Quotes about habit
page 13

John Stuart Mill photo
Robert Greene photo
Will Durant photo
Lewis Gompertz photo
Benito Mussolini photo

“I stood asking news of the ruins concerning their lovely habitants;
but what avail my questions to dreary rocks, who answer them only by their echo?”

Labīd (560–661) Sahabah and poet

Translated by C. J. Lyall, quoted in Arabian Poetry, p. 42 https://archive.org/details/arabianpoetryfo00clougoog/page/n127/mode/2up
Couplets

“DESOLATE are the mansions of the fair, the stations in Minia, where they rested, and those where they fixed their abodes! Wild are the hills of Goul, and deserted is the summit of Rijaam.
The canals of Rayaan are destroyed: the remains of them are laid bare and smoothed by the floods, like characters engraved on the solid rocks.
Dear ruins! Many a year has been closed, many a month, holy and unhallowed, has elapsed, since I exchanged tender vows with their fair inhabitants!
The rainy constellations of spring have made their hills green and luxuriant: the drops from the thunder-clouds have drenched them with profuse as well as with gentle showers:
Showers, from every nightly cloud, from every cloud veiling the horizon at day-break, and from every evening cloud, responsive with hoarse murmurs.
Here the wild eringo-plants raise their tops: here the antelopes bring forth their young, by the sides of the valley: and here the ostriches drop their eggs.
The large-eyed wild-cows lie suckling their young, a few days old—their young, who will soon become a herd on the plain.
The torrents have cleared the rubbish, and disclosed the traces of habitations, as the reeds of a writer restore effaced letters in a book;
Or as the black dust, sprinkled over the varied marks on a fair hand, brings to view with a brighter tint the blue stains of woad.
I stood asking news of the ruins concerning their lovely habitants; but what avail my questions to dreary rocks, who answer them only by their echo?”

Labīd (560–661) Sahabah and poet

Translated by C. J. Lyall, quoted in Arabian Poetry, p. 41-42. First Stanza, lines 1-10 https://archive.org/details/arabianpoetryfo00clougoog/page/n127/mode/2up
The Poem of Labīd (translated by C. J. Lyall in 1881)

Seneca the Younger photo
George Monbiot photo
Immanuel Kant photo
Fyodor Dostoyevsky photo
Donald J. Trump photo

“I work from early in the morning until late at night, haven’t left the White House in many months (except to launch Hospital Ship Comfort) in order to take care of Trade Deals, Military Rebuilding etc., and then I read a phony story in the failing @nytimes about my work schedule and eating habits, written by a third rate reporter who knows nothing about me. I will often be in the Oval Office late into the night & read & see that I am angrily eating a hamberger & Diet Coke in my bedroom. People with me are always stunned. Anything to demean!”

Donald J. Trump (1946) 45th President of the United States of America

As quoted by * 2020-04-26

'Hambergers' and 'Noble prizes': Trump attacks press in furious Twitter rant riddled with spelling errors

Alex Woodward

Independent

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/donald-trump-latest-coronavirus-hamburger-nobel-prize-russia-a9485006.html
2020s, 2020, April

Karl Pearson photo
Florence Nightingale photo

“I agree as to the doubtful value of competitive examination. The qualities which you really want, viz., self-control, self-reliance, habits of accurate thought, integrity and what you generally call trustworthiness, are not decided by competitive examination, which test little else than the memory.”

Florence Nightingale (1820–1910) English social reformer and statistician, and the founder of modern nursing

Source: Letter to Lord Stanley (May 17, 1857), published in Florence Nightingale on Wars and the War Office: Collected Works of Florence Nightingale. Vol. 15 (2011), edited by Lynn McDonald, p. 265. ( online on google books https://books.google.at/books?id=NvJ0CwAAQBAJ&pg=PA265)

Timothy Thomas Fortune photo
Coventry Patmore photo

“The enthusiasm for goodness which shows that it is not the habit of the mind.”

