M. Scott Peck Quotes

They who overcome their desires once can overcome them always.

As people strengthened their willpower muscles in one part of their lives—in the gym, or a money management program—that strength spilled over into what they ate or how hard they worked. Once willpower became stronger, it touched everything.

The Fremen were supreme in that quality the ancients called "spannungsbogen" -- which is the self-imposed delay between desire for a thing and the act of reaching out to grasp that thing.

Remember anything you want that's valuable requires you to break through short-term pain in order to gain long-term pleasure.

To abstain from the enjoyment which is in our power, or to seek distant rather than immediate results, are among the most painful exertions of the human will.

Unlike the weak, the strong neither give up nor are driven by pain into rash or stupid behavior. They don't like pain any more than anyone else, but they are not willing to settle for short-term relief if it means reducing their options later. They don't rob Peter to pay Paul, they face reality now.

Being willing to delay pleasure for a greater result is a sign of maturity.

One definition of maturity is learning to delay pleasure.

Self-discipline is the golden key; without it, you cannot be happy.

Giving up on our long-term goals for immediate gratification, my friends, is procrastination.

If thou wouldst conquer thy weakness, thou must never gratify it.

The secret of success is learning how to use pain and pleasure instead of having pain and pleasure use you. If you do that, you're in control of your life. If you don't, life controls you.

Strength instead of being the lusty child of passion, grows by grappling with and subduing them.

Think of the long view of life, not just what's going to happen today or tomorrow. Don't give up what you most want in life for something you think you want now.

Character is the impulse reined down into steady continuance.

It is a clear gain to sacrifice pleasure in order to avoid pain.

Let's face it: the present self is present. It's in control. It's in power right now. It has these strong, heroic arms that can lift doughnuts into your mouth. And the future self is not even around. It's off in the future. It's weak. It doesn't even have a lawyer present.

A New Year's resolution that I can never keep? To be able to make decisions.

Working is not instantly rewarding. It's a long process, and it's much easier to just feed whatever dopamine cycles exist in your brain in instant gratification ways. I get it; I do it.

Make yourself do unpleasant things so as to gain the upper hand of your soul.

If you do not conquer self, you will be conquered by self.

You will not stop. The pain is necessary, especially the pain of hunger. It reassures you that you are strong, can withstand anything, that you are not a slave to your body, you don't have to give in to its whining.

Discipline is something we despise for the moment.... We all look for a place to run, an excuse with which to stall. No one enjoys it. Yet those of us who have endured it know that the fruit it produces and the pain from which it ultimately spares us makes it worth the agony.

You will be a happier person if you don't do what you want to do, most of the time

All mental discipline and symmetrical growth are from activity of the mind under the yoke of the will or personal power.