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Habit
The habits to which there is an innate tendency are called instincts; some of those due to education would by most persons be called acts of reason. It appears that habit covers a very large part of life, and that one engaged in studying the objective manifestations of mind is bound at the very outset to define clearly just what its limits are. This volume illustrates the principles surrounding habit and its structure.
68 pages, Hardcover
First published July 1, 2003
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
March 11, 2020
Too short, didn't read.
Kidding. I love William James. This is just makes some goddam American horse-sense, you get me? Like the infield fly rule.
Yep...I'm sticking with that.
Kidding. I love William James. This is just makes some goddam American horse-sense, you get me? Like the infield fly rule.
Yep...I'm sticking with that.
May 15, 2014
"Nothing we ever do is, in strict scientific literalness, wiped out. Of course, this has its good side as well as its bad one." - this are the words that made me want to read Habit by William James. It's that kind of reading that keeps making you feel like taking action to change your life in a better way. And if you don't have enough reasons to really start new habits this book might gave you a couple of them!
"It is well for the world that in most of us, by the age of thirty, the character has set like plaster, and will never soften again. If the period between twenty and thirty is the critical one in the formation of intellectual and professional habits, the period below twenty is more important still for the fixing of personal habits, properly so called, such as vocalization and pronunciation, gesture, motion, and address."
"A lock works better after being used some time; at the outset more force was required to overcome certain roughness in the mechanism. The overcoming of their resistance is a phenomenon of habituation. It costs less trouble to fold a paper when it has been folded already. This saving of trouble is due to the essential nature of habit, which brings it about that, to reproduce the effect, a less amount of the outward cause is required."
"In the acquisition of a new habit, or the leaving off of an old one, we must take care to launch ourselves with as strong and decided an initiative as possible. Accumulate all the possible circumstances which shall reinforce the right motives ; put yourself assiduously in conditions that encourage the new way; make engagements incompatible with the old; take a public pledge, if the case allows; in short, envelop your resolution with every aid you know. This will give your new beginning such a momentum that the temptation to break down will not occur as soon as it otherwise might; and every day during which a breakdown is postponed adds to the chances of its not occurring at all."
"It is well for the world that in most of us, by the age of thirty, the character has set like plaster, and will never soften again. If the period between twenty and thirty is the critical one in the formation of intellectual and professional habits, the period below twenty is more important still for the fixing of personal habits, properly so called, such as vocalization and pronunciation, gesture, motion, and address."
"A lock works better after being used some time; at the outset more force was required to overcome certain roughness in the mechanism. The overcoming of their resistance is a phenomenon of habituation. It costs less trouble to fold a paper when it has been folded already. This saving of trouble is due to the essential nature of habit, which brings it about that, to reproduce the effect, a less amount of the outward cause is required."
"In the acquisition of a new habit, or the leaving off of an old one, we must take care to launch ourselves with as strong and decided an initiative as possible. Accumulate all the possible circumstances which shall reinforce the right motives ; put yourself assiduously in conditions that encourage the new way; make engagements incompatible with the old; take a public pledge, if the case allows; in short, envelop your resolution with every aid you know. This will give your new beginning such a momentum that the temptation to break down will not occur as soon as it otherwise might; and every day during which a breakdown is postponed adds to the chances of its not occurring at all."
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May 15, 2013This book deserves more readers.
November 12, 2022
At the beginning, James reduces living creatures to "bundles of habits." It's a fairly easy read with nuggets of wisdom within. Application and learning are encouraged for the young. Plasticity makes the application of these habits easier, before calcification sets in. He also encourages us to force ourselves to do things we don't want to, preparing our system for possible disaster. Well worth the read.
April 20, 2026
The line from Aristotle and Seneca to this is straight and short.
Notes
each part of the organism tends to form itself in accordance with the mode in which it is habitually exercised, this tendency will be especially strong in the nervous apparatus, in virtue of that incessant regeneration which is the very condition of its functional activity.
Which way does my door swing? etc. I cannot tell the answer; yet my hand never makes a mistake. In action grown habitual, what instigates each new muscular contraction to take place in its appointed order is not a thought or a perception, but the sensation occasioned by the muscular contraction just finished
maintain that actions which were originally prompted by the will with a distinct intention, and which are still entirely under its control, can never cease to be volitional; and that either an infinitesimally small amount of will is required to sustain them when they have been once set going, or that the will is in a sort of pendulum-like oscillation between the two actions the maintenance of the train of thought, and the maintenance of the train of movement. But if only an infinitesimally small amount of will is necessary to sustain them, is not this tantamount to saying that they go on by a force of their own? And does not the experience of the perfect continuity of our train of thought during the performance of movements that have become habitual, entirely negative the hypothesis of oscillation?
