Quotes about discipline
page 10

William Laud photo
William Quan Judge photo
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto photo
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto photo
Jesse Jackson photo
Dwight D. Eisenhower photo

“Shortly we will be fighting our way across the Continent of Europe in battles designed to preserve our civilization. Inevitably, in the path of our advance will be found historical monuments and cultural centers which symbolize to the world all that we are fighting to preserve. It is the responsibility of every commander to protect and respect these symbols whenever possible. In some circumstances the success of the military operation may be prejudiced in our reluctance to destroy these revered objects. Then, as at Casssino, where the enemy relied on our emotional attachments to shield his defense, the lives of our men are paramount. So, where military necessity dictates, commanders may order the required action even though it involves destruction to some honored site. But there are many circumstances in which damage and destruction are not necessary and cannot be justified. In such cases, through the exercise of restraint and discipline, commanders will preserve centers and objects of historical and cultural significance. Civil Affairs Staffs at higher echleons will advise commanders of the locations of historical monuments of this type both in advance of the front lines and in occupied areas. This information together with the necessary instruction, will be passe down through command channels to all echleons.”

Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) American general and politician, 34th president of the United States (in office from 1953 to 1961)

May 26 1944 letter as qtd. in “The Law of Armed Conflict: Constraints on the Contemporary Use of Military Force”, edited by Howard M. Hensel, 2007, p. 58.
1940s

C. L. R. James photo
Erich Ludendorff photo
Theodor Mommsen photo

“The system of administration was thoroughly remodelled. The Sullan proconsuls and propraetors had been in their provinces essentially sovereign and practically subject to no control; those of Caesar were the well-disciplined servants of a stern master, who from the very unity and life-tenure of his power sustained a more natural and more tolerable relation to the subjects than those numerous, annually changing, petty tyrants. The governorships were no doubt still distributed among the annually-retiring two consuls and sixteen praetors, but, as the Imperator directly nominated eight of the latter and the distribution of the provinces among the competitors depended solely on him, they were in reality bestowed by the Imperator. The functions also of the governors were practically restricted. His memory was matchless, and it was easy for him to carry on several occupations simultaneously with equal self-possession. Although a gentleman, a man of genius, and a monarch, he had still a heart. So long as he lived, he cherished the purest veneration for his worthy mother Aurelia… to his daughter Julia he devoted an honourable affection, which was not without reflex influence even on political affairs. With the ablest and most excellent men of his time, of high and of humbler rank, he maintained noble relations of mutual fidelity… As he himself never abandoned any of his partisans… but adhered to his friends--and that not merely from calculation--through good and bad times without wavering, several of these, such as Aulus Hirtius and Gaius Matius, gave, even after his death, noble testimonies of their attachment to him. The superintendence of the administration of justice and the administrative control of the communities remained in their hands; but their command was paralyzed by the new supreme command in Rome and its adjutants associated with the governor, and the raising of the taxes was probably even now committed in the provinces substantially to imperial officials, so that the governor was thenceforward surrounded with an auxiliary staff which was absolutely dependent on the Imperator in virtue either of the laws of the military hierarchy or of the still stricter laws of domestic discipline. While hitherto the proconsul and his quaestor had appeared as if they were members of a gang of robbers despatched to levy contributions, the magistrates of Caesar were present to protect the weak against the strong; and, instead of the previous worse than useless control of the equestrian or senatorian tribunals, they had to answer for themselves at the bar of a just and unyielding monarch. The law as to exactions, the enactments of which Caesar had already in his first consulate made more stringent, was applied by him against the chief commandants in the provinces with an inexorable severity going even beyond its letter; and the tax-officers, if indeed they ventured to indulge in an injustice, atoned for it to their master, as slaves and freedmen according to the cruel domestic law of that time were wont to atone.”

Theodor Mommsen (1817–1903) German classical scholar, historian, jurist, journalist, politician, archaeologist and writer

Vol. 4, pt. 2, translated by W.P.Dickson
The History of Rome - Volume 4: Part 2

B.K.S. Iyengar photo

“His practice is characterized by long asanas, or postures, that require extraordinary will and discipline.”

B.K.S. Iyengar (1918–2014) Indian yoga teacher and scholar

B. K. S. Iyengar, Who Helped Bring Yoga to the West, Dies at 95

“He led a simple and disciplined public life and stood for social equality and women empowerment, founded Basava Samiti for spreading principles adopted by 12th Century social reformer Basaveshwara.”

Basappa Danappa Jatti (1912–2002) Indian politician

The Hindu Reporter in: ‘Principles followed by B.D. Jatti still relevant’ http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-karnataka/article3879641.ece, The Hindu, 10 September 2012

Jagadish Chandra Bose photo
Rukmini Devi Arundale photo
Lin Yutang photo
Edsger W. Dijkstra photo

“[Though computer science is a fairly new discipline, it is predominantly based on the Cartesian world view. As Edsgar W. Dijkstra has pointed out] A scientific discipline emerges with the - usually rather slow!”

