dwelling on high and sunk, as it were, into the earth, a place just the opposite to godlike nature and eternity. But I believe that the immortal gods have sown souls in human bodies so there might exist beings to guard the world and after contemplating the order of heaven, might imitate it by their moderation and steadfastness in life.”

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

“Whilst shame keeps its watch, virtue is not wholly extinguished in the heart; nor will moderation be utterly exiled from the minds of tyrants.”

— Edmund Burke

“If one oversteps the bounds of moderation, the greatest pleasures cease to please.”

— Epictetus

“Water, taken in moderation, cannot hurt anybody.”

— Mark Twain

“Love moderately. Long love doth so.
Too swift arrives as tardy as too slow.
*Love each other in moderation. That is the key to long-lasting love. Too fast is as bad as too slow.*”

— William Shakespeare

“In the early sixties, the notion that racism was not acceptable even in certain regions or certain clubs or certain circumstances-the notion that it could not be treated with moderation-was a notion largely confined to black people.”

— Calvin Trillin

“To fit in with the change of events, words, too, had to change their usual meanings. What used to be described as a thoughtless act of aggression was now regarded as the courage one would expect to find in a party member; to think of the future and wait was merely another way of saying one was a coward; any idea of moderation was just an attempt to disguise one's unmanly character; ability to understand a question from all sides meant that one was totally unfitted for action. Fanatical enthusiasm was the mark of a real man, and to plot against an enemy behind his back was perfectly legitimate self-defence. Anyone who held violent opinions could always be trusted, and anyone who objected to them became a suspect.”

— Thucydides

“If we want our civilization to survive, we have to watch for the extremes. We have to reclaim our morality, both individually and as the society. To protect ourselves from extremisms, we have to maintain moderation.”

— Ali Sina

“If you embrace moderation, eat whole foods instead of junk, live within your physical, monetary, and environmental budget rather than constantly exceeding it, you will lose weight, tread more lightly on the planet, and gain satisfaction from these things.”

— Mark Bittman

“The fine arts, both in those who cultivate and those only who admire them, open and expand the mind to great ideas. They inspire liberal feelings, create a harmony of temper, favorable to a sense of justice and a habit of moderation in our social intercourse.”

— Joel Barlow

“He [John Hampden] knew that the essence of war is violence, and that moderation in war is imbecility.”

— Nathan Rothschild, 1st Baron Rothschild

“Brand-name growth stocks ordinarily command the highest p/e ratios. Rising prices beget attention, and vice versa - but only to a point. Eventually their growth rate can diminish as results revert towards normal. Maybe not in all cases, but often enough to make a long-term bet. Bottom line: I wouldn't want to get caught in a rush for the exit, much less get left behind. Only when big growth stocks fall into the dumper from time to time am I inclined to pick them up - and even then, only in moderation.”

— John Neff

“Misfortune occurs or can occur to anyone, of any sort of character. The eudaimonic has more resources to avoid it (being in autonomous control of his appetites and assumptions) and more resources to deal with it if it occurs (being better able to put it in perspective and maintain his own evenness of self-mastery). Tragedy as a dramatic form is meant to foster the ethos of sophrosyne or moderation, "nothing to excess"; it nurtures a sense of distance from the dominant illusions and delusions that may infect even aristoi.”

— Kenny Smith

“Mozart's joy is made of serenity, and a phrase of his music is like a calm thought; his simplicity is merely purity. It is a crystalline thing in which all the emotions play a role, but as if already celestially transposed. Moderation consists in feeling emotions as the angels do.”

— Andre Gide

“I enjoy it once in a while. There is nothing wrong with that. Everything in moderation. I wouldn't call myself a pot-head.”

— Jennifer Aniston

“To one degree or another we all struggle with selfishness. Since it is so common, why worry about selfishness anyway? Because selfishness is really self-destruction in slow motion. No wonder the Prophet Joseph Smith urged, "Let every selfish feeling be not only buried, but annihilated" (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 178). Hence annihilation - not moderation - is the destination! ... Meekness is the real cure, for it does not merely mask selfishness but dissolves it!”

— Neal A. Maxwell

“Moderation, the noblest gift of Heaven.”

— Euripides

“A reasonable man needs only to practice moderation to find happiness.”

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

“Out of moderation a pure happiness springs.”

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

“Carefully observe the natural laws in operation in the world around you, and live by them. From following them, you will learn the morality of modesty, moderation, compassion, and consideration (not just one society's rules and regulations), the wisdom of seeing things as they are (not of merely collecting "facts" about them), and the happiness of being in harmony with the Way (which has nothing to do with self-righteous "spiritual" obsessions and fanaticism). And you will live lightly, spontaneously, and effortlessly.”

— Benjamin Hoff

“Moderation is an ostentatious proof of our strength of character ...”

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

“Moderation resembles temperance. We are not so unwilling to eat more, as afraid of doing ourselves harm by it.”

— Francois De La Rochefoucauld

“As freedom is the only safeguard of governments, so are order and moderation generally necessary to preserve freedom.”

— Thomas B. Macaulay

“The spiritual traditions of all the religions have certain similarities that are unmistakable. They share many of the same basic practices like sacred reading, spiritual guidance, moderation in eating, drinking and sexual expression, and above all, trying to be aware of the presence of God in other people and in everyday life.”

— Thomas Keating

“Moderation, which consists in indifference about little things, and in a prudent and well-proportioned zeal about things of importance, can proceed from nothing but true knowledge, which has its foundation in self-acquaintance.”

— Plato

“Modern society will find no solution to the ecological problem unless it takes a serious look at its lifestyle. In many parts of the world society is given to instant gratification and consumerism while remaining indifferent to the damage which these attitudes cause. Simplicity, moderation and discipline, as well as a spirit of sacrifice, must become part of everyday life, lest all suffer the negative consequences of the careless habits of a few.”

— Pope John Paul II

“Every one should be his own physician. We ought to assist, and not to force nature. Eat with moderation ... Nothing is good for the body but what we can digest. What medicine can procure digestion? Exercise. What will recruit strength? Sleep.”

— Voltaire

“It goes without saying that moderation and sobriety are of the very essence of vow-taking.”

— Mahatma Gandhi

“As there must be moderation in other things, so there must be moderation in self-criticism. Perpetual contemplation of our own actions produces a morbid consciousness, quite unlike that normal consciousness accompanying right actions spontaneously done; and from a state of unstable equilibrium long maintained by effort, there is apt to be a fall towards stable equilibrium, in which the primitive nature reasserts itself. Retrogression rather than progression may hence result.”

— Herbert Spencer

“The obsession with moderation is the spirit of castrated narrow-mindedness.”

— Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel

“To be brave without compassion, generous without moderation, and rule without refraining from being first in the world, are certain deaths.”

— Laozi