Discipline Is Destiny Quotes

“In a world of distraction, focusing is a superpower.”
― Ryan Holiday, Discipline Is Destiny: The Power of Self-Control

“To procrastinate is to be entitled. It is arrogant. It assumes there will be a later. It assumes you’ll have the discipline to get to it later (despite not having the discipline now).”
― Ryan Holiday, Discipline Is Destiny: The Power of Self-Control

“discipline means being disciplined in all things, especially little things.”
― Ryan Holiday, Discipline Is Destiny: The Power of Self-Control

“You don’t have to always be amazing. You do always have to show up. What matters is sticking around for the next at bat.”
― Ryan Holiday, Discipline Is Destiny: The Power of Self-Control

“I ceaselessly chant the refrain,” Montaigne said, “anything you can do another day can be done now.”
― Ryan Holiday, Discipline Is Destiny: The Power of Self-Control

“You have to do your best while you still have a chance. Life is short. You never know when the game, when your body, will be taken away from you. Don’t waste it!”
― Ryan Holiday, Discipline Is Destiny: The Power of Self-Control

“We must master ourselves unless we'd prefer to be mastered by someone or something else.”
― Ryan Holiday, Discipline Is Destiny: The Power of Self-Control

“The less you desire, the richer you are, the freer you are, the more powerful you are.”
― Ryan Holiday, Discipline Is Destiny: The Power of Self-Control

“We must practice temperance now, in times of plenty, because none of us know what the future holds- only that plenty never lasts.”
― Ryan Holiday, Discipline Is Destiny: The Power of Self-Control

“We don’t need accomplishments to feel good or to be good enough. What do we need? The truth: not much! Some food and water. Work that we can challenge ourselves with. A calm mind in the midst of adversity. Sleep. A solid routine. A cause we are committed to. Something we’re getting better at. Everything else is extra. Or worse, as history has shown countless times, the source of our painful downfall.”
― Ryan Holiday, Discipline Is Destiny: The Power of Self-Control

“As they say, another way to spell “perfectionism” is p-a-r-a-l-y-s-i-s.”
― Ryan Holiday, Discipline Is Destiny: The Power of Self-Control

“Most happy people don’t need you to know how happy they are—they aren’t thinking about you at all.”
― Ryan Holiday, Discipline Is Destiny: The Power of Self-Control

“why are we so damn unhappy? Because we mistake liberty for license. Freedom, as Eisenhower famously said, is actually only the “opportunity for self-discipline.”
― Ryan Holiday, Discipline Is Destiny: The Power of Self-Control

“The fact is, the body keeps score.”
― Ryan Holiday, Discipline Is Destiny: The Power of Self-Control

“freedom is the opportunity for self-discipline.”
― Ryan Holiday, Discipline Is Destiny: The Power of Self-Control

“Would you have a great empire? Rule over yourself. Publilius Syrus”
― Ryan Holiday, Discipline Is Destiny: The Power of Self-Control

“Now is the time. Because now is the only time you have.”
― Ryan Holiday, Discipline Is Destiny: The Power of Self-Control

“It takes discipline not to insist on doing everything yourself. Especially when you know how to do many of those things well. Especially when you have high standards about how they should be done.”
― Ryan Holiday, Discipline Is Destiny: The Power of Self-Control

“But that’s what the greats do, they don’t just show up, they do more than practice, they do the work.”
― Ryan Holiday, Discipline Is Destiny: The Power of Self-Control

“Only you will know what you need to practice from morning until night, what to repeat ten thousand times.”
― Ryan Holiday, Discipline Is Destiny: The Power of Self-Control

“The one thing all fools have in common, Seneca wrote, is that they’re always getting ready to live. They tell themselves they just need to get some things in place first, that they’re just not feeling it yet, that they’ll get to it after . . . . . . what, exactly? Exactly nothing. They never get to it. We never do. You’ll need to be smarter than that, more disciplined than that. “I ceaselessly chant the refrain,” Montaigne said, “anything you can do another day can be done now.”
― Ryan Holiday, Discipline Is Destiny: The Power of Self-Control

“Show me a man who isn’t a slave,” Seneca demanded, pointing out that even slave owners were chained to the responsibilities of the institution of slavery. “One is a slave to sex, another to money, another to ambition; all are slaves to hope or fear.” The first step, he said, was to pull yourself out of the ignorance of your dependency, whatever it happens to be. Then you need to get clean—get clean from your mistress, from your addiction to work, from your lust for power, whatever. In the modern era, we might be hooked on cigarettes or soda, likes on social media, or watching cable news. It doesn’t matter whether it’s socially acceptable or not, what matters is whether it’s good for you. Eisenhower’s habit was killing him, as so many of ours are too—slowly, imperceptibly.”
― Ryan Holiday, Discipline Is Destiny: The Power of Self-Control

“Remember to conduct yourself in life as if at a banquet,” Epictetus said. “As something being passed around comes to you, reach out your hand and take a moderate helping. Does it pass you by? Don’t stop it. It hasn’t yet come? Don’t burn in desire for it, but wait until it arrives in front of you. Act this way with children, a spouse, toward position, with wealth—one day it will make you worthy of a banquet with the gods.”
― Ryan Holiday, Discipline Is Destiny: The Power of Self-Control

“it’s called self-discipline for a reason. While we hold ourselves to the highest standards—and hope that our good behavior is contagious—we cannot expect everyone else to be like us. It’s not fair, nor is it possible.”
― Ryan Holiday, Discipline Is Destiny: The Power of Self-Control

“If I had the luxury of an entire week, I would spend it meditating and reading, refreshing myself spiritually and intellectually. . . . Amidst the struggle, amidst the frustrations, amidst the endless work, I often reflect that I am forever giving—never pausing to take in. I feel urgently the need for even an hour of time to get away, to withdraw, to refuel. I need more time to think through what is being done, to take time out from the mechanics of the movement, to reflect on the meaning of the movement.”
― Ryan Holiday, Discipline Is Destiny: The Power of Self-Control

“We don’t refrain from excess because it’s a sin. We are self-disciplined because we want to avoid a hellish existence right here while we’re alive—a hell of our own making.”
― Ryan Holiday, Discipline Is Destiny: The Power of Self-Control

“Nobody likes tyranny . . . why would you be a tyrant to yourself?”
― Ryan Holiday, Discipline Is Destiny: The Power of Self-Control

“The privilege of command is command,” Mattis once told a lieutenant he’d caught shirking. “You don’t get a bigger tent.” In fact, the best commanders take the smaller tent. They pass their extra provisions on to their troops. They don’t go easier on themselves, they go harder. Because they know that it’s not just about them anymore. “We are not on the level,” a foot soldier once complained to Xenophon as he led the Ten Thousand Greeks out of Persia. “You are riding on horseback while I am wearing myself out with a shield to carry.” Hearing this, Xenophon jumped down and carried the man’s shield the rest of the way. Being the “boss” is a job. Being a “leader” is something you earn. You get elevated to that plane by your self-discipline. By moments of sacrifice like this, when you take the hit or the responsibility on behalf of someone else.”
― Ryan Holiday, Discipline Is Destiny: The Power of Self-Control

“Failing to realize your full potential is a terrible punishment.”
― Ryan Holiday, Discipline Is Destiny: The Power of Self-Control

“A man must swallow a toad every morning if he wishes to be sure of finding nothing still more disgusting before the day is over.” Shortened and often credited to Mark Twain,[*] the idea is that if we eat the frog at the beginning of the day, it will be next to impossible for the day to get any worse. A more applicable interpretation of this idea was expressed by the poet and pacifist William Stafford’s daily rule: “Do the hard things first.”
― Ryan Holiday, Discipline Is Destiny: The Power of Self-Control