Edsger W. Dijkstra (1930–2002) Dutch computer scientist

discovery of which aspects can be meaningfully 'studied in isolation for the sake of their own consistency.
Dijkstra (1982) as cited in: Douglas Schuler, Douglas Schuler Jonathan Jacky (1989) Directions and Implications of Advanced Computing, 1987. Vol 1, p. 84.
1980s

Steve Jobs photo
Dana Arnold photo
Dana Arnold photo
Dana Arnold photo
Nelson Mandela photo

“Exercise dissipates tension, and tension is the enemy of serenity. I found that I worked better and thought more clearly when I was in good physical condition, and so training became one of the inflexible disciplines of my life.”

Nelson Mandela (1918–2013) President of South Africa, anti-apartheid activist

Interview with Gavin Evans, Soweto (15 February 1990) recounted in COVID-19 lockdown: Can you do Nelson Mandela's Robben Island prison cell workout? https://nationalpost.com/news/world/covid-19-lockdown-can-you-do-nelson-mandelas-prison-cell-workout?video_autoplay=true, 7 April 2020
1990s

Michelle Goldberg photo

“Disaster response requires discipline and adherence to a clear chain of command, not the move-fast-and-break-things approach of start-up culture.”

Michelle Goldberg (1975) American journalist

Putting Jared Kushner In Charge Is Utter Madness (April 2, 2020)

Noam Chomsky photo
Ernesto Che Guevara photo

“The example of a revolution and the lessons it applies for Latin America have destroyed all coffee house theories; we have demonstrated that a small group of men supported by the people without fear of dying can overcome a disciplined regular army and defeat it.”

Ernesto Che Guevara (1928–1967) Argentine Marxist revolutionary

As quoted in It Has Been 50 Years Since Che Guevara Was Murdered http://www.thenation.com/article/archive/it-has-been-50-years-since-che-guevara-was-murdered/, by Bill Ayers and Michael Steven Smith

“From the outset of the industrial revolution, what is nostalgically called "laissez-faire" was in fact a system of continuing state intervention to subsidize accumulation, guarantee privilege, and maintain work discipline.”

Kevin Carson (1963) American academic

"The Iron Fist Behind the Invisible Hand: Capitalism As a State-Guaranteed System of Privilege" (2011)

Koenraad Elst photo
Evelyn Underhill photo
Isabel II do Reino Unido photo

“I hope in the years to come everyone will be able to take pride in how they responded to this challenge. And those who come after us will say the Britons of this generation were as strong as any. That the attributes of self-discipline, of quiet good-humoured resolve and of fellow-feeling still characterise this country. The pride in who we are is not a part of our past, it defines our present and our future.”

Isabel II do Reino Unido (1926–2022) queen of the UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, and head of the Commonwealth of Nations

Address to the UK and Commonwealth during the 2019–20 coronavirus pandemic, 05/04/2020 https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/queens-speech-coronavirus-full-transcript-text-read-a9448531.html.

Giovanni Morassutti photo

“I believe that the art world will expand into a broader field and intertwine more and more disciplines and cultures setting new trends within the cultural field.”

Giovanni Morassutti (1980) Italian actor, theatre director and cultural entrepreneur.

In response to the question, " Which new arts management practices and topics are going to be adapted in the near future in the European context?", from the interview "Arts management in South Asia and Europe. The intertwining of arts management and artistic practice", Arts Management Network - State of the arts (May 25, 2020) https://www.artsmanagement.net/Articles/Arts-management-in-South-Asia-and-Europe-The-intertwining-of-arts-management-and-artistic-practice,4139.

Warren Farrell photo

“The discipline of postponing gratification is the single most important discipline your son needs.”

Warren Farrell (1943) author, spokesperson, expert witness, political candidate

Source: The Boy Crisis (2018), pp. 98

Michel Henry photo
Enoch Powell photo

“For the unbroken life of the English nation over a thousand years and more is a phenomenon unique in history. ... Institutions which elsewhere are recent and artificial creations, appear in England almost as works of nature, spontaneous and unquestioned. The deepest instinct of the Englishman—how the word “instinct” keeps forcing itself in again and again!—is for continuity; he never acts more freely nor innovates more boldly than when he most is conscious of conserving or even of reacting. From this continuous life of a united people in its island home spring, as from the soil of England, all that is peculiar in the gifts and the achievements of the English nation, its laws, its literature, its freedom, its self-discipline. ... And this continuous and continuing life of England is symbolised and expressed, as by nothing else, by the English kingship. English it is, for all the leeks and thistles and shamrocks, the Stuarts and the Hanoverians, for all the titles grafted upon it here and elsewhere, “her other realms and territories”, Headships of Commonwealths, and what not. The stock that received all these grafts is English, the sap that rises through it to the extremities rises from roots in English earth, the earth of England's history.”

