The abstinent run away from what they desire But carry their desires with them.

Abstainer, n. A weak person who yields to the temptation of denying himself a pleasure.

To refuse the sweets of life because they once must leave us, is as preposterous as to wish to have been born old, because we one day must be old.

Refrain to-night, And that shall lend a kind of easiness To the next abstinence; the next more easy; For use almost can change the stamp of nature.

Self-denial is not a virtue: it is only the effect of prudence on rascality

Self-denial is simply a method by which man arrests his progress, and self-sacrifice a survival of the mutilation of the savage.

I really can't stand any more to pay for a burst of animation when someone comes in for drinks with a depressed and low-keyed next day, in which I have to go around on my hands and knees.