These refrain quotes will inspire you. Refrain, stop oneself from doing something.
Below you will find a collection of motivating, happy, and encouraging refrain quotes, refrain sayings, and refrain proverbs.
Best Refrain Quotes
- “You needn’t love your enemy, but if you refrain from telling lies about him, you are doing well enough.” ~ E. W. Howe
- “The public is increasingly disgusted with a steady diet of defamation, and prepared to reward those who refrain from it.” ~ Mitch Daniels
- “To read a newspaper is to refrain from reading something worth while. The first discipline of education must therefore be to refuse resolutely to feed the mind with canned chatter.” ~ Aleister Crowley
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“Refrain from reckless and thoughtless actions. Be as calm and judicious as a mountain.” ~ Choi Hong Hi
- “Monkeys who very sensibly refrain from speech, lest they should be set to earn their livings.” ~ Kenneth Grahame
- “As an example to others, and not that I care for moderation myself, it has always been my rule never to smoke when asleep, and never to refrain from smoking when awake.” ~ Mark Twain
- “Remember the refrain: We always build on the past; the past always tries to stop us. Freedom is about stopping the past, but we have lost that ideal.” ~ Lawrence Lessig
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“Art is the symbol of the two noblest human efforts: to construct and to refrain from destruction.” ~ Simone Weil
- “I refrain from lots of things I love, like cheese and carbs. I eat plenty of greens every day, my favorite being watercress.” ~ Chloe Sevigny
- “To refrain from imitation is the best revenge.” ~ Marcus Aurelius
- “The generality of men are naturally apt to be swayed by fear rather than reverence, and to refrain from evil rather because of the punishment that it brings than because of its own foulness.” ~ Aristotle
- “We always build on the past; the past always tries to stop us.” ~ Lawrence Lessig
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“Freedom is about stopping the past.” ~ Lawrence Lessig
- “Who could refrain that had a heart to love and in that heart courage to make love known?” ~ William Shakespeare
- “We in the West do not refrain from childbirth because we are concerned about the population explosion or because we feel we cannot afford children, but because we do not like children.” ~ Germaine Greer
- “In order to be utterly happy the only thing necessary is to refrain from comparing this moment with other moments in the past, which I often did not fully enjoy because I was comparing them with other moments of the future.” ~ Andre Gide
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“Refrain from asking what going to happen tomorrow, and everyday that fortune grants you, count as gain.” ~ Horace
- “You should respect each other and refrain from disputes; you should not, like water and oil, repel each other, but should, like milk and water, mingle together.” ~ Gautama Buddha
- “I consider anybody who weighs over 200 pounds fat, and time was when I could not refrain from telling such people so.” ~ Gloria Swanson
- “Old soldiers never die; they just fade away.” ~ Douglas MacArthur
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“Sometimes our power resides not in what we do, but in what we don’t do.” ~ Paulo Coelho
- “It is part of the irony of life that the strongest feelings of devoted gratitude of which human nature seems to be susceptible, are called forth in human beings towards those who, having the power entirely to crush their earthly existence, voluntarily refrain from using that power.” ~ John Stuart Mill
- “If we truly think of Christ as our source of holiness, we shall refrain from anything wicked or impure in thought or act and thus show ourselves to be worthy bearers of his name. For the quality of holiness is shown not by what we say but by what we do in life.” ~ Gregory of Nyssa
- “Limericks don’t come from Limerick. But it comes from that between the verses when they used to have those competitions that they would put in the refrain, “follow me up, follow me up, follow me up to Limerick Town.”” ~ Malachy McCourt
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“The heart desires, the hand refrains. The Godhead fires, the soul attains.” ~ William Morris
- “If policymakers are serious about avoiding a society of TV ‘haves and have-nots,’ they should refrain from policies that favor pay-TV operators over the providers of our nation’s only free and local communications system: over-the-air broadcasting.” ~ Gordon Smith
- “One should refrain from contempt for the baser specimens of humanity, for whom liberation amounts to shaving the heads of women who have slept with Germans.” ~ Coco Chanel
- “If you’re going to live in a community, you have to refrain from killing one another and stealing from one another. You must have honor and honesty in your dealings with one another. But I think the deeper thing that we need to do is to become so fully human that we don’t grasp at life; we give life away. We give love away. We give being away. That is the ultimate work of religion.” ~ John Shelby Spong
