What does this quote mean?

“The only cure is to reconstitute the programme, and to attempt less.”

When a schedule becomes oppressive, Bennett recommends reducing the plan rather than allowing the plan itself to dominate the person it was meant to help.

Source note: How to Live on 24 Hours a Day, “Dangers to Avoid.” Bennett is warning against becoming enslaved to an over-ambitious personal programme; “attempt less” is adjustment advice, not a general rejection of ambition.

“There is no instance of a country having benefited from prolonged warfare.”

Long conflict consumes strength and resources, so duration itself becomes a strategic cost even before the outcome is decided.

Source note: The Art of War, Chapter II “Waging War,” Lionel Giles translation.

“All warfare is based on deception.”

Strategy depends partly on managing what an opponent believes about intentions, strength, timing, and position rather than revealing every fact directly.

Source note: The Art of War, Chapter I “Laying Plans,” Lionel Giles translation (1910).

“You can turn over a new leaf every hour if you choose.”

A failed plan need not govern the remainder of the day; Bennett frames each hour as another practical opportunity to restart deliberate action.

Source note: How to Live on 24 Hours a Day, discussion of beginning a programme of self-directed use of spare time. The sentence is practical encouragement within Bennett’s period self-improvement argument.

“A man’s heart deviseth his way: but the LORD directeth his steps.”

Planning has value while remaining limited; the verse holds intention and humility about outcomes together.

Source note: Proverbs 16:9 in the King James Version.

“Activity does not consist in velocity of change but in constancy of purpose.”

Being busy or changing quickly is not the same as purposeful action; continuity of aim gives activity its direction.

Source note: The Life of Reason; the line appears in Santayana’s analysis of ideas, activity, and sustained direction.