moral restraint
Inner ethical brake
Moral restraint is the practice of holding back from actions one's ethics or conscience would condemn.
The phrase often appears in discussions of self-control regarding desires or impulses: Only moral restraint kept him from striking back.
In Malthusian economics, moral restraint specifically meant delayed marriage and sexual abstinence as population control—Malthus advocated moral restraint over misery and vice as checks on population growth.
- conscienceInternal moral sense
- inner voiceUnspoken mental dialogue
- self-controlAbility to restrain impulses
- virtueMoral goodness or merit
- temperanceHabitual moderation in behavior
discipline · inhibition · holding back · scruples · decency · doing the right thing · abstinence · willpower · modesty · propriety · forbearance · chastity · integrity · code of conduct · guilt · shame · purity · clean living
- MalthusianismMalthusianism, geometric growth, misery, vice, poor laws
moral restraintindulgence
Yielding to desire
self-indulgence · hedonism · licentiousness · abandon · intemperance
moral restraintlicentiousness
Excessive disregard for morality
immorality · moral corruption · depravity · vice · debauchery
moral restraintlawlessness
Absence of governing rules
debauchery · wantonness · libertinism · recklessness · promiscuity
moral, morals, morality, morally, immoral, immorality, amoral, amorality, moralizing