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. . . HABIT/S see: "CUSTOM" see: "TRADITION" see "ACTIONS" for other related links We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit. --Aristotle (384322 B.C.) Greek philosopher. "Nicomachean Ethics" Habit, if not resisted, soon becomes necessity. --Augustine, St. of Hippo (354430) Christian theologian and bishop of Hippo in Roman Africa [396430]. Quoted in James Wood (ed.) _Dictionary of Quotations from Ancient and Modern, English and Foreign Sources_, p. 138 [1899]. ^ "Mrs. Trollope is commendably bitter Against the filthy American spitter .... " From that day forward, offenders against etiquette in New York's theaters were hooted down with lusty cries of "Trollope! Trollope!" (The chewing and spitting of tobacco was the great American practice, or rather vice, that most upset the sensitivities of European visitors. The country seems to have been a maze of spittoons at ankle level. During the nineteenth century every member of the Senate and House of Representatives had his own "spit box," and there was a giant spittoon at the door of the White House itself.) --Michael and Ariane Batterberry _On the Town in New York_ [1999] ^ Sow an act and you reap a habit. Sow a habit and you reap a character. Sow a character and you reap a destiny. --Variously attributed to George Dana Boardman, the younger, Charles Reade, and William Makepeace Thackeray. There is no tyrant like custom, and no freedom where its edicts are not resisted. --Christian Nestell Bovee (18201904) American writer. If an idiot were to tell you the same story every day for a year, you would end by believing him. --Edmund Burke (17291797) Irish-born Whig politician and man of letters. Quoted in Tryon Edwards _A Dictionary of Thoughts_, p. 212 [1908 ed.]. "Is it true that you smoke eight to ten cigars a day?" "That's true." "Is it true that you drink five martinis a day?" "That's true." "Is it true that you still surround yourself with beautiful young women?" "That's true." "What does your doctor say about all of this?" "My doctor is dead." --George Burns [Nathan Birnbaum] (18961996) American comedian. Habit is, as it were, a second nature. --Marcus Tullius Cicero (10643 BC) Roman orator and statesman. De Finibus Bonorum et Malorum (On the Ends of Good and Evil) [45 B.C.], v. 25 It is almost as difficult to make a man unlearn his errors as his knowledge. --C.C. Colton (17801832) English clergyman and writer. _Lacon: or, Many Things in Few Words; Addressed to Those Who Think_ [1820] Habit with him was all the test of truth, 'It must be right: I've done it from my youth.' --George Crabbe (17541832) English poet. "The Vicar", letter 3 _The Borough_ [1810] If once a man indulges himself in Murder, very soon he comes to think little of Robbing, and from Robbing he comes next to Drinking and Sabbath-breaking, and from that to Incivility and Procrastination. --Thomas De Quincey (17851859) English essayist and critic. "On Murder, Considered as One of the Fine Arts" [1839] I never could have done what I have done without the habits of punctuality, order, and diligence, without the determination to concentrate myself on one subject at a time. --Charles Dickens (18121870) English novelist. In Michael E. Ruge _Quote-a-quote: To Your Success..._, p. 42 [2005]. Thoughts lead on to purpose, purpose leads on to actions, actions form habits, habits decide character, and character fixes our destiny. --attributed to Tryon Edwards (18091894) American theologian. - Every habit and faculty is preserved and increased by the corresponding actions; as the habit of walking, by walking; of running, by running. If you would be a reader, read; if a writer, write. But if you do not read for a month together, but do something else, you will see what will be the consequence. So after sitting still for ten days, get up and attempt to take a long walk, and you will find how your legs are weakened. Upon the whole, then, whatever you would make habitual, practice it; and if you would not make a thing habitual, do not practice it, but habituate yourself to something else. It is the same with regard to the operations of the soul. Whenever you are angry, be assured it is not only a present evil, but that you have increased a habit, and added fuel to a fire. When you are overcome by the seductions of a woman, do not consider it as a single