quotations about habit
Habit is a past (as result), but this past makes possible a future.
CATHERINE MALABOU
preface, Of Habit
Habits influence the character pretty much as undercurrents influence a vessel, and whether they speed us on the way of our wishes, or retard our progress, their influence is not the less important because imperceptible.
CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE
Intuitions and Summaries of Thought
Man is a bundle of habits in action, speech and thought.
WALTER MATTHEWS
"Habit", Human Life from Many Angles
Never suffer an exception to occur till the new habit is securely rooted in your life. Each lapse is like the letting fall of a ball of string which one is carefully winding up; a single slip undoes more than a great many turns will wind again.
WILLIAM JAMES
The Principles of Psychology
All our "most sacred affections" are merely prosaic habit.
CESARE PAVESE
This Business of Living, Jun. 12, 1938
We are masters of our actions from the beginning up to the very end. But, in the case of our habits, we are only masters of their commencement--each particular little increase being as imperceptible as in the case of bodily infirmities. But yet our habits are voluntary, in that it was once in our power to adopt or not to adopt such or such a course of conduct.
ARISTOTLE
Nicomachean Ethics
Most men are prisoners at best,
Who some strong habit every drag about
Like chain and ball.
HENRY ABBEY
"The Galley Slave"
The truth is that everyone is bored, and devotes himself to cultivating habits.
ALBERT CAMUS
The Plague
The habits of a young man are, like his coat, removable; the habits of an old man are like the drapery of a statue.
AUSTIN O'MALLEY
Keystones of Thought
Habit! that skilful but slow-moving arranger who begins by letting our minds suffer for weeks on end in temporary quarters, but whom our minds are none the less only too happy to discover at last, for without it, reduced to their own devices, they would be powerless to make any room seem habitable.
MARCEL PROUST
Swann's Way
Ill habits gather by unseen degrees --
As brooks make rivers, rivers run to seas.
JOHN DRYDEN
Ovid
Bad habits are overcome by good habits.
LUCAS REMMERSWAAL
The A-Z of 13 Habits
Habit is thus the enormous fly-wheel of society, its most precious conservative agent. It alone is what keeps us all within the bounds of ordinance.
WILLIAM JAMES
Habit
Whatever you would make habitual, practice it; and if you would not make a thing habitual, do not practice it, but accustom yourself to something else.
EPICTETUS
Discourses
If you are unfortunate enough to have acquired bad habits, break them at once before they gain a greater hold on you. You may think them absolutely under your control, but thousands have made the same assumption and have found themselves woefully mistaken. You may not be able to overcome and subdue these habits in your own strength, but there is a power stronger than any earthly power that can help you to conquer. God's almightiness has in many cases broken these. Cast yourself upon Him. Trust Him to break these bonds and He will do it.
HENRY F. KLETZING & ELMER L. KLETZING
"Habits", Traits of Character Illustrated in Bible Light
Habit is the cement of society, the comfort of life, and, alas! the root of error.
FULKE GREVILLE
Maxims
We talk of acquiring a habit; we should rather say being acquired by it.
ELIZA COOK
Diamond Dust
Whatsoever stirs the stagnant currents, setting these flowing in wholesome directions, promotes brisk spirits and productive thinking. The less of routine, the more of life.
AMOS BRONSON ALCOTT
Table Talk
Habit is a cruel jailer
Yet how well-beloved.
NELLIE SEELYE EVANS
"Habit"
Habit is, of all the plants of human growth, the one that has the least need of nutritious soil in order to live, and is the first to appear on the most seemingly barren rock.
MARCEL PROUST
The Guermantes Way