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“The English never smash in a face. They merely refrain from asking it to dinner.” ~ Margaret Halsey
- “It is a pity, in my opinion, that no prize exists for the writer who best refrains from adding to the world’s bad books.” ~ William Saroyan
- “We urge persons with same-gender attractions to control those and to refrain from acting upon them, which is a sin, just as we urge persons with heterosexual attractions to refrain from acting upon them until they have the opportunity for a marriage recognized by God as well as by the law of the land. That is the way to happiness and eternal life.” ~ Dallin H. Oaks
- “I’ll refrain from making any more comments on any ongoing people involved in the judicial process.” ~ Bill Belichick
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“Refrain from the violence of fist, tongue or heart. And heart is real important.” ~ Alveda King
- “All religious vows, codes, and commitments are null & void herein. Please refrain from contaminating the ideosphere with harmful memes through prayer, reverence, holy books, proselytizing, prophesying, faith, speaking in tongues or spirituality. Fight the menace of second-hand faith! Humanity sincerely thanks you!” ~ Greg Erwin
- “It is only through literature that one can put oneself in someone else’s shoes and understand the other’s different and contradictory sides and refrain from becoming too ruthless. Outside the sphere of literature only one aspect of individuals is revealed. But if you understand their different dimensions you cannot easily murder them.” ~ Azar Nafisi
- “For we live with those retrievals from childhood that coalesce and echo throughout our lives, the way shattered pieces of glass in a kaleidoscope reappear in new forms and are songlike in their refrains and rhymes, making up a single monologue. We live permanently in the recurrence of our own stories, whatever story we tell.” ~ Michael Ondaatje
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“The more we witness our emotional reactions and understand how they work, the easier it is to refrain.” ~ Pema Chodron
- “You are well aware of your effect on women, and I’m sure it gratifies you no end to watch them sigh and salivate over your magnificent physique. I do not wish to spoil your fun, Dain, but I do ask you to consider my pride and refrain from embarrassing me in public.” Women…sighing and salivating…over his magnificent physique. Maybe the brutal bedding had destroyed a part of her brain.” ~ Loretta Chase
- “To remain stable is to refrain from trying to separate yourself from a pain because you know that you cannot. Running away from fear is fear, fighting pain is pain, trying to be brave is being scared. If the mind is in pain, the mind is pain. The thinker has no other form than his thought. There is no escape.” ~ Alan Watts
- “This spirit of freedom is expanding even where it must struggle against the external obstacles of governments that misunderstand their own function. Such governments are illuminated by the example that the existence of freedom need not give cause for the least concern regarding public order and harmony in the commonwealth. If only they refrain from inventing artifices to keep themselves in it, men will gradually raise themselves from barbarism.” ~ Immanuel Kant
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“Eva [Braun] also cried when [Adolf Hitler] would leave her for long periods. She was inconsolable without him, that was a never-changing refrain.” ~ Gretl Braun
- “Papers should include more side remarks, open questions, and such. Very often, these are more interesting than the theorems actually proved. Alas, most people are afraid to admit that they don’t know the answer to some question, and as a consequence they refrain from mentioning the question, even if it is a very natural one. What a pity! As for myself, I enjoy saying ‘I do not know’.” ~ Jean-Pierre Serre
- “We are interested in stifling the sale of this book. We believe that this can be best accomplished by refusing to be stampeded into giving it publicity…The less discussion there is concerning it the more sales resistance will be created. We therefore appeal to you to refrain from comment on this book…It is our conviction that a general compliance with this request will sound the warning to other publishing houses against engaging in this type of venture. (Signed) Richard E. Gutstadt, Director.” ~ Madison Grant
- “Her vice takes hold of her again, but she still refrains until some moment when, gnawed by some hideous caprice, she comes aground like a mournful wreck ruined by lust, in the midst of her own banal, perfidious pollution.” ~ Jean Lorrain
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“[Antonio] Gramsci’s words and actions explain their assessment, though I think we should refrain from using the term “model intellectual” for him or others.” ~ Noam Chomsky