defeat alone, but that you have fed, that you have increased your incontinence. For it is impossible but that the habits and facilities must either be first produced, or strengthened and increased, by corresponding actions. Hence the philosophers derive the growth of all maladies. When you once desired money, for example, if reason be applied to produce a sense of the evil, the desire ceases, and the governing faculty of the mind regains its authority; whereas, if you apply no remedy, it returns no more to its former state, but being again similarly excitedit kindles at the desire more quickly than before; and by frequent repititions at last becomes callous, and by this weakness is the love of money established. For he who has a fever, even after it has left him, is not in the same state of health as before, unless he was perfectly cured; and the same thing happens in distempers of the soul likewise. There are certain traces and blisters left in it, which, unless they are well effaced, whenever a new hurt is received in the same part, instead of blisters will become sores. If you would not be of an angry temper, then, do not feed the habit. Give it nothing to help it increase. Be quiet at first and reckon the days in which you have not been angry. I used to be angry every day; now every other day; then every third and fourth day; and if you miss it so long as thirty days, offer a of Thanksgiving to God. For habit is first weakened and then entirely destroyed.... --Epictetus (55135) Greek philosopher. _Discources And Enchiridion_ No man is free who is not master of himself. --Epictetus (55135) Greek philosopher. In James Laughlin Hughes _Froebel's Educational Laws for All Teachers_, p. 177 [1897]. - My main problem is reconciling my gross habits with my net income. --Errol Flynn (19091959) Tasmanian-born motion-picture actor. Quoted in "N.Y. Times" [6 March 1955]. Each year, one bad habit rooted out, in time ought to make the worst man good. --Benjamin Franklin (17061790) American politician, inventor, and scientist. ^ Ira Gershwin (18961983) American lyricist. Gershwin was a keen poken player, but very unlucky. After a particularly disastrous evening, he announced to his friends, "I take an oath, I'll never pick up a card again.' After a moment's pause, he added, 'Unless, of course, I have guests who want to play. . . Or, unless I am a guest in another man's house.' He paused again. 'Or whatever circumstances arise.' --_Bartlett's Book of Anecdotes_ edited by Clifton Fadiman and Andr้ Bernard [2000 ed.] ^ Habit is the most imperious of all masters. --Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (17491832) German poet, novelist, and playwright. Quoted in Louis Klopsch _Many Thoughts of Many Minds_, p. 122 [1896]. The chains of habit are generally too small to be felt till they are too strong to be broken. --Samuel Johnson (17091784) English poet, critic, and lexicographer. Quoted in Laurence J. Peter _Peter's Quotations: Ideas for Our Time_, p. 147 [1977]. Every form of addiction is bad, no matter whether the narcotic be alcohol or morphine or idealism. --Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961) Swiss psychologist. __Erinnerungen, Trไume, Gedanken_ (Memories, Dreams, Reflections), ch. 12. [1963] - No one ever became thoroughly bad all at once. [Lat., Nemo repente venit turpissimus.] --Juvenal (c. 55130) Roman satirist. _Satires_, II, 33 We are all easily taught to imitate what is base and depraved. --Juvenal (c. 55130) Roman satirist. _Satires_, XIV. 40 - One of the marks of a certain type of bad man is that he can't give up a thing without wanting everyone else to give it up. That isn't the Christian way. --C.S. [Clive Staples] Lewis (18981963) British scholar and novelist. _Christian Behavior_ [1944] If you always do what you always did, you will always get what you always got. --Moms Mabley (18971975) African-American vaudeville performer and comedian. Excess on occasion is exhilarating. It prevents moderation from acquiring the deadening effect of habit. --W. Somerset Maugham (18741965) English novelist, playwright, and short-story writer. The despotism of custom is everywhere the standard hindrance to human advancement. --John Stuart Mill (18061873) English philosopher and social reformer. Ill habits gather by unseen degrees, As brooks make rivers, rivers run to seas. --Ovid [Publius Ovidius