Habits

With our bad habits, the immediate outcome usually feels good, but the ultimate outcome feels bad. With good habits, it is the reverse: the immediate outcome is unenjoyable, but the ultimate outcome feels good. As a general rule, the more immediate pleasure you get from an action, the more strongly you should question... See more

That is, be systematically ascetic or heroic in little unnecessary points, do every day or two something for no other reason than that you would rather not do it, so that when the hour of dire need draws nigh, it may find you not unnerved.

No matter how full a reservoir of maxims one may possess, and no matter how good one's sentiments may be, if

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