Discipline Is Destiny: The Power of Self-Control (The Stoic Virtues Series)

freedom is the opportunity for self-discipline.

“When a man can control his life, his physical needs, his lower self,” Muhammad Ali would later say, “he elevates himself.”

By being a little hard on ourselves, it makes it harder for others to be hard on us. By being strict with ourselves, we take away others’ power over us.

The less you desire, the richer you are, the freer you are, the more powerful you are. It’s that simple.

In the ancient world, virtue was comprised of four key components. Courage. Temperance. Justice. Wisdom.

Freedom, as Eisenhower famously said, is actually only the “opportunity for self-discipline.”

We must master ourselves unless we’d prefer to be mastered by someone or something else.

Temperance is not deprivation but command of oneself physically, mentally, spiritually—demanding the best of oneself, even when no one is looking, even when allowed less. It takes courage to live this way—not just because it’s hard, but because it sets you apart.

And yet here he was at one of the two exceptions that Churchill would lay out—“never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense”—now,