Naso] (43 B.C.18 A.D.) Roman poet. "Metamorphoses", bk. XV, l. 155 - Character is simply habit long continued. --Plutarch (A.D. 46?119?) Greek philosopher and biographer. Attributed in W. Gurney Benham _A Book of Quotations, Proverbs and Household Words_ [1907] If you live with a cripple, you will learn to limp. --Plutarch (A.D. 46?119?) Greek philosopher and biographer. _Moralia_ [c. 100], "The Education of Children" - Sow an act, and you reap a habit. Sow a habit, and you reap a character. Sow a character, and you reap a destiny. --Charles Reade (18141884) English novelist and playwright. Attributed in _Notes and Queries_, 9th series, vol. 12 [JulyDecember 1903]. ^ Will Rogers (18791935) American humorist and actor. On a visit to Paris, Rogers sent a picture postcard of the Venus de Milo to his young niece. On the back he wrote: 'See what will happen if you don't stop biting your fingernails.' --_Bartlett's Book of Anecdotes_ edited by Clifton Fadiman and Andr้ Bernard [2000 ed.] ^ To things which you bear with impatience you should accustom yourself, and, by habit you will bear them well. --Lucius Annaeus Seneca (4 BC65 A.D.) Roman philosopher and poet. Quoted in _Treasury of Wisdom, Wit and Humor_ (comp. by Adam Wool้ver, p. 180 [1881 ed.]. Make sobriety a habit, and intemperance will be hateful; make prudence a habit and reckless profligacy will become revolting ... Even happiness itself can become habitual. There is a habit of looking at the bright side of things, also of looking at the dark side. Dr. Johnson has said that the habit of looking at the best side of a thing is worth more to a man than a thousand pounds a year . . . . And to bring up men and women with a genial nature of this sort, a good temper, and a happy frame of mind, is perhaps of even more importance, in many cases, than to perfect them in much knowledge and many accomplishments. --Samuel Smiles (18121904) Scottish author. The fox changes his skin but not his habits. --Suetonius [Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus] (c. 69c. 122) Roman biographer and antiquarian. _The Lives of the Caesars_ "The Life of Vespasian", 16 - Nothing so needs reforming as other people's habits. --Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (18351910) American humorist, novelist, journalist, and river pilot. _Pudd'nhead Wilson_ [1894] ch. 15 epigraph: "Pudd'nhead Wilson's Calendar" Habit is habit, and not to be flung out of the window by any man, but coaxed downstairs a step at a time. --Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (18351910) American humorist, novelist, journalist, and river pilot. _Pudd'nhead Wilson_, ch. 6 "Pudd'nhead Wilson's Calendar" [1894] - No matter how far you have gone on the wrong road, turn back. --Turkish proverb ----- gynotikolobomassophile One who likes to nibble on a woman's earlobes. inveterate [in-VET-uhr-it], adjective: 1. Firmly established by long persistence; deep-rooted; of long standing. 2. Fixed in habit by long persistence; confirmed; habitual. Ex.: He is an inveterate nibbler, popping nuts and chocolate into his mouth as he talks, leaning forward in his chair to forage in the tins with his right hand. --Michael Ignatieff, _Isaiah Berlin: A Life_ Syn:: chronic, confirmed, deep-seated, habitual. ![]() . . see: "BLONDES", "THE BODY" By common consent gray hairs are a crown of glory; the only object of respect that can never excite envy. --George Bancroft (18001891) American historian and public official. _The Last Moments of Eminent Men_ Essay in "North American Review" [January 1834]. His hair stood upright like porcupine quills. --Giovanni Boccaccio (13131375) Italian poet. _Decameron_, Fifth day, November 8 [1358] Brylcreem A little dab'll do ya. --Brylcreem hair lotion advertising slogan It was a blonde. A blonde to make a bishop kick a hole in a stained glass window. --Raymond Chandler (18881959) American writer of detective fiction. _Farewell My Lovely_ [1940] When a woman isn't beautiful, people always say, 'You have lovely eyes, you have lovely hair.' --Anton Chekhov (18601904) Russian dramatist and short-story writer. _Uncle Vanya_, act 3 [1897] ^ George Kelly (18871974) American playwright. On his deathbed Kelly was visited by his sister Mary's daughter, who had come to see her uncle for the last time. As she leaned forward to kiss him the old man whispered softly, 'My dear, before you