- “The Japanese tend to communicate via nuance and euphemism, often leaving important things unsaid; whereas Americans tend to think they’re being subtle when they refrain from grabbing the listener by the shirt.” ~ Dave Barry
- “It is this refrain that we hear repeated by everyone: you are not at home, this is not a sanatorium, the only exit is by way of the Chimney. (What did it mean? Soon we were all to learn what it meant.)” ~ Primo Levi
- “If wisdom were offered me with the proviso that I should keep it shut up and refrain from declaring it, I should refuse. There’s no delight in owning anything unshared.” ~ Seneca the Younger
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“The Verse-Refrain form starts with a context before the topic that the Refrain is talking about happens.” ~ Ryan Cayabyab
- “Just as the grammarian makes one study grammar,
A Buddha teaches according to the tolerance of his students;
Some he urges to refrain from sins, others to do good,
Some to rely on dualism, other on non-dualism;
And to some he teaches the profound,
The terrifying, the practice of enlightenment,
Whose essence is emptiness that is compassion” ~ Akkineni Nagarjuna - “You have heard me say, a great many times, that there is not that man or woman in this Church, and there never was and never will be, who turn up their noses at the counsel that is given them from the First Presidency, but who, unless they repent of and refrain from such conduct will eventually go out of the Church and go to hell, every one of them” ~ Brigham Young
- “If the creatures with fur/feathers/fins are our brothers in a lower stage of development then their very weakness and inability to protest, demands that man should refrain from torturing them for the mere possibility of obtaining some knowledge which he believes may be to his own interest.” ~ Luther Burbank
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“To refrain from evil and from strong drink and to be always, steadfast in virtue; this is the good luck.” ~ Gautama Buddha
- “It is indeed surprising that a man inspite of his belief in the Fire of Jahannum is still able to laugh, and inspite of his belief in Maut he is able to be happy. Inspite of believing in the Reckoning, he commits evil deeds. Inspite of believing in Taqdeer, he grieves. Inspite of observing the world with its changes, he feels contented with it. Inspite of believing in Jannat, he refrains from righteous deeds.” ~ Moses
- “Keep out of the Sight of Feasts and Banquets as much as may be; for ’tis more difficult to refrain good Cheer, when it’s present, than from the Desire of it when it is away; the like you may observe in the Objects of all the other Senses.” ~ Benjamin Franklin
- “Worthless are those who injure others vengefully, while those who stoically endure are like stored gold. The gratification of the vengeful lasts only for a day, but the glory of the forbearing lasts until the end of time. Though unjustly aggrieved, it is best to suffer the suffering and refrain from unrighteous retaliation.” ~ Thiruvalluvar
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“Thou shalt abstain, Renounce, refrain.” ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
- “If I simply refrain from making a judgment in cases where I do not perceive the truth with sufficient clarity and distinctness, then it is clear that I am behaving correctly and avoiding error.” ~ Rene Descartes
- “Although we can’t control which roles are assigned to us, it must be our business to act our given role as best we possibly can and to refrain from complaining about it. Where ever you find yourself and in whatever circumstances, give an impeccable performance.” ~ Epictetus
- “Although actions speak louder than words, I believe it is our intentions that reveal our soul. Refrain from judging others based solely on their words and actions, and seek to know their deepest intentions so that you can know who they truly aspire to be, and support them in becoming the best version of themselves.” ~ Hal Elrod
- “Every day is a fresh beginning; Listen my soul, to the glad refrain, And in spite of old sorrow and possible pain, Take heart with the day and begin again.” ~ Sarah Chauncey Woolsey
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“Is not moderation an old refrain Ringing in our ears? from which we all refrain.” ~ Jean de La Fontaine
- “To refrain and desist from interfering with terminal cancer patients, in their use of Laetrile acquired through the ‘Affidavit System.” ~ Luther L. Bohanon
- “shall I, for fear of feeble man who shall die, hold my peace? Shall I for fear of scoffs and frowns, refrain my tongue? Ah, no!” ~ Maria W. Stewart
- “Mac Rebennack, better known as Dr. John, once told me that when a brass band plays at a small club back up in one of the neighborhoods, it’s as if the audience—dancing, singing to the refrains, laughing—is part of the band.” ~ Tom Piazza
