I think I’m in love with discipline. Or the idea of it.

I like seeing how others build discipline in their lives, how they’ve realized it’s a crucial ingredient for permanent change, and it inspired me to research more deeply and try it myself.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m far from disciplined. But I’ve come a long way since I started my personal development process.

An important point I want to make is that I’m not talking about the way authorities discipline us – like what society expects us to do, the path we’re supposed to follow and even listening to what teachers tell us to do in school.
Here I’m talking about the real face of self-discipline, the deeper meaning of the word and the powerful idea behind it.

Discipline can be practiced and mastered by individuals, extraordinary people, and even rebels. It still means doing what we don’t really feel like doing and finding the willpower to actually do it right away.

But this time it’s because we’ve come up to the point where we know it’s better to do that than to choose instant gratification.

People who are considered crazy by society, but who are also extraordinary, living out of the comfort zone and doing great stuff with their lives, may be far from the average. But they also make themselves get up super early, work more than 8 hours a day in most cases, do their daily habits and chores (often while traveling the world, spending a month or two on a tropical island and working on their own business).

And that’s why discipline is important. It’s the skill you need to acquire way before you become successful in life. Because in order to lead a better lifestyle, you must first become the person that’s ready to live it.

But discipline is also hard. We all know that.

That’s why some inspiration can help a lot.

Personally, I find quotes really powerful. Not all of them, of course, just the ones from great people, that have so much wisdom in just a sentence or two.

This post is a collection of such quotes and I think you can really benefit from it.

In fact, if you print them out and read them out loud as affirmations every day, big changes will start happening in your mind, and soon in real life.

The post was supposed to be a quick resource of selected quotes on discipline. But it turned out to be a list of 70. But I consider each one helpful and inspiring.

So if you need some willpower boost today, or are a quote lover, check them out:

70 Quotes to Inspire You to Achieve Discipline

1. With self-discipline most anything is possible. ~ Theodore Roosevelt

2. Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment. ~ Jim Rohn

3. In reading the lives of great men, I found that the first victory they won was over themselves? self-discipline with all of them came first. ~ Harry S. Truman

4. Self-respect is the root of discipline: The sense of dignity grows
with the ability to say no to oneself. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel

5. To enjoy good health, to bring true happiness to one’s family, to bring peace to all, one must first discipline and control one’s own mind. If a man can control his mind he can find the way to Enlightenment, and all wisdom and virtue will naturally come to him. ~ Buddha

6. We must all suffer one of two things: the pain of discipline or the pain of regret or disappointment. ~ Jim Rohn

7. We need to understand the difference between discipline and punishment. Punishment is what you do to someone; discipline is what you do for someone. ~ Zig Ziglar

8. The surest test of discipline is its absence. ~ Clara Barton

9. We all have dreams. But in order to make dreams come into reality, it takes an awful lot of determination, dedication, self-discipline, and effort. ~ Jesse Owens

10. Why is discipline important? Discipline teaches us to operate by principle rather than desire. Saying no to our impulses (even the ones that are not inherently sinful) puts us in control of our appetites rather than vice versa. It deposes our lust and permits truth, virtue, and integrity to rule our minds instead. ~ John F. MacArthur Jr.

11. If you will discipline yourself to make your mind self-sufficient you will thereby be least vulnerable to injury from the outside. ~ Critias of Athen

12. Talent without discipline is like an octopus on roller skates. There’s plenty of movement, but you never know if it’s going to be forward, backwards, or sideways. ~ H. Jackson Brown, Jr

13. Respect your efforts, respect yourself. Self-respect leads to self-discipline. When you have both firmly under your belt, that’s real power. ~ Clint Eastwood

14. Discipline means to prevent everything in your life from being filled up. Discipline means that somewhere you’re not occupied, and certainly not preoccupied. In the spiritual life, discipline means to create that space in which something can happen that you hadn’t planned or counted on. ~ Henri Nouwen

15. Discipline is remembering what you want. ~ David Campbell

16. I believe that through knowledge and discipline, financial peace is possible for all of us. ~ Dave Ramsey

17. The discipline you learn and character you build from setting and achieving a goal can be more valuable than the achievement of the goal itself. ~ Bo Bennett

18. Some people regard discipline as a chore. For me, it is a kind of order that sets me free to fly. ~ Julie Andrews

19. Discipline in art is a fundamental struggle to understand oneself, as much as to understand what one is drawing. ~ Henry Moore

20. By constant self-discipline and self-control you can develop greatness of character. ~ Grenville Kleiser

21. Whether our action is wholesome or unwholesome depends on whether that action or deed arises from a disciplined or undisciplined state of mind. It is felt that a disciplined mind leads to happiness and an undisciplined mind leads to suffering, and in fact it is said that bringing about discipline within one’s mind is the essence of the Buddha’s teaching.” ~ Dalai Lama XIV

22. He conquers twice who conquers himself in victory. ~ Jyrus

23. A man without decision of character can never be said to belong to himself . . . . He belongs to whatever can make captive of him. ~ John Foste

24. Winners embrace hard work. They love the discipline of it, the trade-off they’re making to win. Losers, on the other hand, see it as punishment. And that’s the difference. ~ Lou Holtz

25. The discipline of desire is the background of character. ~ John Locke

26. You need three things to win: discipline, hard work and, before everything maybe, commitment. No one will make it without those three. Sport teaches you that. ~ Haile Gebrselassie

27. When an individual is motivated by great and powerful convictions of truth, then he disciplines himself, not because of the demands of the church, but because of the knowledge within his heart. ~ Gordon B. Hinckley

28. The most difficult thing about painting is the self-discipline. When I finish a job, I give myself a few days, but then I have to discipline myself quite fiercely if I want to do some painting that’s worthwhile. Otherwise, you’re just doodling. It’s much easier when you’re just told what you have to do. ~ John Hurt

29. Affirmation without discipline is the beginning of delusion. ~ Jim Rohn

30. The only discipline that lasts is self-discipline. ~ Bum Phillips

31. With faith, discipline and selfless devotion to duty, there is nothing worthwhile that you cannot achieve. ~ Muhammad Ali Jinnah

32. If we do not discipline ourselves the world will do it for us. ~ William Feather

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

34. If you set goals for yourself, and you’re like a lot of other people, you probably realize it’s not that your goals are physically impossible that’s keeping you from achieving them; it’s that you lack the self-discipline to stick to them. It’s physically possible to lose weight. It’s physically possible to exercise more. ~ Daniel Goldstein

35. Most of us don’t mind doing what we ought to do when it doesn’t interfere with what we want to do, but it takes discipline and maturity to do what we ought to do whether we want to or not. ~ Joseph B. Wirthlin

36. It doesn’t matter whether you are pursuing success in business, sports, the arts, or life in general: The bridge between wishing and accomplishing is discipline. ~ Harvey Mackay

37. Discipline is wisdom and vice versa. ~ M. Scott Peck

38. Success isn’t measured by money or power or social rank. Success is measured by your discipline and inner peace. ~ Mike Ditka

39. True discipline is really just self-remembering; no forcing or fighting is necessary. ~ Charles Eisenstein

40. Self-discipline is an act of cultivation. It require you to connect today’s actions to tomorrow’s results. ~ Gary Ryan Blair

41. Discipline yourself, and others won’t need to. ~ John Wooden

42. It’s easy to have faith in yourself and have discipline when you’re a winner, when you’re number one. What you got to have is faith and discipline when you’re not a winner. ~ Vince Lombardi

43. Discipline is based on pride, on meticulous attention to details, and on mutual respect and confidence. Discipline must be a habit so ingrained that it is stronger than the excitement of the goal or the fear of failure. ~ Gary Ryan Blair

44. It is better to conquer yourself than to win a thousand battles. Then the victory is yours. It cannot be taken from you, not by angels or by demons, heaven or hell. ~ Buddha

45. Let’s not be afraid to speak the common sense truth: you can’t have high standards without good discipline. ~ William Hague

46. Without discipline, there’s no life at all. ~ Katharine Hepburn

47. Discipline is just doing the same thing the right way whether anyone’s watching or not. ~ Michael J. Fox

48. It was character that got us out of bed, commitment that moved us into action, and discipline that enabled us to follow through. ~ Zig Ziglar

49. You can never conquer the mountain. You can only conquer yourself. ~ Jim Whittaker

50. The overman…Who has organized the chaos of his passions, given style to his character, and become creative. Aware of life’s terrors, he affirms life without resentment. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

51. We all naturally want to become successful… we also want to take shortcuts. And it’s easy to do so, but you can never take away the effort of hard work and discipline and sacrifice. ~ Apolo Ohno

52. Once you have commitment, you need the discipline and hard work to get you there. ~ Haile Gebrselassie

53. Hold yourself responsible for a higher standard than anybody else expects of you. Never excuse yourself. Never pity yourself. Be a hard master to yourself-and be lenient to everybody else. ~ Henry Ward Beecher

54. I think self-discipline is something, it’s like a muscle. The more you exercise it, the stronger it gets. ~ Daniel Goldstein

55. Success is measured by your discipline and inner peace. ~ Mike Ditka

56. Mastering others is strength. Mastering yourself is true power. ~ Lao Tzu

57. First we form habits, then they form us. Conquer your bad habits or they will conquer you. ~ Rob Gilbert

58. Work while you work, play while you play – this is a basic rule of repressive self-discipline. ~ Theodor Adorno
59. Rule your mind or it will rule you. ~ Horace

60. Whether you call it Buddhism or another religion, self-discipline, that’s important. Self-discipline with awareness of consequences. ~ Dalai Lama

61. You will never have a greater or lesser dominion than that over yourself…the height of a man’s success is gauged by his self-mastery; the depth of his failure by his self-abandonment. …And this law is the expression of eternal justice. He who cannot establish dominion over himself will have no dominion over others. ~ Leonardo da Vinci

62. Leaders aren’t born they are made. And they are made just like anything else, through hard work. And that’s the price we’ll have to pay to achieve that goal, or any goal. ~ Vince Lombard

63. If you do not conquer self, you will be conquered by self. ~ Napoleon Hill

64. Self-denial and self-discipline, however, will be recognized as the outstanding qualities of a good soldier. ~ William Lyon Mackenzie King

65. Success is actually a short race—a sprint fueled by discipline just long enough for habit to kick in and take over. ~ Gary Keller

66. Everybody starts at the top, and then has the problem of staying there. Lasting accomplishment, however, is still achieved through a long, slow climb and self-discipline. ~ Helen Hayes

67. The good Lord gave you a body that can stand most anything. It’s your mind you have to convince. ~ Vince Lombardi

68. People create their own success by learning what they need to learn and then by practicing it until they become proficient at it. ~ Brian Tracy

69. Self-discipline is a form of freedom. Freedom from laziness and lethargy, freedom from the expectations and demands of others, freedom from weakness and fear—and doubt. Self-discipline allows a pitcher to feel his individuality, his inner strength, his talent. He is master of, rather than a slave to, his thoughts and emotions. ~ H.A. Dorfman

70. It is one of the strange ironies of this strange life that those who work the hardest, who subject themselves to the strictest discipline, who give up certain pleasurable things in order to achieve a goal, are the happiest men. ~ Brutus Hamilton