kiss me goodbye, fix your hair. It's a mess.' --_Bartlett's Book of Anecdotes_ edited by Clifton Fadiman and Andr้ Bernard [2000 ed.] ^ Gentlemen prefer blondes. --Anita Loos (18931981) American novelist and Hollywood screenwriter. Title of comic novel [1925]. There is nothing more contemptible than a bald man who pretends to have hair. --Martial [Marcus Valerius Martialis] (38/41103) Roman poet. _Epigrams_ [86-98], bk. X, ep. 83. It made our hair stand up in panic fear. --Sophocles (496?406 B.C.) Greek dramatist. _Oedipus at Colonus_ l. 1625 ^ John Wesley (17031791) British religious leader. At a stormy meeting a ruffian raised his hand to strike John Wesley on the head, but as he brought it down he checked his blow and murmured, 'What soft hair he has!' --_Bartlett's Book of Anecdotes_ edited by Clifton Fadiman and Andr้ Bernard [2000 ed.] ^ - Trivia: In 1829, when Mrs. Lydia Child wrote The Frugal Housewife, New England rum was considered an excellent shampoo (and brandy was thought to strengthen the roots). ----- hirsute [HUR-soot]; adj.: Covered with hair; set with bristles; shaggy; hairy. Ex.: He was incredibly hirsute: there was even a thick pelt of hair on the back of his hands. --Tama Janowitz _By the Shores of Gitchee Gumee_ ![]() ![]() HANGOVER . . see "ALCOHOL" for related links The water wagon is the place for me. Last night at twelve I felt immense; Today I feel like thirty cents. My eyes are bleared, my coppers hot, I'd like to eat but I cannot! It is no time for mirth and laughter The cold, grey dawn of the morning after. --George Ade (18661944) American playwright and humorist. "Remorse" in _The Sultan of Sulu_ [1902] He lay sprawled, too wicked to move, spewed up like a broken spider crab on the tarry shingle of the morning. The light did him harm, but not as much as looking at things did; he resolved, having done it once, never to move his eyeballs again. A dusty thudding in his head made the scene before him beat like a pulse. His mouth had been used as a latrine by some small creature of the night, and then as its mausoleum. During the night, too, he'd somehow been on a cross-country run and then been expertly beaten up by secret police. He felt bad. --Sir Kingsley Amis (19221995) English novelist, poet, critic, and father of Martin Amis. _Lucky Jim_ [1954] - 'Can I fix you a Bromo Selzer sir?' asked a waiter of W. C. Fields, who was groaning in the grip of a fearful hangover. 'No,' moaned Fields, "I can't stand the noise.' --_Bartlett's Book of Anecdotes_ edited by Clifton Fadiman and Andr้ Bernard [2000 ed.] - A hair of the dog that bit us. --John Heywood (14971580) English playwright. _Proverbs_ [1546] (Old recipe books advised that an inebriate should drink sparingly in the morning some of the same kind of liquor which he had drunk to excess the night before. (Bartlett's).) You can't get away from yourself by going to a booze-bazaar. --Elbert Hubbard (18591915) American editor, publisher, and author who died in the sinking of the "Lusitania." _The Roycroft Dictionary and Book of Epigrams_ [1923] - I woke up Sunday morning With no way to hold my head that didn't hurt And the beer I had for breakfast wasn't bad So I had one more for desert. Fumbled thru my closets, thru my clothes And found my cleanest dirty shirt And I washed my face and combed my hair Stumbled down the stairs to greet the day. --Kris Kristofferson (1936 ) American country music singer and songwriter. "Sunday Morning Coming Down" (song) - A hangover is the wrath of grapes. --anon. ----- surfeit (noun) ['s๊r-fit] Excess, superfluity; overindulgence, especially of food and drink, and the suffering accompanying such overindulgence. This word may be used as a verb meaning "to overindulge" or "supply in excess." You may surfeit yourself on shepherd pie or your mother may do it for you. If she does, she is a "surfeiter." end page | HABIT - HANGOVER | HAPPINESS | HAPPY BIRTHDAY - HATE | HATS - HEAT | HEALTH | HEAVEN - HELPING | HEROES - HIROSHIMA | HISTORIANS & HISTORY | HITCHCOCK - HOMOSEXUALS | HOME - HOMETOWNS | HONESTY & HONOR | HOOVER - HOTELS | HOUSE - HUMAN NATURE | HUMAN RACE - HUMANITY | HUMILIATION - HURT | HUMOR | HURTING (SOMEONE) | HUSBANDS - HYPOCRISY | | H | I - J | K - L | M | N - O | P - Q | | Return Home | The Credits | The Cast | Act 1 | Act 2 | Act 3 | The Reviews | |
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