Habits and discipline quotes

Success occurs when opportunity meets preparation.

Failure has been correctly identified as the line of least persistence.

If you don't save something on your current income, you won't save anything on your future income.

Fewer people are bent from hard work than are crooked from avoiding it.

A real decision is measured by the fact that you've taken a new action. If there's no action, you haven't truly decided.

I believe life is constantly testing us for our level of commitment, and life's greatest rewards are reserved for those who demonstrate a never-ending commitment to act until they achieve.

We must all suffer from one of two pains: the pain of discipline or the pain of regret. The difference is discipline weighs ounces while regret weighs tons.

Either you run the day or the day runs you.

Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment.

Success is nothing more than a few simple disciplines, practiced every day.

There is no substitute for persistence.

You have absolute control over but one thing, and that is your thoughts.

Mind control is the result of self-discipline and habit. You either control your mind or it controls you.

Self-mastery is the hardest job you will ever tackle. If you do not conquer self, you will be conquered by self.

Most of us are good 'starters' but poor 'finishers' of everything we begin.

The key is not to prioritize what's on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities.

Effective leadership is putting first things first. Effective management is discipline, carrying it out.

I will persist until I succeed.

I will commit not the terrible crime of aiming too low. I will do the work that a failure will not do.

Take 100% responsibility for your life.

Accountability is the glue that ties commitment to the result.

Every professional was once an amateur, and every master started as a beginner.

Take excellent care of the front end of your day, and the rest of your day will pretty much take care of itself.

You are never going to feel like it.

Listen instead to your real customers, to your vision and make something for the long haul. Because that's how long it's going to take.

You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.

Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become.

Habits are the compound interest of self-improvement.

It is so easy to overestimate the importance of one defining moment and underestimate the value of making small improvements on a daily basis.

Success is the product of daily habits, not once-in-a-lifetime transformations.

Goals are good for setting a direction, but systems are best for making progress.

Discipline is destiny.

Being busy is a form of laziness, lazy thinking and indiscriminate action.

Small, smart choices + consistency + time = RADICAL DIFFERENCE.

You alone are responsible for what you do, don't do, or how you respond to what's done to you.

Consistency is the key to achieving and maintaining momentum.

Success doesn't come from what you do occasionally, it comes from what you do consistently.

How you wake up each day and your morning routine dramatically affects your levels of success in every single area of your life.

Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed, is more important than any other one thing.

Leave nothing for to-morrow which can be done to-day.

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

It is better to offer no excuse than a bad one.

Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.

I have a perfect horror of words that are not backed up by deeds.

When life is too easy for us, we must beware or we may not be ready to meet the blows which sooner or later come to everyone, rich or poor.

We must use time as a tool, not as a couch.

Plans are worthless, but planning is everything.

How hard you work matters more than how much you make.

The biggest, most dramatic change happens incrementally, little by little, through compromises and adjustments over years and decades.

The only limit to the height of your achievements is the reach of your dreams and your willingness to work for them.

Everyone can rise above their circumstances and achieve success if they are dedicated to and passionate about what they do.

Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will.

Real change, enduring change, happens one step at a time.

Preparation, I have often said, is rightly two-thirds of any venture.

I keep the subject constantly before me, and wait 'till the first dawnings open slowly, by little and little, into a full and clear light.

If I have done the public any service this way, 'tis due to nothing but industry and a patient thought.

One never notices what has been done; one can only see what remains to be done.

Genius is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent perspiration.

Be alone, that is the secret of invention; be alone, that is when ideas are born.

A man who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life.

Iron rusts from disuse; stagnant water loses its purity and in cold weather becomes frozen; even so does inaction sap the vigor of the mind.

Obstacles cannot crush me. Every obstacle yields to stern resolve.

Thou, O God, dost sell us all good things at the price of labour.

Well done is better than well said.

Lost time is never found again.

Diligence is the mother of good luck.

Little strokes fell great oaks.

Who is wise? He that learns from every one. Who is powerful? He that governs his passions. Who is rich? He that is content.

Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.

Any one can get angry, that is easy... but to do this to the right person, to the right extent, at the right time, with the right motive, and in the right way, that is not for every one, nor is it easy.

For one swallow does not make a summer, nor does one day; and so too one day, or a short time, does not make a man blessed and happy.

What it lies in our power to do, it lies in our power not to do.

Our characters are the result of our conduct.

The beginning is the most important part of any work.

