Discipline Is Destiny: The Power of Self-Control
by Ryan Holiday
30 popular highlights from this book
Key Insights & Memorable Quotes
Below are the most popular and impactful highlights and quotes from Discipline Is Destiny: The Power of Self-Control:
“In a world of distraction, focusing is a superpower.”
“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).”
“discipline means being disciplined in all things, especially little things.”
“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.”
“I ceaselessly chant the refrain,” Montaigne said, “anything you can do another day can be done now.”
“We must master ourselves unless we'd prefer to be mastered by someone or something else.”
“We must practice temperance now, in times of plenty, because none of us know what the future holds- only that plenty never lasts.”
“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.”
“As they say, another way to spell “perfectionism” is p-a-r-a-l-y-s-i-s.”
“Most happy people don’t need you to know how happy they are—they aren’t thinking about you at all.”
“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.”
“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!”
“The less you desire, the richer you are, the freer you are, the more powerful you are.”
“The fact is, the body keeps score.”
“freedom is the opportunity for self-discipline.”
“Would you have a great empire? Rule over yourself. Publilius Syrus”
“But that’s what the greats do, they don’t just show up, they do more than practice, they do the work.”
“Only you will know what you need to practice from morning until night, what to repeat ten thousand times.”
“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.”
“Now is the time. Because now is the only time you have.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“When a man can control his life, his physical needs, his lower self,” Muhammad Ali would later say, “he elevates himself.”
“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.”
“Nobody likes tyranny . . . why would you be a tyrant to yourself?”
“Failing to realize your full potential is a terrible punishment.”
“The person who rushes, the person who puts efficiency over efficacy, who ignores the “small stuff” is, in the end, not very efficient.”
“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.”
