Temperance

"A nation’s ideals are usually a disguise, and are not to be taken as history. Courage and temperance, or manliness(andreia), and the meden agan or “nothing in excess” of the Delphic inscription — are the rival mottoes of the Greek; he realizes the one frequently enough, but the other only in his peasants, philosophers, and saints. CH. XIII The Morals and Manners of the Greeks, Sec V Character, P.377"

"Temperance is that discreet regulation of the desires and passions, by which we are enabled to enjoy pleasures without suffering any consequent inconvenience. They who maintain such a constant self-command, as never to be enticed by the prospect of present indulgence, to do that which will be productive of evil, obtain the truest pleasure by declining pleasure."

"These names of virtues, with their precepts, were: 1. TEMPERANCE. Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation."

"Drink not the third glass, which thou canst not tame, When once it is within thee; but before Mayst rule it, as thou list: and pour the shame, Which it would pour on thee, upon the floor. It is most just to throw that on the ground, Which would throw me there, if I keep the round."

"My experience through life has convinced me that, while moderation and temperance in all things are commendable and beneficial, abstinence from spiritous liquors is the best safeguard of morals and health."

"If all the world Should in a pet of temp'rance, feed on pulse, Drink the clear stream, and nothing wear but frieze, Th' All-giver would be unthank'd, would be unprais'd."

"Impostor; do not charge most innocent Nature, As if she would her children should be riotous With her abundance; she, good cateress, Means her provision only to the good, That live according to her sober laws, And holy dictate of spare temperance."

"Well observe The rule of Not too much, by temperance taught In what thou eat'st and drink'st."

"O madness to think use of strongest wines And strongest drinks our chief support of health, When God with these forbidden made choice to rear His mighty champion, strong above compare, Whose drink was only from the liquid brook."

"Drinking water neither makes a man sick, nor in debt, nor his wife a widow."

"Moses … takes one form of desire, that one whose field of activity is the belly, and admonishes and disciplines it as the first step, holding that the other forms will cease to run riot as before and will be restrained by having learnt that their senior and as it were the leader of their company is obedient to the laws of temperance."

"Reason's whole pleasure, all the joys of Sense, Lie in three words, Health, Peace, and Competence. But Health consists with Temperance alone, And Peace, oh Virtue! Peace is all thy own."

"Nineteenth-century feminists expressed their anger with male sexual domination and promiscuity in a number of movements, including the campaigns against prostitution nd slavery and the fight for temperance. All sections of the women’s movement advocated “voluntary motherhood,”” a slogan that addressed both men’s sexual violation of their wives and women’s desire to control childbearing. Women urged... to adopt a single standard-the female standard of chastity until marriage, followed by monogamy and moderation."

"The history of all peoples is full of bloody and revolting pages. So much blood has been spilled for every new construction, every new teaching or religion! That is why humanity urgently must learn the two great concepts — Tolerance and Cooperation. On these two foundations the New Epoch will be built."

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

"Make less thy body hence, and more thy grace; Leave gormandizing."

"Ask God for temperance; that's the appliance only Which your disease requires."

"Chastity is a monkish and evangelical superstition, a greater foe to natural temperance even than unintellectual sensuality; it strikes at the root of all domestic happiness, and consigns more than half the human race to misery."

"If a workman can conveniently spare those three halfpence, he buys a pot of porter. If he cannot, he contents himself with a pint, and, as a penny saved is a penny got, he thus gains a farthing by his temperance."

"Temperance is reason's girdle and passion's bridle, the strength of the soul, and the foundation of virtue."

"And he that will to bed go sober, Falls with the leaf still in October."

"Of a nature so mild and benign and proportioned to the human constitution as to warm without heating, to cheer but not inebriate. [Tar Water.]"

"Call'd to the temple of impure delight He that abstains, and he alone, does right. If a wish wander that way, call it home; He cannot long be safe whose wishes roam."

"Temp'rate in every place, abroad, at home, Thence will applause, and hence will profit come; And health from either, he in time prepares For sickness, age, and their attendant cares."

"Abstinence is whereby a man refraineth from any thyng which he may lawfully take."

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

"Of my merit On that pint you yourself may jedge: All is, I never drink no sperit, Nor I haint never signed no pledge."