Selected discipline quotes

1. Early to bed, early to rise, work like hell and advertise.

2. It's in the private places of the heart that freedom is made or unmade by the discipline we create there.

3. There can be no self-government without self-discipline. There can be no self-government without self-control. There can be no liberty unless it is grounded in moral discipline and the ability to do what is right.

4. It goes against the grain of modern education to teach students to program. What fun is there to making plans, acquiring discipline, organizing thoughts, devoting attention to detail, and learning to be self critical.

5. A man provided with paper, pencil, and rubber, and subject to strict discipline, is in effect a universal machine.

6. A soldier's first duty is to obey, otherwise you might as well do away with soldiering.

7. In twenty years I've never had a day when I didn't have to think about someone else's needs. And this means the writing has to be fitted around it.

8. Bring your desires down to your present means. Increase them only when your increased means permit.

9. Of the nine red cards this season we probably deserved half of them.

10. As a coach you can influence the diet of your players. You can point out what is wrong.

11. For the first lesson, I want you to play over every column of Modern Chess Openings, including the footnotes. And for the next lesson, I want you to do it again.

12. Faith is a state of mind that can be conditioned through self-discipline. Faith will accomplish.

13. Make at least one definite move daily toward your goal.

14. I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.

15. I refer to my hands, feet and body as the tools of the trade. The hands and feet must be sharpened and improved daily to be efficient.

16. In combat, spontaneity rules; rote performance of technique perishes.

17. Practice all movements slow and fast, soft and hard; the effectiveness of Jeet Kune-Do depends on split-second timing and reflexive action, which can be achieved only through repetitious practice.

18. It's my old girl that advises. She has the head. But I never own to it before her. Discipline must be maintained.

19. A cartoonist is someone who has to draw the same thing day after day without repeating himself.

20. Great patience is called for on the hard path that I have entered on.

21. I have taken this step because I want the discipline, the fire and the authority of the Church. I am hopelessly unworthy of it, but I hope to become worthy.

22. There is in even the most selfish passion a large element of self-abnegation. It is startling to realize that what we call extreme self-seeking is actually self-renunciation. The miser, health addict, glory chaser and their like are not far behind the selfless in the exercise of self-sacrifice.

23. The force of the blow depends on the resistance. It is sometimes better not to struggle against temptation. Either fly or yield at once.

24. We still have many shortcomings and failures to fulfill the Party's demands, especially as regards the liquidation in some of our people of survivals of the accursed past in consciousness and conduct and the fulfillment of the demands of our Soviet ethics and military discipline.

25. Asceticism is the trifling of an enthusiast with his power, a puerile coquetting with his selfishness or his vanity, in the absence of any sufficiently great object to employ the first or overcome the last.

26. I attribute my success to this - I never gave or took any excuse.

27. How shall I be able to rule over others, that have not full power and command of myself?

28. An Englishman, even if he is alone, forms an orderly queue of one.

29. Circus dogs jump when the trainer cracks his whip, but the really well-trained dog is the one that turns his somersault when there is no whip.

30. If investing is entertaining, if you're having fun, you're probably not making any money. Good investing is boring.

31. Discipline is the soul of an army. It makes small numbers formidable; procures success to the weak, and esteem to all.

32. Rise early, that by habit it may become familiar, agreeable, healthy, and profitable. It may, for a while, be irksome to do this, but that will wear off; and the practice will produce a rich harvest forever thereafter; whether in public or private walks of life.

33. Small habits well pursued betimes May reach the dignity of crimes.

34. Instinct must be thwarted just as one prunes the branches of a tree so that it will grow better.

35. The average man won't really do a day's work unless he is caught and cannot get out of it. There is plenty of work to do if people would do it.

36. It has been my observation that most people get ahead during the time that others waste.

37. Write a page a day. It will add up.

38. The reward of renunciation is some good greater than the thing renounced. To renounce with no vision of such a good, from fear or in automatic obedience to a formula, is to weaken the springs of life, and to diminish the soul's resistance to this world.

