The Disciplined Doctor ... and 14 Quotes

“The best years of your life are the ones in which you decide your problems are your own.”

—Albert Ellis

“Have good discipline, Gregory,” my physician-dad frequently reminded me. “There is very little it can’t overcome.” Dad proudly heralded himself as a person of stout discipline. He admitted that he never would have made it the way he did in life being undisciplined.

First found during rigorous medical school studies, dad once told me that after employing the discipline needed to get his MD degree, he thought “there wasn’t much that could stop me.”

Discipline for him instilled confidence, which he used to construct a truly meaningful 50-year career as a physician.

It can’t be said that dad was able to do a great job of transferring his concept of discipline into his children’s lives—with some nice exceptions. Perhaps if he explained it more to us kids—dad was a doer, not a talker—we might have had more success with it. But then, that’s probably undisciplined thinking.

Anyway, here a 12 good quotes about discipline:

1. “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”

—Lao Tzu

2. “Rule your mind or it will rule you.”

—Horace

3. “What lies in our power to do, lies in our power not to do.”

—Aristotle

4. “Circumstances are beyond human control, but our conduct is in our own power.”

—Benjamin Disraeli

5. “When a person is sufficiently motivated, discipline will take care of itself.”

—Alexander Paterson

6. “Discipline yourself, and others won't need to.”

—John Wooden

7. “Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment.”

—Jim Rohn

8. “If everything seems under control, you’re just not going fast enough.”

—Mario Andretti

9. “Discipline is the soul of an army.”

—George Washington

10. “Success is measured by your discipline and inner peace.”

—Mike Ditka

11. “The discipline of desire is the background of character.”

—John Locke

12. “The surest test of discipline is its absence.”

—Clara Barton

13. “No evil propensity of the human heart is so powerful that it may not be subdued by discipline.”

—Seneca

14. "The secret of success is constancy of purpose.”

—Benjamin Disraeli