85 Inspiring Habit Quotes to Help You Build a Better Life

Habits are the building blocks of our lives. They shape our thoughts, actions, and ultimately our destinies. Whether good or bad, habits have a profound impact on our daily routines and long-term success. From waking up early to exercising regularly, developing good habits can be challenging, but the rewards are immeasurable.

Today, we’ve compiled 85 habit quotes from some of the world’s greatest thinkers, leaders, and writers. These quotes offer insights and inspiration to help you cultivate positive habits and achieve your goals. So, read on and get ready to be inspired!

I hope you enjoy these habit quotes…

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

1) “A habit cannot be tossed out the window; it must be coaxed down the stairs a step at a time.” – Mark Twain

2) “All people are the same; only their habits differ.” – Confucius

3) “An unfortunate thing about this world is that good habits are much easier to give up than the bad ones.” – Errol Flynn

4) “And once you understand that habits can change, you have the freedom and the responsibility to remake them.” – Charles Duhigg

5) “Habits are never-ending goals, if you think about it. They have no deadline and no endpoint. They are casual daily activities like brushing your teeth or combing your hair.” – Zoe McKey

6) “We change our behavior when the pain of staying the same becomes greater than the pain of changing. Consequences give us the pain that motivates us to change.” – Henry Cloud

7) “It’s not the big things that add up in the end; it’s the hundreds, thousands, or millions of little things that separate the ordinary from the extraordinary.” – Darren Hardy

8) “By developing and practising good habits each day, you affirm that you do have control over the very core of your life in the midst of the chaos.” – Stephen Guise, Elastic Habits

Elastic Habits: How to Create Smarter Habits That Adapt to Your Day
  • Amazon Kindle Edition
  • Guise, Stephen (Author)
  • English (Publication Language)
  • 234 Pages – 11/09/2019 (Publication Date) – Selective Entertainment LLC (Publisher)

9) “Chains of habit are too light to be felt until they are too heavy to be broken.” – Warren Buffett

A champion doesn’t become a champion in the ring…

"A champion doesn’t become a champion in the ring, he’s merely recognized in the ring. His “becoming” happens during his daily routine." - Joe Louis

10) “A champion doesn’t become a champion in the ring, he’s merely recognized in the ring. His “becoming” happens during his daily routine.” – Joe Louis

11) “Habits change into character.” – Ovid

12) “The common denominator of success – the secret of success of every man who has ever been successful – lies in the fact that he formed the habit of doing things that failures don’t like to do.” – Albert Gray

13) “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

14) “Cultivate only the habits that you are willing should master you.” – Elbert Hubbard

15) “Your current life is the result of your previous choices, if you want something different, begin to choose differently.” – Joe Tichio

Habit Quotes by Sean Covey

"Depending on what they are, our habits will either make us or break us.  We become what we repeatedly do." - Sean Covey

16) “Depending on what they are, our habits will either make us or break us.  We become what we repeatedly do.” – Sean Covey

17) “We become what we repeatedly do.” – Sean Covey

18) “The difference between an amateur and a professional is in their habits. An amateur has amateur habits. A professional has professional habits.” – Steven Pressfield

19) “Discipline is choosing between what you want now and what you want most.” – Abraham Lincoln

Dreams pass into the reality of action…

"Dreams pass into the reality of action. From the actions stems the dream again; and this interdependence produces the highest form of living." - Anais Nin

20) “Dreams pass into the reality of action. From the actions stems the dream again; and this interdependence produces the highest form of living.” – Anais Nin

21) “Drop by drop is the water pot filled.” – Buddha

22) “Energy is usually at its peak during the first part of your day, which means you should be completing habits that inspire or excite you about the day ahead.” – S. J. Scott, Habit Stacking

Habit Stacking: 127 Small Changes to Improve Your Health, Wealth, and Happiness (Most are Five Minutes or Less)
  • Scott, S.J. (Author)
  • English (Publication Language)
  • 330 Pages – 04/10/2017 (Publication Date) – CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (Publisher)

23) “Watch your actions, they become your habits.  Watch your habits, they become your character.” – Vince Lombardi

24) “Everyone has habits. Some are good; others are not. Considering that we are all defined by our actions, it is important that we lose our bad habits. By doing that, our lives will be much better.” – Robert Henley, Change Your Habits Now

25) “Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.” – James Baldwin

26) “Evidence suggests that, over time, bad eating or sleeping habits change your personality.” – Bennett Garner, 50 Tweaks to Change Your Life