Coventry Patmore (1823–1896) English poet

Vol. II, Ch. V Aphorisms and Extracts, p. 75.
Memoirs and Correspondence (1900)

J.B. Priestley photo
Mirza Ghulam Ahmad photo

“One should try to find out what he is going to gain from the Bai'at and why it is necessary to enter into this pledge. Unless one knows what the advantage of a certain thing is and the value it possesses, one cannot appreciate it. It is just as there are various kinds of articles in the house: money-big and small coins-and wood etc. Everything is placed where it belongs, that is, everything will be cared for and looked after according to its value. Small coins will not receive the same care as the big ones. As for the pieces of wood, they will be thrown in a corner. In short, whatever will be a cause of bigger loss will be cared for more than other things. The most important point in Bai'at is Tauba (repentance)which means turning back. It indicates that condition in which man is closely connected with sin, and it is as if sins are the homeland and he is living in this habitation. Tauba means that he is now leaving this homeland. Turning back (Raju') means to adopt piety (to become pious).Leaving one's homeland is indeed a hard thing to do, and it entails thousands of hardships. When a man leaves his home, he feels it very much, then how much more one must be feeling while leaving one's homeland. He leaves every thing, his household belongings, his streets and his neighbours and bazaars (shops) and goes to another country.He does not come back to his old homeland.This is TAUBA.”

When a man is a sinner, his friends are different from those who are going to be his friends when he adopts Taqwa(fear of God).
The mystics have termed this change as 'death'.
Source: Malfoozat, Vol.1, p.2

Benjamin Disraeli photo

“Nothing is more disgusting, than the habit of our officers speaking always of the inhabitants of India—many of them descended from the great races—as “niggers.””

Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) British Conservative politician, writer, aristocrat and Prime Minister

It is ignorant, & brutal,—& surely most mischievous.
Source: Letter to Lord Salisbury (13 December 1875), quoted in Michael Bentley, Lord Salisbury's World: Conservative Environments in Late-Victorian Britain (2001), p. 224, n. 10

Annie Besant photo
James Clear photo

“Habits are the compound interest of self-improvement.”

James Clear (1986) American author and speaker

Source: https://twitter.com/JamesClear/status/1059504530130395136

James Clear photo

“A habit must be established before it can be improved. Start small. Master the art of showing up. Optimize later.”

James Clear (1986) American author and speaker

Source: https://twitter.com/JamesClear/status/1054799443768287232

Robert Menzies photo

“The material home represents the concrete expression of the habits of frugality and saving "for a home of our own."”

Robert Menzies (1894–1978) Australian politician, 12th Prime Minister of Australia

Your advanced socialist may rave against private property even while he acquires it; but one of the best instincts in us is that which induces us to have one little piece of earth with a house and a garden which is ours; to which we can withdraw, in which we can be among our friends, into which no stranger may come against our will.
Radio talk, 22 May, 1942
Wilderness Years (1941-1949)

Aristotle photo
Edward Everett Hale photo
Napoleon Hill photo
Gautama Buddha photo
Colin Powell photo
Timothy Ferriss photo
Prevale photo

“Getting involved is the privilege of those who do not like the habit.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: (it) Mettersi in gioco è il privilegio di chi non ama l'abitudine.
Source: prevale.net

Marilyn Monroe photo

“It's a bad habit, I know, but I believe that you shouldn't do anything in life until you're ready. Half of life's heartaches come from decisions that were made in a hurry. One should make haste slowly.”

Marilyn Monroe (1926–1962) American actress, model, and singer

On her lack of punctuality, as quoted in "Tardy but Talented" https://www.newspapers.com/clip/22039844/the-courier-journal/ by James Bacon (AP), The Louisville Courier-Journal (July 17, 1960), p. 84

Pema Chödron photo

“Old habits did not just die hard. They refused to die at all.”

Source: The Heritage Universe, Transcendence (1992), Chapter 7, “The Torvil Anfract” (p. 70)

“The only possible course that a warrior has is to act consistently and without reservations. At a certain moment, he knows enough of the warriors' way to act accordingly, but his old habits and routines may stand in his way.”

Source: The Wheel of Time: Shamans of Ancient Mexico, Their Thoughts About Life, Death and the Universe], (1998), Quotations from "Tales of Power" (Chapter 10)

Rudyard Kipling photo

“Very many Americans have an offensive habit of referring to natives as `heathen.' Mahommedans and Hindus are heathen alike in their eyes.”

Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) English short-story writer, poet, and novelist

Source: From Sea to Sea vol. 2, p. 61

Napoleon Hill photo

“Men take on the nature and the habits and the power of thought of those with whom they associate in a spirit of sympathy and harmony.”

Napoleon Hill (1883–1970) American author

Power of the Master Mind
Source: Think & Grow Rich, January 1963, p. 150.

Vera Stanley Alder photo
Vera Stanley Alder photo
China Miéville photo
Barry Schwartz photo
Mirza Masroor Ahmad photo

“You should develop the habit of offering voluntary prayers (nafl) regularly.”

Mirza Masroor Ahmad (1950) spiritual leader of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community

Virtual Meetings
Source: Virtual Online Meeting with Ahmadiyya Muslim Youth Auxiliary from Germany https://www.alislam.org/press-release/over-100-members-of-majlis-khuddam-ul-ahmadiyya-germany-have-honour-of-virtual-meeting-with-head-of-ahmadiyya-muslim-community/

Mirza Masroor Ahmad photo

“We should weigh out the consequences of everything we do, we should consider whether what we are doing is permissible or not. Habit has a big part in reformation of practice.”

Mirza Masroor Ahmad (1950) spiritual leader of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community

Eid and Friday Sermons
Source: Self-reformation: Breaking Bad Habits https://www.alislam.org/friday-sermon/2013-12-20.html, Friday Sermon December 20th, 2013

Benjamin Disraeli photo

“Pure air, pure water, the inspection of unhealthy habitations, the adulteration of food, these and many kindred matters may be legitimately dealt with by the Legislature... After all, the first consideration of a minister should be the health of the people.”

Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) British Conservative politician, writer, aristocrat and Prime Minister

Source: Speech to the Conservatives of Manchester (3 April 1872), quoted in Selected Speeches of the Late Right Honourable the Earl of Beaconsfield, Volume II, ed. T. E. Kebbel (1882), pp. 511-512

Jack Williamson photo
Rita Levi-Montalcini photo
Robert A. Heinlein photo
Witness Lee photo

“Never neglect your daily living, for it builds up your habits.”

Witness Lee (1905–1997) Chinese Christian preacher

Character, of Witness Lee - By Living Stream Ministry, ISBN 978-0-87083-322-9

“Habit and routine have an unbelievable power to waste and destroy.”

Henri de Lubac (1896–1991) Jesuit theologian and cardinal

Source: Paradoxes of Faith (1987), Ch. V. "Spirit", p. 58

“We must retain the positive values of our culture and use them to bring people to God. The habits of revenge and conflicts among tribes must be stopped. Love your neighbors and put your faith in Christ.”

Eduardus Sangsun (1943–2008) Indonesian bishop (1943-2008)

Diocese of Ruteng Welcomes New Bishop https://www.ucanews.com/story-archive/?post_name=/1985/04/24/diocese-of-ruteng-welcomes-new-bishop&post_id=32959 (24 April 1985)

Kim Stanley Robinson photo

“Revolution suspends habit as well as law. But just as nature abhors a vacuum, people abhor anarchy.”

Source: Green Mars (1993), Chapter 10, “Phase Change” (p. 579)

Max Barry photo
Prevale photo

“People and their insistent questions, often are the main malaise of an individual. Learn to attach little importance to their annoying habit.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: Le persone e le loro insistenti domande, spesso sono il principale malessere di un individuo. Imparate ad attribuire poca importanza alla loro fastidiosa abitudine.
Source: prevale.net

Prevale photo

“Nothing will ever stop what needs to happen. Life has a strange habit to unite, what must reach you, will always find a way to do it.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: Nulla potrà mai fermare ciò che deve accadere. La vita ha una strana abitudine di unire, ciò che deve raggiungerti, troverà sempre un modo per farlo.
Source: prevale.net

Prevale photo

“Always be the novelty that breaks down every habit.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: Siate sempre la novità che abbatte ogni abitudine.
Source: prevale.net