That which has become habitual becomes, as it were, a part of our nature; in fact, habit is something like nature, for the difference between “often” and “always” is not great, and nature belongs tot he idea of “always,” habit to that of “often.”
~ Aristotle, in Rhetorica 1.11
The end of educatin is reasonableness. The first point to note about such reasonableness is that it is a disposition or habit. Habit, not knowledge, is the main thing we take with us from a college education.
~ Brand Blanshard, in The Uses of a Liberal Education: And Other Talks to Students
Habit becomes a sort of second nature, which supplies a motive for many actions.
~ Cicero, in De Finibus, 5.25.74
Mens natures are alike, it is their habits that carry them apart.
~ Confucius in Analects
A nail is driven out by another nail, habit is overcome by habit.
~ Erasmus, in Diluculum
We sow our thoughts, and we reap our actions;
We sow our actions, and we reap our habits;
we sow our habits, and we reap our characters;
we sow our characters, and we reap our destiny.
~ Charles Albert Hall
The hell to be endured hereafter . . . is no worse than the hell we make for ourselves in this world by habitually fashioning our characters in the wrong way. Could the young but realize how soon they will become mere walking bundles of habits, they would give more heed to their conduct while in the plastic state. We are spinning our own fates, good or evil, and never to be none. The drunken Rip van Winkle in Jefferson’s play excuses himself for every fresh dereliction by saying, ‘I won’t count this time!’ Well, we may not count it, and a kind Heaven may not count it, but it is being counted none the less. Down among his nerve-ends and fibers the molecules are counting it, registering it, and storing it up to be used against him when the next temptation comes.”
~ William James, in Talks to Teachers on Psychology and to Students on Some of Life’s Ideals
Habit is a cable; we weave a thread of it every day, and at last we can not break it.
~ Horace Mann
Plato did once chide a child for playing with nuts, who answered him, “Thou chidest me for a small matter.” “Habit” (replied Plato) “is no small matter.”
~ Montaigne, in Essays, 1.22
For the ordinary business of life, an ounce of habit is worth a pound of intellect.
~ Thomas B. Reed
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Charles Darwin evidently didn’t like the evolution of the book industry. It is said that when he acquired a book that he would rip the covers off and put the loose pages in a box, because the pages were easier to turn and access that way. Hmmm… he must have longed for the good ol’ days when writing was committed to scrolls.
