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My subject was mental efficiency as a means to self-development.
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“My subject was mental efficiency as a means to self-development.”

Arnold Bennett

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Source
Mental Efficiency, and Other Hints to Men and Women
Date
1911
Meaning

Meaning of “My subject was mental efficiency as a means…”

Efficiency is presented as instrumental rather than an end in itself: better use of attention and thought is valuable insofar as it supports deliberate personal development.

Source context

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Mental Efficiency. Bennett explicitly defines the scope of his argument as mental efficiency serving self-development; this is period conduct-of-life writing rather than modern cognitive-science evidence.

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GrowthGrowth MindsetHabitsInspirational Quotes About Hope, Courage & PossibilityLearning Quotes About Curiosity, Study & ExperienceLifeLife AdviceLife LessonsMindMindsetMotivation For LifePersonal GrowthProductivitySelf ImprovementShortFocusIntelligence
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To make each one many times was the best way to imbed it in his memory.
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“To make each one many times was the best way to imbed it in his memory.”

Frances Hodgson Burnett · The Lost Prince · 1915
Voice: Narrator voice · Narrator
Meaning & context

The narration connects repeated practice with stronger recall, showing Marco deliberately using repetition to make a learned association more durable.

Source details

The Lost Prince; Project Gutenberg #384. The exercise involves repeatedly sketching faces connected with places for the novel’s secret mission.

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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 well to observe everything and to train one's self to remember faces and circumstances.
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“It is well to observe everything and to train one's self to remember faces and circumstances.”

Frances Hodgson Burnett · The Lost Prince · 1915
Voice: Fictional character · Loristan
Meaning & context

Observation and memory are presented as trainable abilities strengthened by deliberate attention rather than fixed talents that either appear or do not.

Source details

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.

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With the first word I used intelligently, I learned to live, to think, to hope.
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“With the first word I used intelligently, I learned to live, to think, to hope.”

Helen Keller · Optimism: An Essay · 1903
Meaning & context

Language is remembered as opening several capacities at once—thought, hope and a fuller experience of living—rather than merely adding a vocabulary item.

Source details

Optimism: An Essay (1903), Project Gutenberg #31622. Keller is reflecting on her own early experience of language and education.

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The game he had amused himself with so long—the game of trying to remember pictures and people and places clearly and in detail—had been a wonderful training.
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“The game he had amused himself with so long—the game of trying to remember pictures and people and places clearly and in detail—had been a wonderful training.”

Frances Hodgson Burnett · The Lost Prince · 1915
Voice: Narrator voice · Narrator
Meaning & context

A game repeatedly practiced for pleasure becomes useful preparation, showing skill growing out of accumulated attention rather than appearing only when the stakes become serious.

Source details

The Lost Prince; Project Gutenberg #384. The narration refers to Marco’s long-running memory game, which later becomes useful inside the novel’s fictional secret mission.

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