The Glass Bead Game (1943)
“Rise early, that by habit it may become familiar, agreeable, healthy, and profitable.”
George Washington (1732–1799) first President of the United States
Letter to George Washington Parke Custis (7 January 1798)
1790s
Context: Rise early, that by habit it may become familiar, agreeable, healthy, and profitable. It may, for a while, be irksome to do this, but that will wear off; and the practice will produce a rich harvest forever thereafter; whether in public or private walks of life.
“Possession makes one passive, indolent, and proud.”
Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729–1781) writer, philosopher, publicist, and art critic
Anti-Goeze (1778), as quoted in God Is Not Great (2007), by Christopher Hitchens , Ch. 19
Context: The true value of a man is not determined by his possession, supposed or real, of Truth, but rather by his sincere exertion to get to the Truth. It is not possession of the Truth, but rather the pursuit of Truth by which he extends his powers and in which his ever-growing perfectibility is to be found. Possession makes one passive, indolent, and proud. If God were to hold all Truth concealed in his right hand, and in his left only the steady and diligent drive for Truth, albeit with the proviso that I would always and forever err in the process, and offer me the choice, I would with all humility take the left hand, and say: Father, I will take this one—the pure Truth is for You alone.
“We first make our habits, then our habits make us.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) English poet and playwright of the XVIIth century
“We first make our habits, and then our habits make us.”
John C. Maxwell (1947) American author, speaker and pastor
Book Sometimes you win Sometimes you Learn
“The two most engaging powers of an author are to make new things familiar, familiar things new.”
William Makepeace Thackeray (1811–1863) novelist
In this work are exhibited in a very high degree the two most engaging powers of an author. New things are made familiar, and familiar things are made new. ~ Samuel Johnson, "The Life of Alexander Pope" from Lives of the English Poets (1781) http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext04/lvpc10.txt <br class="br">Misattributed
Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822) English Romantic poet
A Defence of Poetry http://www.bartleby.com/27/23.html (1821)
“Habit makes all things bearable.”
Quod male fers, adsuesce, feres bene.
Ovid book Ars amatoria
Book II, line 647 (tr. James Michie)
Ars Amatoria (The Art of Love)
“Familiarity with danger makes a brave man braver, but less daring.”
Herman Melville book White-Jacket
Source: White-Jacket (1850), Ch. 23
Context: Familiarity with danger makes a brave man braver, but less daring. Thus with seamen: he who goes the oftenest round Cape Horn goes the most circumspectly.
