...enormous fly-wheel of society, its most precious conservative influence. It alone is what keeps us within the bounds of ordinance, and saves the children of fortune from the uprisings of the poor. It alone prevents the hardest and most repulsive walks of life from being deserted...

...life of society. In one place he writes, "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."21* Nor is habit contrary to the exigencies of a pluralistic and quickly changing society....

...more rhetorical side to the Principles. 'Habit is thus the enormous fly-wheel of society, its most precious conservative agent. It alone is what keeps...deserted by those brought up to tread therein ... It dooms us all to fight out the battle of life upon the lines of our nurture or our early choice, and...

...that name, as "the enormous fly-wheel of society, its most precious conservative agent. ... It also prevents the hardest and most repulsive walks of life...being deserted by those brought up to tread therein." With this observation, James links the intricate psychology of habit to larger mechanisms of organization...

...habits" in which James takes such comfort. In his famous hymn to habit he calls it society's "most precious conservative agent. It alone is what keeps us all within the bounds of ordinance. ... It is well for the world that in most of us, by the age of thirty, the character has set like plaster,...

...perhaps most clearly indicated by his casual remarks, like his statement that it is only habit that "saves the children of fortune from the envious uprisings of the poor" (The Principles of Psychology, 125). 23. Talks to Teachers, 162, 161. 24. Otto, "On a Certain Blindness,"...

...Passionate State of Mind, aph. 264 (1955). 5 Habit is thus the enormous fly-wheel of society, its most had told me so. WN EWER (1885-1976), British journalist. Five Souls. 18 Th WILLIAM JAMES (1842-1910), US psychologist, philosopher. Principles of Psychology, vol. 1 , ch. A (1...

...in which they have been exercised . . ." Habit was "thus the enormous fly-wheel of society, its most precious conservative agent. It alone is what keeps...of fortune from the envious uprisings of the poor." Only habit "prevents the hardest and most repulsive walks of life from being deserted by those up to...

...importance to habits in human life. He says, "Habit is thus the enormous flywheel of society, its most precious conservative agent. It alone is what keeps us all within the bounds of ordinance, and save the children of fortune from the envious uprisings of the poor." "The great thing, then, in all...

...Habit "keeps us all within the bounds of ordinance," and prevents the disintegration of social life. It "saves the children of fortune from the envious uprisings of the poor," it "holds the miner in his darkness, and nails the countryman to his log cabin and his lonely farm through...