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

William James

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To acquire the habit of reading is to construct for yourself a refuge from almost all the miseries of life.

— William Somerset Maugham

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How use doth breed a habit in a man! This shadowy desert, unfrequented woods, I better brook than flourishing peopled towns.

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Why should we think upon things that are lovely? Because thinking determines life. It is a common habit to blame life upon the environment. Environment modifies life but does not govern life. The soul is stronger than its surroundings.

— William James

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Now the way of life that I preach is a habit to be acquired gradually by long and steady repetition. It is the practice of living for the day only, and for the day's work.

— William Osler

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This isn't the first time you've done this, or the fifth or the tenth. I guess it's time to think of it as your life.

— Austin Grossman