39. Orderly discipline and morale within an army was the responsibility of the Division Commander.

40. You've gut to git up airly Ef you want to take in God.

41. I do think unpunctuality is a vile habit, and all my life I have tried to break myself of it.

42. I now began for the first time to envy those young cubs at the university who had fine scholars to tell them what was what; professors who had devoted their lives to mastering and focusing ideas in every branch of learning; who were eager to distribute the treasures they had gathered before they were overtaken by the night. But now I pity undergraduates, when I see what frivolous lives many of them lead in the midst of precious fleeting opportunity. After all, a man's Life must be nailed to a cross either of Thought or Action. Without work there is no play.

43. I had been brought up and trained to have the utmost contempt for people who got drunk - and I would have liked to have the boozing scholars of the Universities wheeled into line and properly chastised for their squalid misuse of what I must ever regard as a gift of the gods.

44. There is small risk a general will be regarded with contempt by those he leads, if, whatever he may have to preach, he shows himself best able to perform.

45. The most important battle is one to conquer yourself.

46. That adage about genius being 5 percent inspiration and 95 perspiration - it's true.

47. The Inmost is one with the Inmost; yet the form of the One is not the form of the other; intimacy exacts fitness. He therefore who liveth by air, let him not be bold to breathe water. But mastery cometh by measure: to him who with labour, courage, and caution giveth his life to understand all that doth encompass him, and to prevail against it, shall be increase. 'The word of Sin is Restriction': seek therefore Righteousness, enquiring into Iniquity, and fortify thyself to overcome it.

48. In essence, if we want to direct our lives, we must take control of our consistent actions. It's not what we do once in a while that shapes our lives, but what we do consistently.

49. My rule always was to do the business of the day in the day.

50. As long as I have you there is just one other thing I'll always need -- tremendous self control.

51. Concentration is the ROOT of all the higher abilities in man.

52. Be regular and orderly in your life, that you may be violent and original in your work.

53. Know what you want to do, hold the thought firmly, and do every day what should be done, and every sunset will see you that much nearer the goal.

54. Shall I show you the sinews of a philosopher? 'What sinews are those?' - A will undisappointed; evils avoided; powers daily exercised, careful resolutions; unerring decisions.

55. Patience is the mother of will.

56. '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.'

57. I care not what black spiritual crisis we may come through or what delightful spiritual Canaan we may enter, no blessing of the Christian life becomes continually possessed unless we are men and women of regular, daily, unhurried, secret lingerings in prayer.

58. Until work has reached its previous stage nympharium privileges are denied to all.

59. A professional is a man who can do his job when he doesn't feel like it; an amateur is one who can't when he does feel like it.

60. '[P]ain is a marvelous purifier. . . It is not necessary to beat the child into submission; a little bit of pain goes a long way for a young child. However, the spanking should be of sufficient magnitude to cause the child to cry genuinely.'

61. 'Some strong-willed children absolutely demand to be spanked, and their wishes should be granted. . . [T]wo or three stinging strokes on the legs or buttocks with a switch are usually sufficient to emphasize the point, 'You must obey me.''

62. I was brought up in the great tradition of the late nineteenth century: that a writer never complains, never explains and never disdains.

63. 'Men who can both be right and sit tight are uncommon.'

64. 'The market does not beat them. They beat themselves, because though they have brains they cannot sit tight.'

65. And join with thee, calm Peace and Quiet, Spare Fast, that oft with gods doth diet.

66. Deny your desires and you will find what your heart longs for. For how do you know if any desire of yours is according to God?

67. The vow of celibacy is a matter of keeping one's word to Christ and the Church. a duty and a proof of the priest's inner maturity; it is the expression of his personal dignity.

68. There is but one question ultimately to be asked respecting every line you draw, Is it right or wrong? If right, it most assuredly is not a 'free' line, but an intensely continent, restrained and considered line; and the action of the hand in laying it is just as decisive, and just as 'free' as the hand of a first-rate surgeon in a critical incision.

69. We repeat again: strength of character does not consist solely in having powerful feelings, but in maintaining one's balance in spite of them. Even with the violence of emotion, judgment and principle must still function like a ship's compass, which records the slightest variations however rough the sea.

70. I regard myself as a soldier, though a soldier of peace.

71. In all forms of strategy, it is necessary to maintain the combat stance in everyday life and to make your everyday stance your combat stance. You must research this well.

