“Once conform, once do what others do because they do it, and a kind of lethargy steals over all the finer senses of the soul.”
Attributed
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Michel De Montaigne 264
(1533-1592) French-Occitan author, humanistic philosopher, … 1533–1592Related quotes
“Most of us can easily do two things at once; what’s all but impossible is to do one thing at once.”
The Complete Neurotic's Notebook (1981), Unclassified
“It's not what we do once in a while that shapes our lives. It's what we do consistently.”
“We cannot do everything at once, but we can do something at once.”
XX. On Transmigration of Souls, and how Souls are said to migrate into brute beasts.
On the Gods and the Cosmos
Context: It is the natural duty of souls to do their work in the body; are we to suppose that when once they leave the body they spend all eternity in idleness? Again, if the souls did not again enter into bodies, they must either be infinite in number or God must constantly be making new ones. But there is nothing infinite in the world; for in a finite whole there cannot be an infinite part. Neither can others be made; for everything in which something new goes on being created, must be imperfect. And the world, being made by a perfect author, ought naturally to be perfect.
“It went to pieces all at once—
All at once and nothing first,
Just as bubbles do when they burst.”
The Deacon's Masterpiece; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
“What you do every day matters more than what you do once in a while.”
Source: The Happiness Project: Or Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun