Source identified
“Generally then if you would make anything a habit, do it.”
Repeated behavior trains the corresponding habit, so change depends on practicing the desired action rather than merely endorsing it in theory.
Source note: Discourses, George Long translation; Epictetus explains that faculties and habits are strengthened by corresponding actions.
Source identified
“Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise.”
The proverb uses the ant as an example of self-directed preparation, turning observation of repeated practical behavior into a lesson about disciplined habits.
Source note: Proverbs 6:6 in the King James Version; the following verses describe the ant preparing food without an overseer.
Source identified
“To make each one many times was the best way to imbed it in his memory.”
Voice: Narrator voice · Narrator
The narration connects repeated practice with stronger recall, showing Marco deliberately using repetition to make a learned association more durable.
Source note: The Lost Prince; Project Gutenberg #384. The exercise involves repeatedly sketching faces connected with places for the novel’s secret mission.
Source identified
“You work that you may keep pace with the earth and the soul of the earth.”
Work is presented as participation in life rather than only a transaction for wages or status.
Source note: The Prophet, “On Work.”
Source identified
“Practise thyself even in the things which thou despairest of accomplishing.”
Practice is offered as an answer to discouragement: inability today does not establish permanent inability when the skill itself can be trained.
Source note: Meditations, Book XII, section 6, George Long translation.
Source identified
“It is well to observe everything and to train one's self to remember faces and circumstances.”
Voice: Fictional character · Loristan
Observation and memory are presented as trainable abilities strengthened by deliberate attention rather than fixed talents that either appear or do not.
Source note: The Lost Prince; Project Gutenberg #384. Loristan is training Marco for a fictional diplomatic and political mission, so the advice belongs to that narrative setting.