72. There is no room for play in Islam ... It is deadly serious about everything.

73. Love is a boy, by poets styled, Then spare the rod and spoil the child.

74. Every man naturally persuades himself that he can keep his resolutions, nor is he convinced of his imbecility but by length of time and frequency of experiment.

75. Abstinence is as easy to me as temperance would be difficult.

76. I remember very well, when I was at Oxford, an old gentleman said to me, 'Young man, ply your book diligently now, and acquire a stock of knowledge; for when years come upon you, you will find that poring upon books will be but an irksome task.'

77. A place for everything, and everything in its place.

78. 'Players have two things to do. Play and keep their mouths shut.'

79. Arise, Awake and Stop not till the Goal is Reached.

80. Anything that brings spiritual, mental, or physical weakness, touch it not with the toes of your feet.

81. 'Work while you work, play while you play - this is a basic rule of repressive self-discipline.'

82. Perhaps the most valuable result of all education is the ability to make yourself do the thing you have to do, when it ought to be done, whether you like it or not; it is the first lesson that ought to be learned; and, however early a man's training begins, it is probably the last lesson that he learns thoroughly.

83. My duty is to obey orders.

84. Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve.

85. Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together.

86. The habit of common and continuous speech is a symptom of mental deficiency.

87. I am certain, from experience, of the immense advantage of strict account-keeping in early life. It is just like learning the grammar then, which when once learned need not be referred to afterwards.

88. Idleness is only the refuge of weak minds.

89. Of all the schools of patience and lucidity, creation is the most effective. It is also the staggering evidence of man's sole dignity: the dogged revolt against his condition, perseverance in an effort considered sterile. It calls for a daily effort, self-mastery, a precise estimate of the limits of truth, measure, and strength. It constitutes an ascesis. All that 'for nothing,' in order to repeat and mark time. But perhaps the great work of art has less importance in itself than in the ordeal it demands of a man and the opportunity it provides him of overcoming his phantoms and approaching a little closer to his naked reality.

90. In that daily effort in which intelligence mingle and delight each other, the absurd man discovers a discipline that will make up the greatest of his strengths. The required diligence and doggedness and lucidity thus resemble the conqueror's attitude. To create is likewise to give a shape to one's fate. For all these characters, their work defines them at least as much as it is defined by them. The actor taught us this: There is no frontier between being and appearing.

91. Drinking beer is easy. Trashing your hotel room is easy. But being a Christian, that's a tough call. That's rebellion.

92. A small task, if it be really daily, will beat the labors of a spasmodic Hercules.

93. I've got two daughters, nine years old and six years old. I am going to teach them first of all about values and morals. But if they make a mistake, I don't want them punished with a baby.

94. Respect children because they're human beings and they deserve respect, and they'll grow up to be better people. But I've always said ask for respect from your children, ask for cooperation, ask for politeness. Give your children firm leadership.

95. I can remember times coming home from a chess club at four in the morning when I was half asleep and half dead and forcing myself to pray an hour and study (the Bible) an hour. You know, I was half out of my head-stoned almost.

96. A good martial artist does not become tense but ready. Not thinking yet not dreaming, ready for whatever may come. A martial artist has to take responsibility for himself and face the consequences of his own doing. To have no technique, there is no opponent, because the word 'I' does not exist. When the opponent expands I contract and when he contracts, I expand. And when there is an opportunity, 'I' do not hit, 'It' hits all by itself.

97. Balance your thoughts with action. - If you spend too much time thinking about a thing, you'll never get it done.

98. Again let me remind you Jeet Kune Do is just a name used, a boat to get one across, and once across it is to be discarded and not to be carried on one's back.

99. It is the love of the [British] people; it is their attachment to their government, from the sense of the deep stake they have in such a glorious institution, which gives you both your army and your navy, and infuses into both that liberal obedience, without which your army would be a base rabble, and your navy nothing but rotten timber.

100. Be an example to your men in your duty and in private life. Never spare yourself, and let the troops see that you don't in your endurance of fatigue and privation. Always be tactful and well-mannered, and teach your subordinates to be the same. Avoid excessive sharpness or harshness of voice, which usually indicates the man who has shortcomings of his own to hide.