50 Tweaks to Change Your Life
  • Amazon Kindle Edition
  • Garner, Bennett (Author)
  • English (Publication Language)
  • 120 Pages – 06/08/2017 (Publication Date)

27) “Feeling sorry for yourself, and your present condition is not only a waste of energy but the worst habit you could possibly have.” – Dale Carnegie

28) “First forget inspiration. Habit is more dependable. Habit will sustain you whether you’re inspired or not.” – Octavia Butler

29) “We get into the habit of living before acquiring the habit of thinking. In that race which daily hastens us towards death, the body maintains its irreparable lead.” – Albert Camus

Nothing wrong with being fanatical about good habits…

"Good habits are worth being fanatical about." - John Irving

30) “Good habits are worth being fanatical about.” – John Irving

31) “Great is the power of habit. It teaches us to bear fatigue and to despise wounds and pain.” – Marcus Tullius Cicero

32) “H is for Habit, winners make a habit of doing the things losers don’t want to do.” – Lucas Remmerswaal

33) “Habit is the intersection of knowledge (what to do), skill (how to do), and desire (want to do).” – Stephen R. Covey

34) “Habits are safer than rules; you don’t have to watch them. And you don’t have to keep them, either. They keep you.” – Frank Crane

35) “Humans are creatures of habit. If you quit when things get tough, it gets that much easier to quit the next time. On the other hand, if you force yourself to push through it, the grit begins to grow in you.” – Travis Bradberry

36) “I focused on developing the habit of being as generous as possible. In just three weeks, I retrained my brain and heart to allow generosity to take full effect in my life.” – Jayson Linford, Redefining Generosity

Redefining Generosity: How to unleash your potential . Discover your purpose . & Cultivate connection
  • Amazon Kindle Edition
  • Linford, Jayson (Author)
  • English (Publication Language)
  • 226 Pages – 12/02/2017 (Publication Date) – The Empowered Life Project International Inc. (Publisher)

37) “If you are going to achieve excellence in big things, you develop the habit in little matters. Excellence is not an exception, it is a prevailing attitude.” – Colin Powell

38) “In a nutshell, your health, wealth, happiness, fitness, and success depend on your habits.” – Joanna Jast, Hack Your Habits

39) “Habit is stronger than reason.” – George Santayana

Habits become talents…

"Wouldn’t it be great to be gifted? In fact…it turns out that choices lead to habits. Habits become talents. Talents are labeled gifts. You’re not born this way, you get this way." - Seth Godin

40) “Wouldn’t it be great to be gifted? In fact…it turns out that choices lead to habits. Habits become talents. Talents are labeled gifts. You’re not born this way, you get this way.” – Seth Godin

41) “Let go of your old tired habits and plant new habits in fertile soil.” – Harley King

42) “Laziness is nothing more than the habit of resting before you get tired.” – Jules Renard

43) “Lost Time is never found again.” – Benjamin Franklin

44) “The man who makes it the habit of his life to go to bed at nine o’clock usually gets rich and is always reliable. Of course, going to bed does not make him rich I merely mean that such a man will in all probability be up early in the morning and do a big day’s work, so his weary bones put him to bed early.” – Elbert Hubbard, Works of Elbert Hubbard

The Works: Elbert Hubbard
  • Amazon Kindle Edition
  • Hubbard, Elbert (Author)
  • English (Publication Language)
  • 3238 Pages – 04/23/2007 (Publication Date) – Packard Technologies (Publisher)

45) “Morning is an important time of day because how you spend your morning can often tell you what kind of day you are going to have.” – Lemony Snicket

46) “Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going.” – Jim Ryun

47) “Habit is a second nature that destroys the first. But what is nature? Why is habit not natural? I am very much afraid that nature itself is only a first habit, just as habit is a second nature.” – Blaise Pascal

48) “You’ll never change your life until you change something you do daily.  The secret to your success is found in your daily routine.” – John C. Maxwell

49) “The good news is that all habits are learned through practice and repetition. You can learn any habit you consider either necessary or desirable.” – Brian Tracy

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"Ninety-nine percent of the failures come from people who have the habit of making excuses." - George Washington Carver

50) “Ninety-nine percent of the failures come from people who have the habit of making excuses.” – George Washington Carver

51) “Not only is procrastination bad because it makes us less efficient, it can also ruin the entire notion of building a habit in the first place.” – J. J. Thomas

52) “Good habits, once established are just as hard to break as are bad habits.” – Robert Puller

53) “The only way we could remember would be by constant re-reading, for knowledge unused tends to drop out of mind. Knowledge used does not need to be remembered; practice forms habits and habits make memory unnecessary. The rule is nothing; the application is everything.” – Henry Hazlitt

54) “Our character is basically a composite of our habits. Because they are consistent, often unconscious patterns, they constantly, daily, express our character.” – Stephen Covey

55) “Out of our beliefs are born deeds; out of our deeds we form habits; out of our habits grows our character; and on our character, we build our destiny.” – Henry Hancock

Habit Quotes by Jeff Olson

"Successful people form habits that feed their success, instead of habits that feed their failure." - Jeff Olson

56) “Successful people form habits that feed their success, instead of habits that feed their failure.” – Jeff Olson

57) “Your habits operate at the unconscious level; you are not normally aware of them. It’s only by bringing a habit into your conscious awareness that you can observe what it’s doing, how it empowers and serves you or doesn’t.” – Jeff Olson

58) “The successful person makes a habit of doing what the failing person doesn’t like to do.” – Thomas Edison

Habit Quotes by Aristotle

"Quality is not an act, it is a habit." - Aristotle

59) “Quality is not an act, it is a habit.” – Aristotle

60) “Good habits formed at youth make all the difference.” – Aristotle

61) “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit.” – Aristotle

62) “I realized that success is not a one-time act or a moment of luck and that ‘Overnight Success’ is never true. Success is created through and by creating a habit caused by proper self-discipline.” – Jan Mckingley Hilado

63) “Replacing just a few key negative habits with a few positive habits can easily be the difference between being mostly unhappy and being happy almost all of the time.” – Tynan, Superhuman by Habit

Superhuman By Habit: A Guide to Becoming the Best Possible Version of Yourself, One Tiny Habit at a Time
  • Tynan (Author)
  • English (Publication Language)
  • 122 Pages – 09/09/2014 (Publication Date) – CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (Publisher)

64) “The second half of a man’s life is made up of nothing but the habits he has acquired during the first half.” – Feodor Dostoevski

65) “By simply breaking some of your more ingrained habits you will help dissolve away your suffering.” – Vidyamala Burch, Mindfulness For Health

66) “Sow an act and you reap a habit. Sow a habit and reap a character. Sow a character and you reap a destiny.” – Charles Reade

67) “Habit stacking works because you eliminate the stress of adding too many new things to your life. Instead, you begin with a few simple but effective habits and then build on them as this routine becomes an important ‘can’t miss’ part of your day.” – S.J. Scott

68) “Successful people are simply those with successful habits.” – Brian Tracy

Habit Quotes by William James

"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." - William James

69) “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.” – William James

70) “Tension is a habit. Relaxing is a habit. Bad habits can be broken, good habits formed.” – William James

71) “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.” – William James

72) “And that is how change happens. One gesture. One person. One moment at a time.” – Libba Braym

73) “The law of harvest is to reap more than you sow. Sow an act, and you reap a habit. Sow a habit and you reap a character. Sow a character and you reap a destiny.” – James Allen

74) “There is no better way to grow as a person than to do something every day that you hate.” – David Goggins

75) “To change a habit, you must keep the old cue and deliver the old reward, but insert a new routine.” – Charles Duhigg

76) “Today, many will choose to free themselves from the personal imprisonment of their bad habits. Why not you?” – Steve Maraboli

77) “If you want to change your world, you need to start cultivating good habits.” – Mina Tadros

78) “Watch your thoughts, they become your words; watch your words, they become your actions; watch your actions, they become your habits; watch your habits, they become your character; watch your character, it becomes your destiny.” – Lao Tzu

79) “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” – Will Durant

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"We will be more successful in all our endeavors if we can let go of the habit of running all the time, and take little pauses to relax and re-center ourselves. And we'll also have a lot more joy in living." - Thich Nhat Hanh

80) “We will be more successful in all our endeavors if we can let go of the habit of running all the time, and take little pauses to relax and re-center ourselves. And we’ll also have a lot more joy in living.” – Thich Nhat Hanh

81) “Winning is not a sometime thing; it’s an all the time thing. You don’t win once in a while… you don’t do things right once in a while… you do them right all the time. Winning is habit.” – Vince Lombardi

Habit Quotes by James Clear

"You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems." - James Clear

82) “You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.” – James Clear

83) “All big things come from small beginnings. The seed of every habit is a single, tiny decision. But as that decision is repeated, a habit grows and sprouts stronger. Roots entrench themselves and branches grow.” – James Clear

84) “Correct your mistakes before they become your habits.” – James Clear

85) “Every decision you make is a vote for the type of person you want to become.” – James Clear

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Last update on 2024-11-10 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API