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Exercise self-control
It birth each of us has been given, by a wise Creator, the right of choice—the freedom to become what we want to become. This gift sets us high above the animal kingdom with their gift of instinct.
In a true sense, we have been commissioned at birth as the captains of our own ship and the masters of our own soul. Most people forfeit their commissions—their priceless birthright. The vast majority of people remain ignorant of their power because nowhere are they taught how to use them.
Instead of being the driver of our lives we hand the reins or steering wheel over to our impulses, passions and moods. From that moment on we surrender this high prerogative that has been ours since birth.
To be morally free—to be more than an animal-man must be able to resist instinctive impulses. This can only be done by the exercise of self-control. Thus it is this power that constitutes the real distinction between a physical and a moral life, and that forms the primary basis of individual character.
Nine-tenths of the vicious desires that degrade society, and the crimes that disgrace it, would shrink into insignificance before the advance of valiant self-discipline and self-respect.
Moderation in all things, and regulating the actions only by the judgement, are the most eminent parts of wisdom. “He that ruleth his own spirit is greater than he that taketh a city." To be free one must have command over himself.
— Ralph Waldo Emerson