The great thing, then, in all education, is to make our nervous system our ally instead
of our enemy. It is to fund and capitalize our acquisitions, and live at ease upon the interest of the fund. For this we must mafe automatic and habitual, as early as possible, as many useful actions as we can, and guard against the growing into ways that are likely to be disadvantageous to us, as we should guard against the plague. The more of the details of our daily life we can hand over to the effortless custody of automatism, the more our higher powers of mind will be set free for their own proper work. There is no more miserable human being than one in whom nothing is habitual but indecision, and for whom the lighting of every cigar, the drinking of every cup, the time of rising and going to bed every day, and the beginning of every bit of work, are subjects of express volitional deliberation.
in the acquisition of a new habit, or the leaving off of an old one, we must 1) take care to launch ourselves with as strong and decided an initiative as possible. Accumulate all the possible circumstances which shall reenforce the right motives ; put yourself assiduously in conditions that encourage the new way; make engagements incompatible with the old; 2) Never suffer an
exception to occur till the new habit is securely rooted in your life. Each lapse is like the letting fall of a ball of string which one is carefully winding up; a single slip undoes more than a great many turns will wind again. Continuity of training is the great means of making the nervous system act infallibly right.
Seize the Very first possible opportunity to act on every resolution you make, and on every emotional prompting you may experience in the direction of the habits you aspire to gain. It is not in the moment of their forming, but in the moment of their producing motor effects, that resolves and aspirations communicate the new 'set' to the brain.
A 'character, ' as J. S. Mill says, 'is a completely fashioned will'; and a will, in the sense in which he means it, is an aggregate of tendencies to act in a firm and prompt and definite way upon all the principal emergencies of life.
Every time a resolve or a fine glow of feeling evaporates without bearing practical fruit is worse than a chance lost; it works so as positively to hinder future resolutions and emotions from taking the normal path of discharge. There is no more contemptible type of human character than that of the nerveless sentimentalist and dreamer, who spends his life in a weltering sea of sensibility and emotion, but who never does a manly concrete deed.
Notes
each part of the organism tends to form itself in accordance with the mode in which it is habitually exercised, this tendency will be especially strong in the nervous apparatus, in virtue of that incessant regeneration which is the very condition of its functional activity.
Which way does my door swing? etc. I cannot tell the answer; yet my hand never makes a mistake. In action grown habitual, what instigates each new muscular contraction to take place in its appointed order is not a thought or a perception, but the sensation occasioned by the muscular contraction just finished
maintain that actions which were originally prompted by the will with a distinct intention, and which are still entirely under its control, can never cease to be volitional; and that either an infinitesimally small amount of will is required to sustain them when they have been once set going, or that the will is in a sort of pendulum-like oscillation between the two actions the maintenance of the train of thought, and the maintenance of the train of movement. But if only an infinitesimally small amount of will is necessary to sustain them, is not this tantamount to saying that they go on by a force of their own? And does not the experience of the perfect continuity of our train of thought during the performance of movements that have become habitual, entirely negative the hypothesis of oscillation?
The great thing, then, in all education, is to make our nervous system our ally instead
of our enemy. It is to fund and capitalize our acquisitions, and live at ease upon the interest of the fund. For this we must mafe automatic and habitual, as early as possible, as many useful actions as we can, and guard against the growing into ways that are likely to be disadvantageous to us, as we should guard against the plague. The more of the details of our daily life we can hand over to the effortless custody of automatism, the more our higher powers of mind will be set free for their own proper work. There is no more miserable human being than one in whom nothing is habitual but indecision, and for whom the lighting of every cigar, the drinking of every cup, the time of rising and going to bed every day, and the beginning of every bit of work, are subjects of express volitional deliberation.
in the acquisition of a new habit, or the leaving off of an old one, we must 1) take care to launch ourselves with as strong and decided an initiative as possible. Accumulate all the possible circumstances which shall reenforce the right motives ; put yourself assiduously in conditions that encourage the new way; make engagements incompatible with the old; 2) Never suffer an
exception to occur till the new habit is securely rooted in your life. Each lapse is like the letting fall of a ball of string which one is carefully winding up; a single slip undoes more than a great many turns will wind again. Continuity of training is the great means of making the nervous system act infallibly right.
Seize the Very first possible opportunity to act on every resolution you make, and on every emotional prompting you may experience in the direction of the habits you aspire to gain. It is not in the moment of their forming, but in the moment of their producing motor effects, that resolves and aspirations communicate the new 'set' to the brain.
A 'character, ' as J. S. Mill says, 'is a completely fashioned will'; and a will, in the sense in which he means it, is an aggregate of tendencies to act in a firm and prompt and definite way upon all the principal emergencies of life.