Enoch Powell (1912–1998) British politician

Speech to the Royal Society of St George (22 April 1961), quoted in A Nation Not Afraid. The Thinking of Enoch Powell (1965), pp. 145–146

Niccolo Machiavelli photo
Benjamin Creme photo
Swami Samarpanananda photo

“Luxury of freedom hates the discipline of knowledge.”

Swami Samarpanananda Monk, Author, Teacher

Kratu-A Novel ( Page 24 )

Thelma Schoonmaker photo

“Editing is a lot about patience and discipline and just banging away at something, turning off the machine and going home at night because you're frustrated and depressed, and then coming back in the morning to try again.”

Thelma Schoonmaker (1940) American film editor

Oscar-winning editor arrives with 'Departed', July 30, 2007, Debruge, Peter, Variety http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117969221.html?categoryId=2160&cs=1,

Eliud Kipchoge photo

“Only the disciplined ones are free in life. If you are undisciplined you are a slave to your moods, you are a slave to your passions.”

Eliud Kipchoge (1984) Kenyan long-distance runner

Eliud Kipchoge (2018) cited in: " Eliud Kipchoge & David Bedford | Full Address and Q&A | Oxford Union https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tc00mDtzIJU" in Oxford Union, 5 January 2018.

Greg McKeown (author) photo
Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington photo
Calvin Coolidge photo
David Rockefeller photo
William Ellery Channing photo
Murray N. Rothbard photo

“It is no crime to be ignorant of economics, which is, after all, a specialized discipline and one that most people consider to be a 'dismal science.”

Murray N. Rothbard (1926–1995) American economist of the Austrian School, libertarian political theorist, and historian

But it is totally irresponsible to have a loud and vociferous opinion on economic subjects while remaining in this state of ignorance.
The Death Wish of the Anarcho-Communists (1970) http://www.lewrockwell.com/rothbard/rothbard122.html.

John Steinbeck photo
Robert Kocharyan photo
Ayuel Monykuch photo
Natalie Goldberg photo
Muhammad Ali Jinnah photo
Eric Hobsbawm photo

“I'm a very disciplined actor, but I also believe in kicking back and having a glass of wine.”

Lucy Peacock (actress) (1960) Canadian actress

Out, damned fear! https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/out-damned-fear/article18228395/ (May 28, 2005)

Frithjof Schuon photo

“Only the science of the Absolute gives meaning and discipline to the science of the relative.”

Frithjof Schuon (1907–1998) Swiss philosopher

[2013, From the Divine to the Human, World Wisdom, 119, 978-1-936597-32-1]
Spiritual path, Knowledge

Dmae Roberts photo

“In any professional setting, I’m a fish out of water on many levels, not just racially and culturally but also in the work I do, which involves many artistic disciplines…”

Dmae Roberts American actress and writer

On doing things that scare her in “Who is Dmae Roberts?” https://artslandia.com/who-is-dmae-roberts/ in artslandia

Greg McKeown (author) photo
Wojciech Jaruzelski photo
Irving Kristol photo

“[T]hough affluence is a good thing, and the spirit of compassionate reform is a good thing, in the end a nation survives only to the extent that the spirit of self-discipline and self-sacrifice is strong and vital.”

Irving Kristol (1920–2009) American columnist, journalist, and writer

Source: Memorandum to Robert T. Hartmann https://www.fordlibrarymuseum.gov/library/document/0204/1511691.pdf (1976)

Edward Augustus Freeman photo
Benjamin Franklin photo

“Our great security lies, I think, in our growing strength, both in numbers and wealth; ... unless, by a neglect of military discipline, we should lose all martial spirit ...; for there is much truth in the Italian saying, Make yourselves sheep, and the wolves will eat you.”

Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790) American author, printer, political theorist, politician, postmaster, scientist, inventor, civic activist, …

Letter to Thomas Cushing (1773) http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/franklin-the-works-of-benjamin-franklin-vol-vi-letters-and-misc-writings-1772-1775#lf1438-06_head_007.

Edgar Guest photo
Jordan Peterson photo
Tertullian photo

“Notorious, too, are the dealings of heretics with swarms of magicians and charlatans and astrologers and philosophers — all, of course, devotees of speculation. You can judge the quality of their faith from the way they behave. Discipline is an index to doctrine.”

Tertullian (155–220) Christian theologian

The Prescriptions Against the Heretics as translated by Stanley Lawrence Greenslade, in Early Latin Theology: Selections from Tertullian, Cyprian, Ambrose, and Jerome (1956), p. 63
The Prescription Against Heretics https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0311.htm