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Of your own accord you cling to your unrest; of your own accord you can come to abiding peace.
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“Of your own accord you cling to your unrest; of your own accord you can come to abiding peace.”

James Allen

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Source
The Way of Peace
Date
1901
Meaning

Meaning of “Of your own accord you cling to your…”

Within Allen’s spiritual framework, the line emphasizes personal participation in habits of unrest and in the disciplined change he believes can lead toward a more settled inward life.

Source context

Where does it come from?

The Way of Peace, “The Realization of Perfect Peace,” Project Gutenberg #10740. Allen places this sentence in a religious exhortation about surrendering selfish desires and entering what he calls an inward resting-place; it is period spiritual teaching, not a claim that distress is always voluntarily chosen.

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Themes

Ideas connected with this quotation

CalmDiscipline Quotes About Habits, Practice & ConsistencyGrowthInner PeaceMindfulnessPatiencePeaceResponsibilitySelf ImprovementSelf-Control Quotes About Restraint & JudgmentShortSpiritual
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As you succeed in overcoming self you will begin to see things in their right relations.
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“As you succeed in overcoming self you will begin to see things in their right relations.”

James Allen · The Way of Peace · 1901
Meaning & context

For Allen, clearer perception follows disciplined work on one’s own impulses and biases; self-mastery changes not only conduct but the proportions in which problems are seen.

Source details

The Way of Peace; Allen links self-mastery with clearer perception and a less distorted relationship to circumstances and other people.

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Freedom resides in individual self-conquest.
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“Freedom resides in individual self-conquest.”

James Allen · All These Things Added · 1903
Meaning & context

Within Allen’s spiritual argument, freedom begins with mastery of impulses and ignorance before it can be discussed as an outward condition.

Source details

All These Things Added (1903), Part II, “The Heavenly Life,” chapter “Perfect Freedom,” printed page 139 / Wikisource scan leaf 145. “Freedom resides in individual self-conquest” appears in Allen’s contrast between outward agitation and the inward emancipation he associates with mastery of passion, error and ignorance; this remains his spiritual-moral conception of freedom, not a modern political definition.

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work is only done well when it is done with a will
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“work is only done well when it is done with a will”

John Ruskin · The Crown of Wild Olive · 1866
Meaning & context

Ruskin links quality with willing engagement: merely being compelled to perform a task is not, in his argument, enough to produce work done with judgment and commitment.

Source details

The Crown of Wild Olive, lecture on Work; Project Gutenberg #26716. The sentence occurs in a discussion of how hard work should be organized and chosen; its period labor assumptions remain contextualized.

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Time is what we want most, but what, alas! we use worst;
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“Time is what we want most, but what, alas! we use worst;”

William Penn · Some Fruits of Solitude · 1693
Meaning & context

Penn argues that time is indispensable yet commonly spent carelessly, making attention to its use a central responsibility in the conduct of life.

Source details

Some Fruits of Solitude, Preface, reviewed against the Oxford Text Archive transcription of the licensed 1693 edition. Penn says time is what people want most but use worst and immediately frames stewardship of time in explicitly religious accountability to God, neighbour and self; it remains Quaker conduct-of-life reflection rather than productivity research.

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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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