Quotes About Discipline

In biblical times, they used to stone a few thirteen-year-olds with some regularity, which helped keep the others quiet and at home. The mothers were usually in the first row of stone throwers, and had to be restrained.

Writing is, for some of us, the latch that keeps the door of the pen closed, keeps those crazy ravenous dogs contained

And there are also the dogs: let's not forget the dogs, the dogs in their pen who will surely hurtle and snarl their way out if you ever stop writing, because writing is, for some of us, the latch that keeps the door of the pen closed, keeps those crazy ravenous dogs contained.

You can do it the way you used to clear the dinner dishes when you were thirteen, or you can do it as a Japanese person would perform a tea ceremony, with a level of concentration and care in which you can lose yourself, and so in which you can find yourself.

Without the discipline of work, they had invented the discipline of etiquette, and it had become just as ruthless a master.

The essence of strength is not in overpowering others, but in mastering oneself.

Claudia, you've been a very very naughty little girl.

being an atheist required discipline very like that of being Catholic. One could never yield to the idea of a supernatural authority, no matter how often one might be tempted. To think that a personal God had made the world was to yield to a demonic and superstitious and destructive belief.

If you want to be a writer, write. Write and write and write.

The one ironclad rule is that I have to try. I have to walk into my writing room and pick up my pen every weekday morning.

When she went out to the kitchen, I knew she would be getting her Triscuits. That was what she had for her snack at the end of every workday: six Triscuits exactly, because six was the serving size listed on the box. She showed a slavish devotion to the concept of a recommended serving size....

If I waited till I felt like writing, I would never write at all.

Thinking time," their father called it. Their mother would shout at him and stamp her foot, or slap Willa in the face (such a stinging, shameful experience, being slapped in the face—so scary to the person's eyes), or shake Elaine like a Raggedy Ann

I will make myself count to ten before I speak to the children in anger

He ate an apple and a little box of raisins from his bag, drank the milk, and went off to the lavatory to floss and brush his teeth.

A schedule defends from chaos and whim. A net for catching days.

The most demanding part of living a lifetime as an artist is the strict discipline of forcing oneself to work steadfastly along the nerve of one's own most intimate sensitivity.

A great physicist taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He published many important books and papers. Often he had an idea in the middle of the night. He rose from his bed, took a shower, washed his hair, and shaved. He dressed completely, in a clean shirt, in polished shoes, a jacket and tie. Then he sat at his desk and wrote down his idea. A friend of mine asked him why he put himself through all that rigmarole. 'Why,' he said, surprised at the question, 'in honor of physics!

I came to think of it as a kind of zen practice: the Zen of not fucking up.

Writers write. Runners run. Establish your identity by doing your work.

The habit of doing more than is necessary can only be earned through practice.

Crash diets don't work. They don't work for losing weight, they don't work for making sales quota and they don't work for getting and keeping a job. The reason they don't work has nothing to do with what's on the list of things to be done (or consumed). No, the reason they don't work is that they don't change habits, and habits are where our lives and careers and bodies are made.

The challenge, it turns out, isn't in perfecting your ability to know when to start and when to stand by. The challenge is getting into the habit of

One way to become creative is to discipline yourself to generate bad ideas. The worse the better. Do it a lot and magically you'll discover that some good ones slip through.