Art is the symbol of the two noblest human efforts: to construct and to refrain from destruction.
Evelyn Waugh

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

Child! Do not throw this book about; refrain from the unholy pleasure of cutting all the pictures out.
Hilaire Belloc

Courses on historical methodology are not worth the time that they take up. I shall never give one myself, and I have observed that many of my colleagues who do give such courses refrain from exemplifying their methods by writing anything.
Samuel E. Morison

I consider anybody who weighs over 200 pounds fat, and time was when I could not refrain from telling such people so.
Gloria Swanson

Monkeys who very sensibly refrain from speech, lest they should be set to earn their livings.
Kenneth Graham

Refrain at all times from such Foods as cannot be procured without violence and oppression.
Thomas Tryon

Refrain from asking what going to happen tomorrow, and everyday that fortune grants you, count as gain.
Horace

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

That does not mean that we must forego just and fair criticism, or refrain from opposition to policies which are debatable or which do not command our approval.
Bainbridge Colby

The English never smash in a face. They merely refrain from asking it to dinner.
Margaret Halsey

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

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

To refrain from imitation is the best revenge.
Marcus Aurelius

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

We must not demonstrate any arrogance, and we must refrain from any irrational or undemocratic behavior.
Chen Shui-bian

We treat them in the same way. Those who kill our women and innocent, we kill their women and innocent, until they refrain.
Osama bin Laden

When I'm forced by circumstances to be in a crowd of prisoners, it's all I can do to refrain from attack.
Jack Henry Abbott

Whiskey's to tough, Champagne costs too much, Vodka puts my mouth in gear. I hope this refrain, Will help me explain, As a matter of fact, I like beer.
Tom T. Hall

Who could refrain that had a heart to love and in that heart courage to make love known?
William Shakespeare