The realization of the fact that we have control over ourselves, and the path that our lives take, is an exceptionally empowering notion.

We can learn from failure but control how we let it define us. We can harness our strengths, and control how we want to use our natural gifts. This lesson, the lesson of gaining control over ourselves, is one of the most important lessons we need to master.

Not only do we know that we have the ability for self-control, but that we have unlimited potential and possibilities in our lives. Here are a few quotes about control from individuals who learned this lesson, and went on to achieve great success.

Quotes about Control That Will Change Your Mindset

1. “Everybody thinks of changing humanity, but nobody thinks of changing himself.” – Leo Tolstoy

2. “No one can make you jealous, angry, vengeful, or greedy – unless you let him.” – Napoleon Hill

3. “Prudent, cautious self-control, is wisdom’s root.” – Robert Burns

4. “Such power there is in clear-eyed self-restraint.” – James Russell Lowell

5. “He that would govern others first should be The Master of himself.” – Philip Massinger

6. “He who reigns within himself, and rules passions, desires, and fears, is more than a king.” – John Milton

7. “You must learn to let go. Release the stress. You were never in control anyway.” – Steve Maraboli

8. “My life didn’t please me, so I created my life.” – Coco Chanel

9. “Whoever controls the media, controls the mind.” – Jim Morrison

10. “Rule your mind or it will rule you.” – Horace

11. “Immense power is acquired by assuring yourself in your secret reveries that you were born to control affairs.” – Andrew Carnegie

12. “Never allow anyone to rain on your parade and thus cast a pall of gloom and defeat on the entire day. Remember that no talent, no self-denial, no brains, no character, are required to set up in the fault-finding business. Nothing external can have any power over you unless you permit it. Your time is too precious to be sacrificed in wasted days combating the menial forces of hate, jealously, and envy. Guard your fragile life carefully. Only God can shape a flower, but any foolish child can pull it to pieces.” – Og Mandino

Motivational Quotes about Control

13. “Nature has placed mankind under the government of two sovereign masters, pain and pleasure? they govern us in all we do, in all we say, in all we think: every effort we can make to throw off our subjection, will serve but to demonstrate and confirm it.” – John Bentham

14. “When once a man has made celebrity necessary to his happiness, he has put it in the power of the weakest and most timorous malignity, if not to take away his satisfaction, at least to withhold it. His enemies may indulge their pride by airy negligence and gratify their malice by quiet neutrality.” – Dr. Samuel Johnson

15. “Nothing gives a person so much advantage over another as to remain always cool and unruffled under all circumstances.” – Thomas Jefferson

16. “Warriors take chances. Like everyone else, they fear failing, but they refuse to let fear control them.” – ancient Samurai saying

17. “You cannot prevent the birds of sorrow from flying over your head, but you can prevent them from building nests in your hair.” – Chinese Proverb

19. “As long as I have you there is just one other thing I’ll always need – tremendous self control.” – Ashleigh Brilliant

20. “My will shall shape my future. Whether I fail or succeed shall be no man’s doing but my own. I am the force; I can clear any obstacle before me or I can be lost in the maze. My choice; my responsibility; win or lose, only I hold the key to my destiny.” – Elaine Maxwell

21. “You either get bitter or you get better.  It’s that simple.  You either take what has been dealt to you and allow it to make you a better person, or you allow it to tear you down.  The choice does not belong to fate, it belongs to you.” – Josh Shipp

22. “It is easy to be tolerant of the principles of other people if you have none of your own.” – Samurai maxim and Chinese adage

23. “The mere possession of a gun is, in itself, an urge to kill, not only by design, but by accident, by madness, by fright, by bravado.” – Louisa May Alcott

24. “The highest possible stage in moral culture is when we recognize that we ought to control our thoughts.” – Charles Robert Darwin

25. “When any fit of anxiety or gloominess or perversion of the mind lays hold upon you, make it a rule not to publish it by complaints but exert your whole care to hide it. By endeavoring to hide it, you will drive it away.” – Dr. Samuel Johnson

26. “If you’re always in a hurry, always trying to get ahead of the other guy, or someone else’s performance is what motivates you, then that person is in control of you.” – Dr. Wayne W. Dyer

27. “It is so easy to be confrontive without being informative; indignant without being intelligent; impulsive without being insightful.” – Neal A. Maxwell

28. “A man has to learn that he cannot command things, but that he can command himself; that he cannot coerce the wills of others, but that he can mold and master his own will: and things serve him who serves Truth; people seek guidance of him who is master of himself.” – James Allen

29. “Incredible change happens in your life when you decide to take control of what you do have power over instead of craving control over what you don’t.” – Steve Maraboli

30. “Life is to be lived, not controlled and humanity is won by continuing to play in face of certain defeat.” – Ralph Ellison

More quotes about control

31. “The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum.” – Noam Chomsky

32. “The difference between great people and everyone else is that great people create their lives actively, while everyone else is created by their lives, passively waiting to see where life takes them next. The difference between the two is the difference between living fully and just existing.” – Michael E. Gerber

33. “Flow with whatever is happening and let your mind be free. Stay centered by accepting whatever you are doing. This is the ultimate.” – Chuang Tzu

34. “You will never have a greater or lesser dominion than that over yourself … the height of a man’s success is gauged by his self-mastery; the depth of his failure by his self-abandonment … And this law is the expression of eternal justice. He who cannot establish dominion over himself will have no dominion over others.” – Leonardo da Vinci

35. “Any woman who is sure of her own wits, is a match, at any time, for a man who is not sure of his own temper.” – Wilkie Collins

36. “Chaos is what we’ve lost touch with. This is why it is given a bad name. It is feared by the dominant archetype of our world, which is Ego, which clenches because its existence is defined in terms of control.” – Terence McKenna

37. “Pain is the feeling. Suffering is the effect the pain inflicts. If one can endure pain, one can live without suffering. If one can withstand pain, one can withstand anything. If one can learn to control pain, one can learn to control oneself.” – James Frey

38. “You learned to run from what you feel, and that’s why you have nightmares. To deny is to invite madness. To accept is to control.” – Megan Chance

Motivational Control Quotes about Self-Control

39. “Control your destiny or somebody will.” – Jack Welch

40. “Freedom is born of self-discipline. No individual, no nation, can achieve or maintain liberty without self-control. The undisciplined man is a slave to his own weaknesses.” – Alan Valentine

41. “I am the master of my fate; I am the captain of my soul.” – William Ernest Henley

42. “He who angers you conquers you.” – Elizabeth Kenny

43. “Self-reverence, self-knowledge, self-control–these three alone lead life to sovereign power.” – Alfred Tennyson

44. “Speak when you are angry and you will make best speech you will ever regret.” – Ambrose Bierce

45. “What lies in our power to do, it lies in our power not to do.” – Aristotle

46. “In the midst of movement and chaos keep stillness inside of you.” – Deepak Chopra

47. “What man’s mind can create, man’s character can control.” – Thomas Edison

48. “To handle yourself, use your head; to handle others, use your heart.” – Donald Laird

Which of these quotes about control do you identify with?

Incredible things can happen if we believe we can take the wheel.

Once we realize that we are the “Masters of our fate, the Captains of our souls,” we are emboldened to make and own our choices, to understand the control we have over our future and our outcomes.