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
Each year one vicious habit rooted out, in time might make the worst man good throughout.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
In early childhood you may lay the foundation of poverty or riches, industry of idleness, good or evil, by the habits to which you train your children. Teach them right habits then, and their future life is safe.
—Lydia H. Sigourney (1791–1865) American Poetaster, Author
The path of least resistance and least trouble is a mental rut already made. It requires troublesome work to undertake the alternation of old beliefs. Self-conceit often regards it as a sign of weakness to admit that a belief to which we have once committed ourselves is wrong. We get so identified with an idea that it is literally a “pet” notion and we rise to its defense and stop our eyes and ears to anything different.
—John Dewey (1859–1952) American Philosopher, Psychologist, Educator
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
If you keep doing what you’ve always done, you’ll keep getting what you’ve always got.
—Jim Rohn (1930–2009) American Entrepreneur, Author, Motivational Speaker
Trivial things do matter… more people are killed each year by the bite of mosquitoes than are stepped upon by charging elephants.
—Unknown
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
Certes, they been lye to hounds, for an hound when he cometh by the roses, or by other bushes, though he may nat pisse, yet wole he heve up his leg and make a countenance to pisse.
—Geoffrey Chaucer (1343–1400) English Poet, Philosopher, Diplomat, Bureaucrat
You cannot believe in honor until you have achieved it. Better keep yourself clean and bright: you are the window through which you must see the world.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
We think according to nature; we speak according to rules; but we act according to custom.
—Francis Bacon (1561–1626) English Philosopher
The beginning of a habit is like an invisible thread, but every time we repeat the act we strengthen the strand, add to it another filament, until it becomes a great cable and binds us irrevocably thought and act.
—Orison Swett Marden (1850–1924) American New Thought Writer, Physician, Entrepreneur
Custom, then, is the great guide to human life.
—David Hume (1711–76) Scottish Philosopher, Historian
The habit of looking on the best side of every event is worth more than a thousand pounds a year.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
How use doth breed a habit in a man! this shadowy desert, unfrequented woods, I better brook than flourishing peopled towns.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
The fixity of a habit is generally in direct proportion to its absurdity.
—Marcel Proust (1871–1922) French Novelist
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
Habit is stronger than reason.
—George Santayana (1863–1952) Spanish-American Poet, Philosopher
It is not from nature, but from education and habits, that our wants are chiefly derived.
—Henry Fielding (1707–54) English Novelist, Dramatist
If I feel depressed, I go to work. Work is always an antidote to depression.
—Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) American First Lady, Diplomat, Humanitarian
The unfortunate thing about this world is that good habits are so much easier to give up than bad ones.
—W. Somerset Maugham (1874–1965) British Novelist, Short-Story Writer, Playwright
Habit is a shackle for the free.
—Ambrose Bierce (1842–1913) American Short-story Writer, Journalist
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
Laws are never as effective as habits.
—Adlai Stevenson (1900–65) American Diplomat, Politician, Orator
The best way to break a bad habit is to drop it.
—Leo Aikman (1908–78) American Columnist
Break a bad habit—drop it.
—Anonymous
Ill habits gather by unseen degrees –
As brooks make rivers, rivers run to seas.
—John Dryden (1631–1700) English Poet, Literary Critic, Playwright
Man is not imprisoned by habit. Great changes in him can be wrought by crisis—once that crisis can be recognized and understood.
—Norman Cousins (1912–1990) American Political Journalist
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
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
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