- Introduction
- What we do often, we soon begin to do it always, and thus habit will grow to be the part of our naturalself.
- Aristotle:”That, which has become habitual, becomes as it were a part of our nature.”
- Plato once scolded a child gambling with nuts. The child replied,”You are scolding me for a trifle. Plato gravely said,”Habit is not trifle.”
- Habit is the basis of character and man is regarded by society according to his habits and disposition.
- Once a habit is formed, we are practically at its mercy.
- “Habit is overcome by habit.”
- A character is nothing but a bundle of habits.
- Aristotle:”Men acquire a particular quality by constantlyacting in a particular way.”
- An English writer:”Sow an act, and you reap a habit, sow a habit and you reap a character, sow a character, and you reap a destiny.’ Excellent habits render the most difficult task easy to perform.”
- The best way, therefore, of building up character is to create desirablehabits.
- But one should not allow even good habits to take the place of one’s free and rational will. A soldier was going with a dish of food when a miscellaneous urchin cried, “Attention”! The soldier automaticallydropped his dish and stood at attention.
- Wordsworth:”Habit rules the unreflecting here.”
- Habits should be limited to routine activities only: but in the higher things of life, in making decisions, in operating our will, what is needed is not a settled habit, but the rational exercise of one’s free will.
- Let us be able to say with the Roman Sallust,”For me who has spentmy whole life in the practice of virtue, right conduct has become a habit.”
16. Conclusion
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