Self-denial is not a virtue: it is only the effect of prudence on rascality. – George Bernard Shaw Man and Superman, Maxims for Revolutionists.
When we deny the poor and the vulnerable their own human dignity and capacity for freedom and choice, it becomes self-denial. It becomes a denial of both our collective and individual dignity, at all levels of society. – Jacqueline Novogratz
People – and I include myself – get fat because they choose pleasure over self-denial. – Julie Burchill
Cottage cheese is one of our culture’s most visible symbols of self-denial; marketed honestly, it would appear in dairy cases with warning labels: this substance is self-punitive; ingest with caution. – Caroline Knapp
I bless God for this retirement: I never was more thankful for any thing than I have been of late for the necessity I am under of self-denial in many respects. – David Brainerd
Good breeding is the result of good sense, some good nature, and a little self-denial for the sake of others. – Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
If someone like my father chooses to criticise Israeli policies, it’s not because he is a self-hating Jew, but because he is not prepared to live in a state of self-denial. – Clive Sinclair
Integrity is the first step to true greatness. Men love to praise, but are slow to practice it. To maintain it in high places costs self-denial; in all places it is liable to opposition, but its end is glorious, and the universe will yet do it homage. – Charles Simmons
The worst education which teaches self-denial, is better than the best which teaches everything else, and not that. – John Sterling
The individualist is an atom thinking about himself (Thank God I am not as other men); the communist, too often, is an atom having ecstasies of self-denial (Thank God I am one in a crowd). – Louis MacNeice
Self-denial is indispensable to a strong character, and the highest kind comes from a religious stock. – Theodore Parker
If we can but tear the blindfold of self-deception from our eyes and loosen the gag of self-denial from our voices, we can restore our country to greatness. – Theodore C. Sorensen
A good father believes that he does wisely to encourage enterprise, productive skill, prudent self-denial, and judicious expenditure on the part of his son. – William Graham Sumner
Football is like life – it requires perseverance, self-denial, hard work, sacrifice, dedication and respect for authority. – Vince Lombardi
Self-denial and self-discipline, however, will be recognized as the outstanding qualities of a good soldier. – William Lyon Mackenzie King
That mystic clasp of love lies not on the threshold but at the end of spiritual life, and can be reached for the most part only after much spiritual exercising, many denials, self-denials, watchings, and, it may be, the Cross of pain and disillusionment. – Vincent McNabb
