“‘Always remember,’ Churchill once reassured his wife, ‘that I have taken more out of alcohol than alcohol has taken out of me.’ This is a critical test. Don’t just think about what a certain pleasure will give, think about what it will take out of you. Think about how what you’re chasing is going to age. Think about how you’ll think about it after—during the refractory period, during your hangover, when your pants are too tight, when you catch yourself in the mirror months from now and wonder how this happened.”
Ryan Holiday, Discipline Is Destiny (Page 152)
“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 (Page 150)
“We’re all going to mess up. We’ll show up to a life-changing opportunity unprepared. We’ll fall off our diet or our sobriety. We’ll lose our temper and embarrass ourselves. We’ll make mistakes. We’ll be beaten. That’s the thing about discipline: It never fails us, but sometimes we fail it. But will that be the end of it? Is that who we are now? Or can we get back up? Losing is not always up to us… but being a loser is. Being a quitter is. Saying, ‘Ah, what the hell, does it even matter?’ That’s on us. Throwing in the towel on a fight we’ve clearly lost is one thing, throwing in the towel on fighting, on your standards, from that point forward? Now you’ve been more than beaten, you’ve been defeated.”
Ryan Holiday, Discipline Is Destiny (Page 140)
“Another way to spell ‘perfectionism’ is p-a-r-a-l-y-s-i-s. An obsession with getting it perfect misses the forest for the trees, because ultimately the biggest miss of all is failing to get your shot off. What you don’t ship, what you’re too afraid or strict to release, to try, is, by definition, a failure. It doesn’t matter the cause, whether it was from procrastination or perfectionism, the result is the same. You didn’t do it.”
Ryan Holiday, Discipline Is Destiny (Page 132)
“The Bible says that through our patience we come to possess nothing less than our souls.”
Ryan Holiday, Discipline Is Destiny (Page 129)
“Epictetus reminds us that when you say, I’ll get serious about this tomorrow or, I’ll focus on it later, ‘what you’re really saying is, ‘Today I’ll be shameless, immature, and base; others will have the power to distress me.””
Ryan Holiday, Discipline Is Destiny (Page 125)
“The muses never bless the unfocused. And even if they did, how would they notice?”
Ryan Holiday, Discipline Is Destiny (Page 124)
“Everything we say yes to means saying no to something else. No one can be two places at once. No one can give all their focus to more than one thing. But the power of this reality can also work for you: Every no can also be a yes, a yes to what really matters. To rebuff one opportunity means to cultivate another. This is the key not just to professional success but also personal happiness. When someone takes ‘just a few minutes of your time,’ they aren’t just robbing you. They’re robbing your family. They’re robbing the people who you serve. They are robbing the future. The same goes for when you agree to do unimportant things, or when you commit to too much at one time. Except this time, you are the thief.”
Ryan Holiday, Discipline Is Destiny (Page 118)
“Television doesn’t want you to get up and take action, they want you to sit through the commercial break. A news outlet doesn’t want you to be so outraged by an article that you do something, no, they want you to stay and click another article at the bottom…or one of those scammy AI-written Taboola ads at the bottom. Stop falling for it. When I’m not feeling great physically—tired, irritable, sluggish—usually it’s because I’m eating poorly. In the same way, when I feel mentally scattered and distracted—I know it’s time to clean up my information diet.”
Ryan Holiday
“We know that between every stimulus and its response, every piece of information and our decision, there is space. It is a brief space, to be sure, but one with room enough to insert our philosophy. Will we us it? Use it to think, use it to examine, use it to wait for more information? Or will we give into first impressions, to harmful instincts, and old patterns? The pause is everything.”
Ryan Holiday, Discipline Is Destiny (Page 113)
“A weak mind must be constantly entertained and stimulated. A strong mind can occupy itself and, more importantly, be still and vigilant in moments that demand it.”
Ryan Holiday, Discipline Is Destiny (Page 104)
“No one who is a slave to their urges or to sloth, no one without strength or a good schedule, can create a great life. Certainly they will be too consumed with themselves to be of much good for anyone else. Those who tell themselves they are free to do anything will, inevitably, be chained to something.”
Ryan Holiday, Discipline Is Destiny (Page 92)
“Toni Morrison came home one day complaining about her job cleaning someone’s house to her father. She expected him to get angry on her behalf or to pity her. Instead, he said, ‘Listen. You don’t live there. You live here. With your people. Go to work. Get your money. And come on home.’ What he was teaching her, Morrison later wrote, became a set of principles she based her life around. (1) Whatever the work is, do it well—not for the boss but for yourself. (2) You make the job; it doesn’t make you. (3) Your real life is with us, your family. (4) You are not the work you do; you are the person you are.”
Ryan Holiday
“…Play the game of appearances without being distracted or consumed by appearance. We dress well… but not too well. We take care to take care of ourselves… but never at the neglect of the people or things in our care. We take our appearance seriously… without taking ourselves seriously. As they say in fashion circles, we wear the suit, the suit doesn’t wear us. We look sharp to stay sharp, to be sharp… because we are sharp.”
Ryan Holiday, Discipline Is Destiny (Page 70)
“Nobody does their best in their bathrobe… which is why we ought to take a shower and get ready in the morning, even if we’re not going to leave the house. Shine your shoes… until you are the one glowing.”
Ryan Holiday, Discipline Is Destiny (Page 69)
“Some ask, What is the reward for all this labor? They are incorrect if they think it’s awards and fame and weeks on the bestseller list. Others want a guarantee: If I put in my ten thousand hours, then I’ll get the job? Then I’ll be able to go pro? Then I’ll be rich? No, that’s not how this goes. Always and forever, the reward is the work. It is a joy itself. It is torture and also heaven—sweaty, wonderful salvation. And that’s how you manage to do prodigious amounts of it—not grudgingly, but lovingly.”
Ryan Holiday, Discipline Is Destiny (Page 64)
“Hustle isn’t always about hurrying. It is about getting things done, properly. It’s okay to move slowly… provided that you never stop. Do we not understand that in the story of the tortoise and the hare, that it was actually the turtle who hustled?”
Ryan Holiday, Discipline Is Destiny (Page 57)
“Show up…
Ryan Holiday, Discipline Is Destiny (Page 44)
…when you’re tired
…when you don’t have to
…even if you have an excuse
…even if you’re busy
…even if you won’t get recognized for it
…even if it’s been kicking your ass lately.
Once something is done, you can build on it. Once you get started, momentum can grow. When you show up, you can get lucky.”
“For very few of us—no matter the profession—’When are you at your best?’ is answered with ‘When I am drowning in paperwork, dirty dishes, half-empty water bottles, and floors that haven’t been swept.’ The session in the weight room goes better when the weights are stacked and the dumbbells are in the right place. The craftsman is safer when the workshop is tidy. The team plays better when the locker room is kept up. The meetings run tighter when the conference room is fresh and sparse. The general ensures troop discipline by keeping their own quarters spartan and spotless. The space where great work is done is holy. We must respect it.”
Ryan Holiday, Discipline Is Destiny (Page 41)
“I would die without my [insert luxury item], we’ll say in jest. How can anybody live like this? we’ll ask not so rhetorically. The answer? They’re stronger than you. ‘The more a man is,’ the editor Maxwell Perkins had inscribed on his mantel, ‘the less he wants.’ When you strip away the unnecessary and the excessive, what’s left is you. What’s left is what’s important.”
Ryan Holiday, Discipline Is Destiny (Page 36)