True realism consists in revealing the surprising things which habit keeps covered and prevents us from seeing.
—Jean Cocteau (1889–1963) French Poet, Playwright, Film Director
There is an old saying that, you can’t kill a frog by dropping him into hot water. As you drop him into the hot water, he reacts so quickly that he immediately jumps out unharmed. But if you put him in cold water and gradually warm it up until it is scalding hot, you have him cooked before he knows it. The encroachment of bad habits in our lives is very much like this.
—Unknown
Achieve success in any area of life by identifying the optimum strategies and repeating them until they become habits.
—Charles J. Givens (1941–98) American Self-Help Writer
Men who have attained things worth having in this world have worked while others idled, have persevered when others gave up in despair, have practiced early in life the valuable habits of self-denial, industry, and singleness of purpose. As a result, they enjoy in later life the success so often erroneously attributed to good luck.
—Grenville Kleiser (1868–1935) Canadian Author
The customs and fashions of men change like leaves on the bough, some of which go and others come.
—Dante Alighieri (1265–1321) Italian Poet, Philosopher
There is an invisible garment woven around us from our earliest years; it is made of the way we eat, the way we walk, the way we greet people…
—Jean Giraudoux (1882–1944) French Novelist, Playwright, Essayist
Habits change into character.
—Ovid (Publius Ovidius Naso) (c.43 BCE–c.18 CE) Roman Poet
A man who gives his children habits of industry provides for them better than by giving them a fortune.
—Richard Whately (1787–1863) English Philosopher, Theologian
We must make automatic and habitual, as early as possible, as many useful actions as we can… . The more of the details of our daily life we can hand over to the effortless custody of automatism, the ore our higher powers of mind will be set free for their own proper work.
—William James (1842–1910) American Philosopher, Psychologist, Physician
I never could have done what I have done without the habits of punctuality, order, and diligence, without the determination to concentrate myself on one subject at a time.
—Charles Dickens (1812–70) English Novelist
If I feel depressed, I go to work. Work is always an antidote to depression.
—Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) American First Lady, Diplomat, Humanitarian
Habits are at first cobwebs, then cables.
—Spanish Proverb
Custom, then, is the great guide to human life.
—David Hume (1711–76) Scottish Philosopher, Historian
The best way to stop a bad habit is never to begin it.
—James Cash Penney (1875–1971) American Entrepreneur
You leave old habits behind by starting out with the thought, ‘I release the need for this in my life’.
—Wayne Dyer (1940–2015) American Self-Help Author
Habits are formed by the repetition of particular acts. They are strengthened by an increase in the number of repeated acts. Habits are also weakened or broken, and contrary habits are formed by the repetition of contrary acts.
—Mortimer J. Adler (1902–2001) American Philosopher, Educator
As an example to others, and not that I care for moderation myself, it has always been my rule never to smoke when asleep and never to refrain when awake.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
Excess on occasion is exhilarating. It prevents moderation from acquiring the deadening effect of a habit.
—W. Somerset Maugham (1874–1965) British Novelist, Short-Story Writer, Playwright
Habits are the daughters of action, but then they nurse their mother, and produce daughters after her image, but far more beautiful and prosperous.
—Jeremy Taylor
Habit is habit, and not to be flung out of the window by any man, but coaxed downstairs one step at a time.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
To be able under all circumstances to practice five things constitutes perfect virtue; these five things are gravity, generosity of soul, sincerity, earnestness and kindness.
—Confucius (551–479 BCE) Chinese Philosopher
Thoughts lead on to purpose, purpose leads onto actions, actions form habits, habits decide character, and character fixes our destiny.
—Tryon Edwards American Theologian
Such as are thy habitual thoughts, such also will be the character of thy soul-for the soul is dyed by the thoughts. Dye it then, with a continuous series of such thoughts as these-that where a man can live, there if he will, he can also live well.
—Marcus Aurelius (121–180) Emperor of Rome, Stoic Philosopher
The chains of habit are generally too weak to be felt, until they are too strong to be broken.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
One might call habit a moral friction: something that prevents the mind from gliding over things but connects it with them and makes it hard for it to free itself from them.
—Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742–99) German Philosopher, Physicist
Trivial things do matter… more people are killed each year by the bite of mosquitoes than are stepped upon by charging elephants.
—Unknown
Once you learn to quit, it becomes a habit.
—Vince Lombardi (1913–70) American Football Coach
Habit is a shackle for the free.
—Ambrose Bierce (1842–1913) American Short-story Writer, Journalist
The second half of a man’s life is made up of nothing but the habits he has acquired during the first half.
—Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1821–81) Russian Novelist, Essayist, Writer
Custom may lead a man into many errors, but it justifies none.
—Henry Fielding (1707–54) English Novelist, Dramatist
Tell me what you like and I’ll tell you what you are.
—John Ruskin (1819–1900) English Writer, Art Critic
It’s just as easy to form the habit of succeeding as it is to succumb to the habit of failure. Habits aren’t instincts; they’re acquired reactions. They don’t just happen; they are caused. Once you determine the original cause of a habit, it is within your power either to accept or reject it.
—Unknown
Beware of your habits. The better they are the more surely they will be your undoing.
—Holbrook Jackson (1874–1948) British Journalist, Writer, Publisher
Oh the thumb-sucker’s thumb
May look wrinkled and wet
And withered, and white as the snow,
But the taste of a thumb
Is the sweetest taste yet
(As only we thumb-sucker’s know).
—Shel Silverstein (1932–99) American Cartoonist, Author
Habit is a man’s sole comfort. We dislike doing without even unpleasant things to which we have become accustomed.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
Woe unto them that are tired of everything, for everything will certainly be tired of them.
—G. K. Chesterton (1874–1936) English Journalist, Novelist, Essayist, Poet
A single bad habit will mar an otherwise faultless character, as an ink-drop soileth the pure white page.
—Hosea Ballou (1771–1852) American Theologian
Quality is not an act. It is a habit.
—Aristotle (384BCE–322BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Scholar
Habit is the second nature which destroys the first.
—Blaise Pascal (1623–62) French Mathematician, Physicist, Theologian
To fall into a habit is to begin to cease to be.
—Miguel de Unamuno (1864–1936) Spanish Educator, Philosopher, Author
Break a bad habit—drop it
—Anonymous
Habit with its iron sinews, clasps us and leads us day by day.
—Alphonse de Lamartine (1790–1869) French Poet, Politician, Historian
Good habits result from resisting temptation.
—Common Proverb
Good habits are worth being fanatical about.
—John Irving (b.1942) American Novelist, Short-story Writer
The individual who wants to reach the top in business must appreciate the might of the force of habit and must understand that practices are what create habits. He must be quick to break those habits that can break him and hasten to adopt those practices that will become the habits that help him achieve the success he desires.
—J. Paul Getty (1892–1976) American Business Person, Art Collector, Philanthropist
Any act often repeated soon forms a habit; and habit allowed, steadily gains in strength. At first it may be but as the spider’s web, easily broken through, but if not resisted it soon binds us with chains of steel.
—Tryon Edwards American Theologian
Man becomes a slave to his constantly repeated acts. What he at first chooses, at last compels.
—Orison Swett Marden (1850–1924) American New Thought Writer, Physician, Entrepreneur
Practice conquers the habit of doing, without reflecting on the rule.
—John Locke (1632–1704) English Philosopher, Physician
The despotism of custom is on the wane. We are not content to know that things are; we ask whether they ought to be.
—John Stuart Mill (1806–73) English Philosopher, Economist
I say that habit’s but a long practice, friend, and this becomes men’s nature in the end.
—Aristotle (384BCE–322BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Scholar