You can judge the quality of their faith from the way they behave. Discipline is an index to doctrine.
Interpretation
Faith is reflected in one's behavior, and discipline shows the strength of beliefs.
This quote suggests that a person's beliefs and faith can be observed through their actions. It implies that discipline, how one adheres to their principles and values, serves as a measure of the depth and quality of their beliefs, connecting behavior with one's doctrinal commitments.
In practice
In a speech about integrity, one might use this quote to emphasize the importance of backing up beliefs with actions.
Whatever is born is the work of God. So whatever is plastered on, is the devil's work.... How unworthy of the Christian name it is to wear a fictitious face - you on whom simplicity in every form is enjoined! You, to whom lying with the tongue is not lawful, are lying in appearance.
Nature soaks every evil with either fear or shame.
Examine then, and see if He be not the dispenser of kingdoms, who is Lord at once of the world which is ruled, and of man himself who rules; if He have not ordained the changes of dynasties, with their appointed seasons, who was before all time, and made the world a body of times; if the rise and the fall of states are not the work of Him, under whose sovereignty the human race once existed without states at all.
For it is really better for us not to know a thing, because [God] has not revealed it to us, than to know it according to manβs wisdom, because he has been bold enough to assume it.
The first reaction to truth is hatred.
We say, and we say openly, and while ye torture us, mangled and gory we cry out, "We worship God through Christ!" Believe Him a man: it is through Him and in Him that God willeth Himself to be known and worshipped.
Say whatever your memory suggests is true; but add nothing and exaggerate nothing.
Try not to pay attention to those who will try to make life miserable for you. There will be a lot of those - in the official capacity as well as the self-appointed.
The search for truth is a cooperative, unending endeavor. We can, and should, engage in it to the extent we can and encourage others to do so as well, seeking to free ourselves from constraints imposed by coercive institutions, dogma, irrationality, excessive conformity and lack of initiative and imagination, and numerous other obstacles.
What lies behind us and what lies ahead of us are tiny matters compared to what lives within us.
Do you not see how necessary a world of pains and troubles is to school an intelligence and make it a soul?
When the uncarved wood is split, its parts are put to use. When the sage is put to use, he becomes the head.
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