“Whatever you would make habitual, practice it; and if you would not make a thing habitual, do not practice it, but accustom yourself to something else.”

“Practice isn't the thing you do once you're good. It's the thing you do that makes you good.”

“As with all other aspects of the narrative art, you will improve with practice, but practice will never make you perfect. Why should it? What fun would that be?”

“Practice does not mean that whatever you do, even lying down, is zazen. When the restrictions you have do not limit you, this is what we mean by practice….
When you sit, you will sit. When you eat, you will eat…. If you say,”It doesn’t matter,” it means that you are making some excuse to do something in your own way with your small mind. It means that you are to some particular thing or way. That is not what we mean when we say, “Just to sit is enough,” or “Whatever you do is zazen.””

“If you do whatever you do diligently and excellently, you would surely make a difference.”

“The habitually punctual make all their mistakes right on time.”

“Practice, practice, practice. Practice until you get a guitar welt on your chest…if it makes you feel good, don't stop until you see the blood from your fingers. Then you'll know you're on to something!”

“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.”

“You cannot make yourself feel something you do not feel, but you can make yourself do right in spite of your feelings.”

“Life is full of decisions and judgments and guesses, and it gets to the point where you're so accustomed to making them you keep right on making them even when you don't strictly need to. You get into a what if thing, and you start speculating about what you would do if some problem was yours instead of somebody else's. It gets to be a habit. It was a habit Jack Reacher had in spades.”