Isaiah Petty

“First: At the beginning of the formation of a new habit put force and enthusiasm into your expression. Feel what you think. Remember that you are taking the first steps toward making the new mental path; that it is much harder at first than it will be afterwards. Make the path as clear and as deep as you can, at the beginning, so that you can readily see it the next time you wish to follow it. Second: Keep your attention firmly concentrated on the new path-building, and keep your mind away from the old paths, lest you incline toward them. Forget all about the old paths, and concern yourself only with the new ones that you are building to order. Third: Travel over your newly made paths as often as possible. Make opportunities for doing so, without waiting for them to arise through luck or chance. The oftener you go over the new paths the sooner will they become well worn and easily traveled. Create plans for passing over these new habit-paths, at the very start. Fourth: Resist the temptation to travel over the older, easier paths that you have been using in the past. Every time you resist a temptation, the stronger do you become, and the easier will it be for you to do so the next time. But every time you yield to the temptation, the easier does it become to yield again, and the more difficult it becomes to resist the next time. You will have a fight on at the start, and this is the critical time. Prove your determination, persistency and will-power now, at the very beginning. Fifth: Be sure that you have mapped out the right path, as your definite chief aim, and then go ahead without fear and without allowing yourself to doubt. “Place your hand upon the plow, and look not backward.” Select your goal, then make good, deep, wide mental paths leading straight to it.”
― Napoleon Hill, The Prosperity Bible: The Greatest Writings of All Time on the Secrets to Wealth and Prosperity

“And the most dangerous of their weapons was insinuation—the means by which Madame cast her spell on the young man, making him seem the aggressor, giving her the night of pleasure she desired, and safeguarding her guiltless reputation, all in one stroke.”
― Robert Greene, The Art of Seduction

“To whip the Fear of Poverty one must take two very definite steps, providing one is in debt. First, quit the habit of buying on credit, and follow this by gradually paying off the debts that you have already incurred. Being free from the worry of indebtedness you are ready to revamp the habits of your mind and redirect your course toward prosperity. Adopt, as a part of your Definite Chief Aim, the habit of saving a regular proportion of your income, even if this be no more than a penny a day. Very soon this habit will begin to lay hold of your mind and you will actually get joy out of saving. Any habit may be discontinued by building in its place some other and more desirable habit. The “spending” habit must be replaced by the “saving” habit by all who attain financial independence. Merely to discontinue an undesirable habit is not enough, as such habits have a tendency to reappear unless the place they formerly occupied in the mind is filled by some other habit of a different nature. The discontinuance of a habit leaves a “hole” in the mind, and this hole must be filled up with some other form of habit or the old one will return and claim its place.”
― Napoleon Hill, The Prosperity Bible: The Greatest Writings of All Time on the Secrets to Wealth and Prosperity

“Now, it is reasonable to suppose that the same forces can be applied in other directions, and the synthesis of the methods and processes by which these forces are utilized in the several fields of experiment, combined with a further synthesis of methods and processes by which the latent potentialities of a variety of physical substances are developed into manifest activity, constitutes Magic in the full, perfect, and comprehensive sense of that much abused term.”
― Arthur Edward Waite, The Occult Sciences - A Compendium of Transcendental Doctrine and Experiment: Embracing an Account of Magical Practices; of Secret Sciences in Connection ... Spiritualism, Mesmerism and Theosophy