Abstains Quotes & Sayings

If the large power voluntarily abstains from using its full power or feels the strategic situation to be such that it cannot do so, it in effect loses the advantage of being a big power. — Elliot Richardson

Most often the earlier a cult member is approached through an intervention the more likely they are to be responsive. — Rick Ross

Everything begins only to end. The moment you were born you began to die. That's how it is with everything. — Janne Teller

Who is there that abstains from reading that which is printed in abuse of himself? — Anthony Trollope

The true smoker abstains from imitating Vesuvius. — Auguste-Marseille Barthelemy

I create little challenges for myself, like, 'Okay, whatever you do in this song, you've got to somehow work in Greek Cypriots,' or something like that. — Andrew Bird

The Prophet said in a sermon: Blessed is he whose concern for his own faults keeps him away of finding fault of others, who spends out of his lawful earnings, keeps company with theologians and the wise, and spurns the sinners and the wicked people. Blessed is he who humbles himself, makes his conduct refined, heart good and does not do harm to the people. Blessed is he who acts up to his knowledge, spends his surplus wealth, abstains from superfluous talks, follows sunnah and does not introduce innovations. — Abu Hamid Al-Ghazali

Still, a prince should make himself feared in such a way that if he does not gain love, he at any rate avoids hatred; for fear and the absence of hatred may well go together, and will be always attained by one who abstains from interfering with the property of his citizens and subjects or with their women. — Niccolo Machiavelli

The unique point of view from which the author can present the world to those freedoms whose concurrence he wishes to bring about is that of a world to be impregnated always with more freedom. It would be inconceivable that this unleashing of generosity provoked by the writer could be used to authorize an injustice, and that the reader could enjoy his freedom while reading a work which approves or accepts or simply abstains from condemning the subjection of man by man. In — Thomas R. Flynn

You might wish to revisit your understanding of the word everything." Gregory turned to his mother.
"Vocabulary and comprehension were never her strong suits."
Violet rolled her eyes. "Every day I marvel that the two of you managed to reach adulthood."
"Afraid we'd kill each other?" Gregory quipped.
"No, that I'd do the job myself. — Julia Quinn

He who has mastery over his incensive power has mastery also over the demons. But anyone who is a slave to it is a stranger to the ways of the Saviour, for as the Saviour enjoined us: 'Learn from Me; for I am gentle and humble in heart: and you will find rest for your souls' (Mt. 11:29). Now if a man abstains from food and drink, but becomes incensed to wrath because of evil thoughts, he is like a ship sailing the open sea with a demon for a pilot. — Evagrius Ponticus

I don't know why one can't chase two rabbits at the same time, even in the literal sense of those words. If you have the hounds, go ahead and pursue. — Anton Chekhov

The man who barely abstains from violating either the person, or the estate, or the reputation of his neighbours, has surely very little positive merit. He fulfils, however, all the rules of what is peculiarly called justice, and does every thing which his equals can with propriety force him to do, or which they can punish him for not doing. We may often fulfil all the rules of justice by sitting still and doing nothing. — Adam Smith

A total abstainer is one who abstains from everything but abstention, and especially from inactivity in the affairs of others. — Ambrose Bierce

If a man deliberately abstains from wine to such an extent that he does serious harm to his nature, he will not be free from blame. — Thomas Aquinas

He who abstains from anything animate ... will be much more careful not to injure those of his own species. For he who loves the genus will not hate any species of animals. — Porphyry

for those who come so far. Some call this island the World's End, for though you can sail further, this is the beginning of the end. — C.S. Lewis

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

The Reverend grinned, his fangs flashing. "You know, I've heard this rumor ... about a member of the Brotherhood who's celibate. Yeah, go figure, a warrior who abstains. And I've heard a few other things about this male. He's down to one leg. Has a scarred sociopath for a twin. You wouldn't by any chance know of such a Brother?" Phury shook his head. "Nope. — J.R. Ward

Clean energy is hippy power. But its also cowboy power, it's rancher power, it's Appalachian power. — Van Jones

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

The industrialist (your boss, perhaps) demands that everything be proven, efficient, and risk free. The artist seeks none of these. The value of art is in your willingness to stare down the risk and to embrace the void of possible failure. — Seth Godin

Happy New Year' is a festive form of address often uttered without thinking. Yet how many souls will in fact be happy in the coming year is a taxing question requiring a great deal more thought. — Alex Morritt

I have always taken as the standard of the mode of teaching and writing, not the abstract, particular, professional philosopher, but universal man, that I have regarded man as the criterion of truth, and not this or that founder of a system, and have from the first placed the highest excellence of the philosopher in this, that he abstains, both as a man and as an author, from the ostentation of philosophy, i. e., that he is a philosopher only in reality, not formally, that he is a quiet philosopher, not a loud and still less a brawling one. — Ludwig Feuerbach

From the gut comes the strut, and where hunger reigns, strength abstains. — Francois Rabelais

Economics is a theoretical science and as such abstains from any judgement of value. It is not its task to tell people what ends they should aim at. It is a science of the means to be applied for attainment of ends chosen, not, to be sure, a science of the choosing of ends. Ultimate decisions, the valuations and the choosing of ends, are beyond the scope of any science. Science never tells a man how he should act; it merely shows how a man must act if he wants to attain definite ends. — Ludwig Von Mises

Johnson is wise, Boswell foolish; Johnson warns and abstains, Boswell plunges; Johnson is rather a great man writing than a greatwriter, Boswell is a great writer and an ordinary man; and they are two of a kind, abysmal melancholics and compulsive socializers, afraid of solitude and afraid of death and dissolution, victims of themselves, meant for each other, needing each other, needing evidence and arguments (Boswell is a lawyer, Johnson magisterially dictates to him some of his briefs), making beautiful models of rational discourse out of the useful substance of all they know ... — Marvin Mudrick