No one should be discouraged, Theaetetus, who can make constant progress, even though it be slow.

There is a victory and defeat, the first and best of victories, the lowest and worst of defeats, which each man gains or sustains at the hands, not of another, but of himself.

The man of virtue makes the difficulty to be overcome his first business, and success only a subsequent consideration.

I am not concerned that I have no place; I am concerned how I may fit myself for one. I am not concerned that I am not known; I seek to be worthy to be known.

Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom. Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power.

It is not that we have a short space of time, but that we waste much of it. Life is long enough.

If it is not right, do not do it; if it is not true, do not say it.

How much time he gains who does not look to see what his neighbor says or does or thinks, but only at what he does himself.

First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do.

No thing great is created suddenly, any more than a bunch of grapes or a fig.

Practice yourself, for heaven's sake, in little things; and thence proceed to greater.

If you would be a good reader, read; if a writer, write.

Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win.

The lion who breaks the enemy's ranks is a minor hero compared to the lion who overcomes himself.

Shallow men believe in luck, believe in circumstances... Strong men believe in cause and effect.

The meaning and design of a problem seem not to lie in its solution, but in our working at it incessantly.

There is no more miserable human being than one in whom nothing is habitual but indecision.

Nothing is so fatiguing as the eternal hanging on of an uncompleted task.

Keep the faculty of effort alive in you by a little gratuitous exercise every day.

People think focus means saying yes to the thing you've got to focus on. But that's not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are.

Real artists ship.

When we own portions of outstanding businesses with outstanding managements, our favorite holding period is forever.

It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it.

Investors should remember that excitement and expenses are their enemies.

Spend each day trying to be a little wiser than you were when you woke up.

Plans are only good intentions unless they immediately degenerate into hard work.

Time is the scarcest resource, and unless it is managed nothing else can be managed.

There is surely nothing quite so useless as doing with great efficiency what should not be done at all.

Before everything else, getting ready is the secret of success.

Nothing is particularly hard if you subdivide it into small jobs.

A person should set his goals as early as he can and devote all his energy and talent to getting there.

It helps to set ambitious goals and commit to meeting them.

Small steps lead to big accomplishments.

Control your expenses better than your competition.

Luck is a dividend of sweat. The more you sweat, the luckier you get.

I never dreamed about success. I worked for it.

Work like there is someone working 24 hours a day to take it all away from you.

Fearlessness is like a muscle. I know from my own life that the more I exercise it, the more natural it becomes to not let my fears run me.

Put all your eggs in one basket, and then watch that basket.

The most important thing for a young man is to establish a credit, a reputation, character.

Wall Street has a few prudent principles; the trouble is that they are always forgotten when they are most needed.

The investor's chief problem, and even his worst enemy, is likely to be himself.

Principles are fundamental truths that serve as the foundations for behavior that gets you what you want out of life.

Play iterated games. All the returns in life, whether in wealth, relationships, or knowledge, come from compound interest.

If the design takes a long time to build, it's the wrong design.

If not excellence, what? If not excellence now, when?

Good is the enemy of great.

A culture of discipline is not a principle of business, it is a principle of greatness.

There are no shortcuts. There are no magic potions. There are no work-arounds.

Habit is habit, and not to be flung out of the window by any man, but coaxed downstairs one step at a time.

It is better to be lucky. But I would rather be exact. Then when luck comes you are ready.

I meant what I said and I said what I meant. An elephant's faithful, one hundred percent.

You can get help from teachers, but you are going to have to learn a lot by yourself, sitting alone in a room.

Patience and time are my warriors, my champions.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep, But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep.

Laziness may look inviting, but only work gives you true satisfaction.

Another flaw in the human character is that everybody wants to build and nobody wants to do maintenance.

I hated every minute of it. But I said to myself, 'Suffer now, and live the rest of your life as a champion.'

Gentlemen, we are going to relentlessly chase perfection, knowing full well we will not catch it, because nothing is perfect. But we are going to relentlessly chase it, because in the process we will catch excellence.

We shall play every game to the hilt with every ounce of fiber we have in our bodies.

You don't do it right once in a while; you do it right every time.

Winning is not a sometime thing; it's an all the time thing.

Make each day your masterpiece.

Champions keep playing until they get it right.

Little things are big.

There are no limits. There are plateaus, but you must not stay there, you must go beyond them.

Success is not an accident. It is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrifice and most of all, love of what you are doing or learning to do.

Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working.

Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together.