A Quote by Mark Twain

Habit is habit, and not to be flung out of the window by any man, but coaxed down-stairs one step at a time.

Mark Twain

Quote Topics

Any Down Habit Man One Step At A Time Out Stairs Step Time Window

Quote Author

Mark Twain
American - Writer
November 30, 1835 - April 21, 1910

A habit cannot be tossed out the window; it must be coaxed down the stairs a step at a time.

Mark Twain

Habit is habit and not to be flung out of the window by any man, but coaxed downstairs a step at a time. You cannot eliminate habits that no longer serve you. You can only replace them with new habits that support your goals. Moment by moment, you need to live with awareness and structure the habits that you include or exclude in your days.

Mark Twain

You can't break a bad habit by throwing it out the window. You've got to walk it slowly down the stairs.

Mark Twain

Habit 1: Be Proactive Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind Habit 3: Put First Things First Habit 4: Think Win/Win Habit 5: Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood Habit 6: Synergize Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw

Stephen Covey

Old habits cannot be thrown out the upstairs window. They have to be coaxed downstairs one step at a time.

Mark Twain

Your god may be your little Christian habit - the habit of prayer or Bible reading at certain times of your day. Watch how your Father will upset your schedule if you begin to worship your habit instead of what the habit symbolizes. We say, 'I can't do that right now; this is my time alone with God.' No, this is your time alone with your habit.

Oswald Chambers

But you go to a great school, not for knowledge so much as for arts and habits; for the habit of attention, for the art of expression, for the art of assuming at a moment's notice a new intellectual posture, for the art of entering quickly into another person's thoughts, for the habit of submitting to censure and refutation, for the art of indicating assent or dissent in graduated terms, for the habit of regarding minute points of accuracy, for the habit of working out what is possible in a given time, for taste, for discrimination, for mental courage and mental soberness.

William Johnson Cory

A fixed habit is supported by old, well-worn pathways in the brain. When you make conscious choices to change a habit, you create new pathways. At the same time, you strengthen the decision-making function of the cerebral cortex while diminishing the grip of the lower, instinctual brain. So without judging your habit, whether it feels like a good one or a bad one, take time to break the routine, automatic response that habit imposes.

Deepak Chopra

First forget inspiration. Habit is more dependable. Habit will sustain you whether you're inspired or not. Habit will help you finish and polish your stories. Inspiration won't. Habit is persistence in practice.

Octavia Butler

A person who wills to have a good will, already has a good will--in its rudiments. There is solid satisfaction in knowing that the mere desire to get out of an old habit is a material advance upon the condition of submergence in that habit. The longest step toward cleanliness is made when one gains--nothing but dissatisfaction with dirt.

William Ernest Hocking

The man who forms the habit of beginning without finishing has simply formed the habit of failure.

Lettie Cowman

Thinking is a habit, and like any other habit, it can be changed; it just takes effort and repetition.

John Eliot

Any habit may be discontinued by building in its place some other and more desirable habit.

Napoleon Hill

Men even contract the dirty, filthy habit of chewing tobacco, and when the habit gets a good hold upon them they are never satisfied except when they have a wad of the stuff in their mouth. So with drinking. It is largely a habit.