“Those who control their passions do so because their passions are weak enough to be controlled.”

— William Blake

Last update July 25, 2022. History

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William Blake 249

English Romantic poet and artist 1757–1827

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“Anger is a momentary madness so control your passion or it will control you.”
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“The mechanical mind has a passion for control — of everything except itself.”

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Context: The mechanical mind has a passion for control — of everything except itself. Beyond the control it has won over the forces of nature it would now win control over the forces of society of stating the problem and producing the solution, with social machinery to correspond.

“Then each of you will control his own body and live in holiness and honor— not in lustful passion like the pagans who do not know God and his ways.”

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“Those who control the present, control the past and those who control the past control the future.”

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Source: 1984

“My fault, my failure, is not in the passions I have, but in my lack of control of them.”

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“Those who restrain desire do so because theirs is weak enough to be restrained; and the restrainer or reason usurps its place & governs the unwilling.”

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“It is a mistake to classify the passions as lawful and unlawful, so as to yield to the one and refuse the other. All alike are good if we are their masters; all alike are bad if we abandon ourselves to them. Nature forbids us to extend our relations beyond the limits of our strength; reason forbids us to want what we cannot get, conscience forbids us, not to be tempted, but to yield to temptation. To feel or not to feel a passion is beyond our control, but we can control ourselves. Every sentiment under our own control is lawful; those which control us are criminal. A man is not guilty if he loves his neighbour's wife, provided he keeps this unhappy passion under the control of the law of duty; he is guilty if he loves his own wife so greatly as to sacrifice everything to that love.”

Jean Jacques Rousseau book Emile, or On Education

Emile, or On Education (1762), Book V

“He is one of the noblest conquerors who carries on a successful warfare against his own appetites and passions, and has them under wise and full control.”

Tryon Edwards (1809–1894) American theologian

Source: A Dictionary of Thoughts, 1891, p. 512.

“Strong passions mean weak will, and he
Who truly knows the strength and bliss
Which are in love, will own with me
No passion but a virtue 'tis.”

Coventry Patmore (1823–1896) English poet

Book I, Canto III, II Love a Virtue.
The Angel In The House (1854)

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