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Man is buffeted by circumstances so long as he believes himself to be the creature of outside conditions.
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“Man is buffeted by circumstances so long as he believes himself to be the creature of outside conditions.”

James Allen

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Source
As a Man Thinketh
Date
1903
Meaning

Meaning of “Man is buffeted by circumstances so long as…”

Allen argues that treating circumstances as the whole explanation of one’s life can obscure the role of habits, thought and deliberate change.

Source context

Where does it come from?

As a Man Thinketh, chapter “Effect of Thought on Circumstances”; the sentence introduces Allen’s claim that self-examination can change a person’s relation to circumstances.

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Change and GrowthGrowthHabitsInspirational Quotes About Hope, Courage & PossibilityMindsetPersonal GrowthResilience Quotes About Recovery & AdaptationResponsibilitySelf ImprovementStrength
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Sweet are the uses of adversity.
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“Sweet are the uses of adversity.”

William Shakespeare · As You Like It · c. 1599
Voice: Fictional character · Duke Senior
Meaning & context

Adversity is presented as capable of yielding insight or value even when the experience itself is unwelcome.

Source details

As You Like It, Act II, Scene 1, Duke Senior; 1919 Yale Shakespeare edition edited by Jack R. Crawford, printed page 24 / Wikisource scan leaf 36. “Sweet are the uses of adversity” occurs in Duke Senior’s Forest of Arden reflection on exile, winter and the lessons he claims to find outside court life. It remains fictional dramatic speech rather than Shakespeare’s autobiographical advice or a modern psychological claim about hardship.

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

Arnold Bennett · How to Live on 24 Hours a Day · 1908
Meaning & context

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

Source details

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.

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Generally then if you would make anything a habit, do it.
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“Generally then if you would make anything a habit, do it.”

Epictetus · Discourses of Epictetus · c. 125 CE
Meaning & context

Repeated behavior trains the corresponding habit, so change depends on practicing the desired action rather than merely endorsing it in theory.

Source details

Discourses of Epictetus, Book II, Chapter XVIII, “How we should struggle against appearances,” George Long translation; 1877 George Bell & Sons witness on Wikisource, cross-checked against Project Gutenberg #10661. This collection lightly normalizes Long’s “any thing” to “anything”; this longer record contains the shorter retained habit excerpt represented by a separate legacy quote URL.

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Not a day passes without its discipline, whether for good or for evil.
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“Not a day passes without its discipline, whether for good or for evil.”

Samuel Smiles · Character · 1871
Meaning & context

Daily experience is always training something, so ordinary choices can reinforce either constructive habits or patterns that make later self-command harder.

Source details

Character, Chapter I, “Influence of Character,” Project Gutenberg #2541. Smiles introduces the sentence while explaining that character is formed by many minute circumstances under partial individual control, so each day contributes discipline for good or ill.

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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 · Thoughts on the Education of Daughters · 1787
Meaning & context

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

Source details

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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It is not a lost year, but one that may prove the most helpful of any you ever know.
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“It is not a lost year, but one that may prove the most helpful of any you ever know.”

Louisa May Alcott · Jo's Boys · 1886
Voice: Fictional character · Jo Bhaer
Meaning & context

A painful or disappointing period can still become useful experience when it changes judgment, humility, resolve, and the way a person begins again.

Source details

Jo's Boys; the reassurance follows a setback and reframes a difficult year as experience that may later prove unusually helpful rather than simply wasted time.

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