“The unfortunate thing about this world is that the good habits are much easier to give up than the bad ones.”
“The phrases that men hear or repeat continually, end by becoming convictions and ossify the organs of intelligence.”
“Achieve success in any area of life by identifying the optimum strategies and repeating them until they become habits.”
“Your net worth to the world is usually determined by what remains after your bad habits are subtracted from your good ones.”
“Feeling sorry for yourself, and you present condition, is not only a waste of energy but the worst habit you could possibly have.”
“It seems, in fact, as though the second half of a man's life is made up of nothing, but the habits he has accumulated during the first half.”
“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...”
“Habits are the daughters of action, but then they nurse their mother, and produce daughters after her image, but far more beautiful and prosperous.”
“In every age of well-marked transition, there is the pattern of habitual dumb practice and emotion which is passing and there is oncoming a new complex of habit.”
“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.”
“Incredibly, many people continue their old life-style, their habits even if they feel miserable, lonely, bored, inadequate, or abused. Why? Of course... because habit is an easy place to hide.”
“Habit is a second nature that destroys the first. But what is nature? Why is habit not natural? I am very much afraid that nature itself is only a first habit, just as habit is a second nature.”
“You were not born with the habit of brushing your teeth. With persistent action, over a period of time, you developed the habit. Now, I'll bet you would never consider going a week without brushing.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“Our repeated failure to fully act as we would wish must not discourage us. It is the sincere intention that is the essential thing, and this will in time release us from the bondage of habits which at present seem almost insuperable.”
“Good habits, which bring our lower passions and appetites under automatic control, leave our natures free to explore the larger experiences of life. Too many of us divide and dissipate our energies in debating actions which should be taken for granted.”
“Habits... the only reason they persist is that they are offering some satisfaction. You allow them to persist by not seeking any other, better form of satisfying the same needs. Every habit, good or bad, is acquired and learned in the same way -- by finding that it is a means of satisfaction.”
“We must make automatic and habitual, as early as possible, as many useful actions as we can...in the acquisition of a new habit, we must take car to launch ourselves with as strong and decided initiative as possible. Never suffer an exception to occur till the new habit is securely rooted in your life.”
“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.”
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”
“If an idiot were to tell you the same story every day for a year, you would end by believing it.”