Self-respect is the root of discipline: The sense of dignity grows with the ability to say no to oneself.
—Abraham Joshua Heschel
To love rightly is to love what is orderly and beautiful in an educated and disciplined way.
—Plato
The ability to destroy your ideas rapidly instead of slowly when the occasion is right is one of the most valuable things. You have to work hard on it. Ask yourself what are the arguments on the other side. It’s bad to have an opinion you’re proud of if you can’t state the arguments for the other side better than your opponents. This is a great mental discipline.
—Charlie Munger
Show up on time. I learned this from the mentor who I call Bigfoot in Kitchen Confidential. If you didn’t show up 15 minutes exactly before your shift — if you were 13 minutes early — you lost the shift, you were sent home. The second time you were fired. It is the basis of everything. I make all my major decisions on other people based on that. Give the people you work with or deal with or have relationships with the respect to show up at the time you said you were going to. And by that I mean, every day, always and forever. Always be on time. It is a simple demonstration of discipline, good work habits, and most importantly respect for other people.
—Anthony Bourdain
Patience is a hard discipline. It is not just waiting until something happens over which we have no control: the arrival of the bus, the end of the rain, the return of a friend, the resolution of a conflict. Patience is not waiting passively until someone else does something. Patience asks us to live the moment to the fullest, to be completely present to the moment, to taste the here and now, to be where we are. When we are impatient, we try to get away from where we are. We behave as if the real thing will happen tomorrow, later, and somewhere else. Let's be patient and trust that the treasure we look for is hidden in the ground on which we stand.
—Henri J. M. Nouwen
As you press on with justice, be sure to move with dignity and discipline, using only the weapons of love.
—Martin Luther King Jr.
Because of their size, parents may be difficult to discipline properly.
—P. J. O'Rourke
It's a question of discipline," the little prince told me. "When you've finished washing and dressing each morning, you must tend your planet.
—Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
The belief that unhappiness is selfless and happiness is selfish is misguided. It's more selfless to act happy. It takes energy, generosity, and discipline to be unfailingly lighthearted, yet everyone takes the happy person for granted. No one is careful of his feelings or tries to keep his spirits high. He seems self-sufficient; he becomes a cushion for others. And because happiness seems unforced, that person usually gets no credit.
—Gretchen Rubin in The Happiness Project
Seek freedom and become captive of your desires. Seek discipline and find your liberty.
—Frank Herbert
If we do not discipline ourselves the world will do it for us.
—William Feather
No horse gets anywhere until he is harnessed. No stream or gas drives anything until it is confined. No Niagara is ever turned into light and power until it is tunneled. No life ever grows great until it is focused, dedicated, disciplined.
—Harry Emerson Fosdick