“There is no strength higher than overcoming carnal desire.”

“Disciplines teach us to overcome the temptation to gratify our immediate desires so that we may attain a higher one.”

“If people were told: what makes carnal desire imperious in you is not its pure carnal element. It is the fact that you put into it the essential part of yourself—the need for Unity, the need for God — they wouldn’t believe it. To them it seems obvious that the quality of imperious need belongs to the carnal desire as such. In the same way it seems obvious to the miser that the quality of desirability belongs to gold as such, and not to its exchange value.”

“One who gains strength by overcoming obstacles possesses the only strength which can overcome adversity.”

“They who overcome their desires once can overcome them always.”

“Psychics exploit the human being's natural desire that longs for something higher than themselves.”

“If we do not believe within ourselves this deeply rooted feeling that there is something higher than ourselves, we shall never find the strength to evolve into something higher.”

“We acquire the strength we have overcome.”

“One of the real strengths is facing and overcoming your most hidden fears.”

“I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who conquers his enemies, for the hardest victory is over self.”