Every time a resolve or a fine glow of feeling evaporates without bearing practical fruit is worse than a chance lost; it works so as positively to hinder future resolutions and emotions from taking the normal path of discharge. There is no more contemptible type of human character than that of the nerveless sentimentalist and dreamer, who spends his life in a weltering sea of sensibility and emotion, but who never does a manly concrete deed.
February 8, 2021
This is another insightful essay by James who ability to anticipate advances in science and psychology of the current day is one full display. The essay describes how habits are formed in a way that only recently has been accepted. Yet it is his connection between habits and moral that is truly fascinating. For James, Habit is not the poor congestive relative to conscious thought but the basis for most of our action that should be cultivated to our own good and that of society as whole.
How habits are formed
* We look at animals as a "bundle of habits" but tend to overlook the role habits play in humans. 3
* Plasticity. Yes James uses this word to describe how habits physically form in the brain.”“Plasticity, then, in the wide sense of the word, means the possession of a structure weak enough to yield to an influence, but strong enough not to yield all at once.”
* Habits become self perpetuating. “any sequence of mental action which has been frequently repeated tends to perpetuate itself; so that we find ourselves automatically prompted to think, feel, or do what we have been before accustomed to think, feel, ordo, under like circumstances, without any consciously formed purpose, or anticipation of results.”
* Habits have several practical benefits
* “simplifies the movements required to achieve a given result, makes them more accurate and diminishes fatigue”
* If frees up time to to learn other activities. “If an act became no easier after being done several times, if the careful direction of consciousness were necessary to its accomplishment on each occasion, it is evident that the whole activity of a lifetime might be confined to one or two deeds” The act performed in habit is done as one as oppose to many acts. The trigger or sensation, without violation is enough to set the habit in motion. This accounts for error - when a trigger sets off a habit. It’s not unconscious - we have a sense of the action, without willing every step. (The person knitting while watching TV)
Habit and morals/society
James draws on Aristoltle’s concept of virtue ethics and fuses it with recent science (of his day).
* If the ethical act is something we want. And habits ensure that an act is done more regularly and with less trouble, we should then make the effort to learn ethical habits. This is in contrast to either consequentialism or deontology that rely on “will” to power through ethical decisions.
* James goes further noting that habit impacts society. ““Habit is thus the enormous fly-wheel of society, its most precious conservative agent. It alone is what keeps us all within the bounds of ordinance.” (Burke makes similar arguments about customs - a type of social compact habit)
* Thus “in all education, is to make our nervous system our ally instead of our enemy. It is to fund and capitalize our acquisitions, and live at ease upon the interest of the fund. For this we must make automatic and habitual, as early as possible, as many useful actions as we can, and guard against the growing into ways that are likely to be disadvantageous to us, as we should guard against the plague. The more of the details of our “daily life we can hand over to the effortless custody of automatism, the more our higher powers of mind will be set free for their own proper work. There is no more miserable human being than one in whom nothing is habitual but indecision, and for whom the lighting of every cigar, the drinking of every cup, the time of rising and going to bed every day, and the beginning of every bit of work, are subjects of express volitional deliberation. Full half the time of such a man goes to the deciding, or regretting, of matters which ought to be so ingrained in him as practically not to exist for his consciousness at all. ”
How habits are formed
* We look at animals as a "bundle of habits" but tend to overlook the role habits play in humans. 3
* Plasticity. Yes James uses this word to describe how habits physically form in the brain.”“Plasticity, then, in the wide sense of the word, means the possession of a structure weak enough to yield to an influence, but strong enough not to yield all at once.”
* Habits become self perpetuating. “any sequence of mental action which has been frequently repeated tends to perpetuate itself; so that we find ourselves automatically prompted to think, feel, or do what we have been before accustomed to think, feel, ordo, under like circumstances, without any consciously formed purpose, or anticipation of results.”
* Habits have several practical benefits
* “simplifies the movements required to achieve a given result, makes them more accurate and diminishes fatigue”
* If frees up time to to learn other activities. “If an act became no easier after being done several times, if the careful direction of consciousness were necessary to its accomplishment on each occasion, it is evident that the whole activity of a lifetime might be confined to one or two deeds” The act performed in habit is done as one as oppose to many acts. The trigger or sensation, without violation is enough to set the habit in motion. This accounts for error - when a trigger sets off a habit. It’s not unconscious - we have a sense of the action, without willing every step. (The person knitting while watching TV)
Habit and morals/society
James draws on Aristoltle’s concept of virtue ethics and fuses it with recent science (of his day).
* If the ethical act is something we want. And habits ensure that an act is done more regularly and with less trouble, we should then make the effort to learn ethical habits. This is in contrast to either consequentialism or deontology that rely on “will” to power through ethical decisions.
