Website owner:  James Miller

Role of habit in formation of character

     - Habit reinforces virtue.  It also reinforces vice.  Good 
         habits build you up and take you higher and higher.  Bad 
         habits tear you down and take you lower and lower. 

     - Character formation takes place in steps: 
           Step 1.  One intellectually embraces a virtue such as 
              honesty. 
           Step 2.  One sets up and cultivates habits in the 
              virtue that reinforce and enhance the virtue.

     - one sees the merits and value of Honesty and Integrity, 
         cultivates habits in the same, and becomes more and more 
         entrenched in the way of Honesty and Integrity.  It 
         becomes a pronounced personality trait. 

     - one sees the merits and value of the Way of Thought and 
         Reflection, sets up habits in the same, becomes more and 
         more entrenched in the Way of Thought and Reflection, and 
         it becomes a pronounced personality trait. 

     - one becomes intellectually convinced that the only way to 
         survive in this hard life is the Way of Dishonesty and 
         Deceit, sets up habits in the same, becomes more and more 
         entrenched in this way, and it becomes a pronounced 
         personality trait. 


   Apr 1981