Quote of the Day (Phyllis McGinley, on Discipline, ‘The Groundwork of All Art’)

“Discipline is the groundwork of all art. The abstract painter has to know first how to draw, the symbolist to write ordinary lines. And the poet, no matter how soon he intends to throw overboard his formalism, has first to be capable of a correctly rhymed and metered stanza.” —Pulitzer Prize-winning American poet Phyllis McGinley (1905-1978), “The Light Side of the Moon,” The American Scholar (August 1965)

Quote of the Day (Harry Emerson Fosdick, on Self-Discipline)

“No horse gets anywhere until he is harnessed. No stream or gas drives anything until it is confined. No Niagara is ever turned into light and power until it is tunneled. No life ever grows great until it is focused, dedicated, disciplined. One of the widest gaps in human experience is the gap between what we say we want to be and our willingness to discipline ourselves to get there.” — American Baptist and Presbyterian minister Harry Emerson Fosdick (1878-1969), Living Under Tension: Sermons on Christianity Today (1941)

Quote of the Day (Adm. Hyman Rickover, on the Best Focus of a Manager’s Energy)

“The human tendency is to while away time with unimportant matters that do not require mental effort or energy. Since they can be easily resolved, they give a false sense of accomplishment. The manager must exert self-discipline to ensure that his energy is focused where it is truly needed.”— Admiral Hyman Rickover (1900-1986), the “Father of the Nuclear Navy,” in “Doing a Job,” speech at Columbia University, Nov. 5, 1981

Quote of the Day (Julianne Moore, Showing Her Self-Discipline)

“I have to finish stuff. I need to get things done. I can't relax until I've done the work I know I need to do."—Actress Julianne Moore, quoted in Stephen Galloway, “There Is Nothing But Chaos,” The Hollywood Reporter, Feb. 6, 2015

For many filmgoers like me, Julianne Moore first served notice that she would be a force to be reckoned in a scene-stealing supporter role in The Hand That Rocks the Cradle (1992). Subsequently, she would be nominated for Academy Awards Boogie Nights (1997), The End of the Affair (1999), The Hours (2002), and Far from Heaven (2002), though she could also have been up for consideration by her fellow actors for any one of a number of other roles.

Her long-expected Oscar for Still Alice on Sunday night caps an extraordinary career. Her fierce self-discipline promises that, despite the wall that many actresses hit in an age-obsessed Hollywood, moviegoers will still see marvelous work from her in the years ahead.

Quote of the Day (Daniel Webster, on Self-Discipline)

“The greatest of all warriors in the siege of Troy had not the pre-eminence because nature had given strength and he carried the largest bow, but because self-discipline had taught him how to bend it.”—U.S. Senator, statesman and orator Daniel Webster (1782-1852) quoted in The World’s Laconics: or, The Best Thoughts of the Best Authors, edited by Everard Berkeley (1853)