* James goes further noting that habit impacts society. ““Habit is thus the enormous fly-wheel of society, its most precious conservative agent. It alone is what keeps us all within the bounds of ordinance.” (Burke makes similar arguments about customs - a type of social compact habit)
* Thus “in all education, is to make our nervous system our ally instead of our enemy. It is to fund and capitalize our acquisitions, and live at ease upon the interest of the fund. For this we must make automatic and habitual, as early as possible, as many useful actions as we can, and guard against the growing into ways that are likely to be disadvantageous to us, as we should guard against the plague. The more of the details of our “daily life we can hand over to the effortless custody of automatism, the more our higher powers of mind will be set free for their own proper work. There is no more miserable human being than one in whom nothing is habitual but indecision, and for whom the lighting of every cigar, the drinking of every cup, the time of rising and going to bed every day, and the beginning of every bit of work, are subjects of express volitional deliberation. Full half the time of such a man goes to the deciding, or regretting, of matters which ought to be so ingrained in him as practically not to exist for his consciousness at all. ”
September 19, 2025
This was really good but then he got a racist/classist with it.
"
When we look at living creatures from an outward point of view, one of the first things that strike us is that they are bundles of habits.
The laws of Nature are nothing but the immutable habits which the different elementary sorts of matter follow in their actions and reactions upon each other. <- This was cute
This saving of trouble is due to the essential nature of habit, which brings it about that, to reproduce the effect, a less amount of the outward cause is required.
The organism tends to form itself in accordance with the mode in which it is habitually exercised.
A strictly voluntary act has to be guided by idea, perception, and volition, throughout its whole course. In an habitual action, mere sensation is a sufficient guide.
1) habit simplifies the movements required to achieve a given result, makes them more accurate and diminishes fatigue
2) habit diminishes the conscious attention with which our acts are performed
1) The acquisition of a new habit, or the leaving off of an old one, we must take care to launch ourselves with as strong and decided an initiative as possible.
2) Never suffer an exception to occur till the new habit is securely rooted in your life.
3) Seize the very first possible opportunity to act on every resolution you make, and on every emotional prompting you may experience in the direction of the habits you aspire to gain.
4) Keep the faculty of effort alive in you by a little gratuitous exercise every day
"
The part about the arts creating morally bad habits is so crazy
"
When we look at living creatures from an outward point of view, one of the first things that strike us is that they are bundles of habits.
The laws of Nature are nothing but the immutable habits which the different elementary sorts of matter follow in their actions and reactions upon each other. <- This was cute
This saving of trouble is due to the essential nature of habit, which brings it about that, to reproduce the effect, a less amount of the outward cause is required.
The organism tends to form itself in accordance with the mode in which it is habitually exercised.
A strictly voluntary act has to be guided by idea, perception, and volition, throughout its whole course. In an habitual action, mere sensation is a sufficient guide.
1) habit simplifies the movements required to achieve a given result, makes them more accurate and diminishes fatigue
2) habit diminishes the conscious attention with which our acts are performed
1) The acquisition of a new habit, or the leaving off of an old one, we must take care to launch ourselves with as strong and decided an initiative as possible.
2) Never suffer an exception to occur till the new habit is securely rooted in your life.
3) Seize the very first possible opportunity to act on every resolution you make, and on every emotional prompting you may experience in the direction of the habits you aspire to gain.
4) Keep the faculty of effort alive in you by a little gratuitous exercise every day
"
The part about the arts creating morally bad habits is so crazy
Want to Read
October 13, 2019Scanned ebook via Archive.org here: https://archive.org/details/habitjam0...
Also possibly at Project Gutenberg here: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/auth...
Also possibly at Project Gutenberg here: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/auth...
September 10, 2026
Boring ahh book
Read
September 10, 2026a little bit of word salad but respect
December 16, 2013
Very good read.
Considers the nature of habit from a solid, biologically oriented platform. By connecting the subjects of physiology and psychology in a simple, fundamental (read non-abstract) way, this short book provides useful, actionable advice on a subject where so many other similar productivity/self-help books obscure with unnecessarily technical language.
Without trying to sell you a system, or a "secret" way to do anything, the message is clear and self-evident that forming habits, good or bad, is what matters most when it comes to realising future outcomes.
Considers the nature of habit from a solid, biologically oriented platform. By connecting the subjects of physiology and psychology in a simple, fundamental (read non-abstract) way, this short book provides useful, actionable advice on a subject where so many other similar productivity/self-help books obscure with unnecessarily technical language.
Without trying to sell you a system, or a "secret" way to do anything, the message is clear and self-evident that forming habits, good or bad, is what matters most when it comes to realising future outcomes.
May 14, 2016
This book felt like it was made to my taste.
5 stars ain't justice enough to this one.
5 stars ain't justice enough to this one.
June 3, 2015
gets to the point, and delivers its point well.
Read
September 6, 2017interesting perspectives about habits
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews