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It is reflection which forms habits, and fixes principles indelibly on the heart.
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“It is reflection which forms habits, and fixes principles indelibly on the heart.”

Mary Wollstonecraft

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Source
Thoughts on the Education of Daughters
Date
1787
Meaning

Meaning of “It is reflection which forms habits, and fixes…”

Habit formation becomes stronger when action is joined with reflection, because principles understood and revisited are more likely to guide later choices.

Source context

Where does it come from?

Thoughts on the Education of Daughters (1787), “THE BENEFITS WHICH ARISE FROM DISAPPOINTMENTS,” printed page 111, Project Gutenberg #67466. Wollstonecraft says reflection forms habits and fixes principles while opening a religious-moral discussion of disappointment, self-examination and character.

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Change and GrowthConsistencyCuriosityDiscipline Quotes About Habits, Practice & ConsistencyEducation Quotes About Teaching & Intellectual FormationGrowthGrowth MindsetHabitsInspirational Quotes About Hope, Courage & PossibilityLearning Quotes About Curiosity, Study & ExperienceLifeLife AdviceLife LessonsMindMindsetMotivation For LifePersonal GrowthSelf ImprovementShortThinking Quotes About Reasoning, Reflection & JudgmentUnderstandingCharacter
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education ought to do more for a boy
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“education ought to do more for a boy”

Booker T. Washington · Working With the Hands · 1904
Meaning & context

Washington rejects an overly narrow definition of schooling and asks whether education can improve the practical conditions and responsibilities of life.

Source details

Working With the Hands, Chapter I; Project Gutenberg #64504. This short excerpt precedes Washington’s discussion of poverty, family responsibility and practical education.

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Culture is then properly described not as having its origin in curiosity, but as having its origin in the love of perfection.
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“Culture is then properly described not as having its origin in curiosity, but as having its origin in the love of perfection.”

Matthew Arnold · Culture and Anarchy · 1869
Meaning & context

Curiosity becomes more than collecting information when it is directed toward fuller development, better judgment, and a serious desire to improve understanding.

Source details

Culture and Anarchy; Arnold distinguishes idle curiosity from the pursuit of intellectual and moral perfection.

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If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts; but if he will be content to begin with doubts, he shall end in certainties.
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“If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts; but if he will be content to begin with doubts, he shall end in certainties.”

Francis Bacon · The Advancement of Learning · 1605
Meaning & context

Intellectual confidence can be improved by beginning with questions rather than pretending certainty too early.

Source details

The Advancement of Learning, First Book, Project Gutenberg #5500, transcribed from the 1893 Cassell & Company edition. Bacon contrasts impatience of doubt with mature suspension of judgment and then sets out two ways of contemplation before saying that beginning with certainties ends in doubts while beginning with doubts can end in certainties. It remains early-modern epistemological argument rather than a modern experimental rule for scientific method.

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it is only when he has turned it over that he can be said to know it.
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“it is only when he has turned it over that he can be said to know it.”

Arthur Schopenhauer · The Art of Literature · 1851
Meaning & context

Learning becomes knowledge, in this account, when material has been actively reconsidered and integrated rather than merely encountered or memorized.

Source details

The Art of Literature, section “On Thinking for Oneself,” T. Bailey Saunders translation; Project Gutenberg #10714. The preceding sentence says a person must first learn something before turning it over in the mind.

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Is it not pleasant to learn with a constant perseverance and application?
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“Is it not pleasant to learn with a constant perseverance and application?”

Confucius · The Analects of Confucius · James Legge translation
Meaning & context

Learning becomes satisfying when it is sustained through repeated application rather than treated as a single act of exposure.

Source details

The Analects of Confucius, James Legge’s public-domain English translation; Book I opens by connecting learning with steady practice.

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Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man.
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“Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man.”

Francis Bacon · Of Studies · 1625
Meaning & context

Bacon distinguishes what reading, conversation, and writing each contribute to intellectual development.

Source details

Of Studies; Bacon distinguishes the intellectual uses of reading, conversation, and writing within the essay’s compact account of study and judgment.

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