61 Quotes About Discretion

Learn to hold thy tongue; five words cost Zacharias forty weeks of silence.

He that will not sail till all dangers are over must never put to sea.

Pray a little more, work a little harder, save, wait, be patient and, most of all, live within our means. That's the American way. It's not spending ourselves into prosperity or taxing ourselves into prosperity.

Be careful to make a good improvement of precious time.

Your words can permanently influence a life.

We must have a spirit of power towards the enemy, a spirit of love towards men, and a spirit of self-control towards ourselves.

Free will is not the liberty to do whatever one likes, but the power of doing whatever one sees ought to be done, even in the very face of otherwise overwhelming impulse. There lies freedom, indeed.

Reading is good, hearing is good, conversation and meditation are good; but then, they are only good at times and occasions, in a certain degree, and must be used and governed with such caution as we eat and drink and refresh ourselves, or they will bring forth in us the fruits of intemperance.

He that resolves to deal with none but honest men, must leave off dealing.

'Tis better that thou be rather something sparing, than very liberal, to even a good servant; for as he grows full, he inclines either to be idle, or to leave thee: and if he should at any time murmur, thou mayest govern him by a seasonable reward.

Discretion of speech is more than eloquence, and to speak agreeably to him with whom we deal is more than to speak in good words, or in good order. God has placed no limits to the exercise of the intellect he has given us, on this side of the grave.

With foxes we must play the fox.

If thou would'st be borne with, then bear with others.

If thou art a master, be sometimes blind, if a servant, sometimes deaf.

An institution has to decide, and it's not just an option, it's a responsibility, how much diversity can be tolerated.

Haste and rashness are storms and tempests, breaking and wrecking business; but nimbleness is a full fair wind blowing it with speed to the haven.

Soft words are hard arguments.

Choose a wife rather by your ear than your eye.

Prescribe no positive laws to thy will; for thou mayest be forced tomorrow to drink the same water thou despisest today.

If you run after two hares, you will catch neither.

Temperance is simply a disposition of the mind which binds the passions.

Contentment consists not in adding more fuel, but in taking away some fire.

Hear the other side.

Bad excuses are worse than none.

A small demerit extinguishes a long service.

When men comfort themselves with philosophy, 'tis not because they have got two or three sentences, but because they have digested those sentences, and made them their own: philosophy is nothing but discretion.

Generosity, wrong placed, becometh a vice; a princely mind will undo a private family.

Trust thyself only, and another shall not betray thee.

Tis skill, not strength, that governs a ship.

We must be careful with our lives, for Christ's sake, because it would seem that they are the only lives we are going to have in this puzzling and perilous world, and so they are very precious and what we do with them matters enormously.

It is good to make a jest, but not to make a trade of jesting.

Thou mayst as well expect to grow stronger by always eating as wiser by always reading. Too much overcharges nature, and turns more into disease than nourishment. 'Tis thought and digestion which make books serviceable, and give health and vigor to the mind.

Judge of thine improvement, not by what thou speakest or writest, but by the firmness of thy mind, and the government of thy passions and affections.

While we are zealous for good works, let us be careful not to put them in the place of Christ's righteousness, and not to advance anything which may betray others into so dreadful a delusion.

One may miss the mark by aiming too high, as too low.

Care and diligence bring luck.

Better fare hard with good men than feast with bad.

You can't be too careful what you tell a child because you never know what he'll take hold of and spend the rest of his life remembering you by.

In conversation use some, but not too much ceremony; it teaches others to be courteous, too. Demeanors are commonly paid back in their own coin.

Make no vows to perform this or that; it shows no great strength, and makes thee ride behind thyself.

Do not in an instant what an age cannot recompense.

Tact is the art of making a point without making an enemy.

Many have been the wise speeches of fools, though not so many as the foolish speeches of wise men.

Rashness is the faithful but unhappy parent of misfortune.

Make not thy friends too cheap to thee, nor thyself to thy friend.

Better give a shilling than lend and lose half a crown.

It is thy duty oftentimes to do what thou wouldst not; thy duty, too, to leave undone that thou wouldst do.

When a Christian does not repel the thoughts which originate with evil spirits he affords them a base for working.

When thou makest presents, let them be of such things as will last long; to the end they may be in some sort immortal, and may frequently refresh the memory of the receiver.

Your words can make others love, or they can make them hate.