Source identified
“Keep the faculty of effort alive in you by a little gratuitous exercise every day.”
James recommends deliberately exercising effort in small ways so that the capacity to act despite difficulty remains practiced rather than being left unused until a crisis.
Source note: Talks To Teachers, chapter on Habit; Project Gutenberg #16287. James calls this his fifth practical maxim about habits. The physiological vocabulary is historical psychology, not modern clinical guidance.
Source identified
“Little strokes fell great oaks.”
Small repeated efforts can accomplish work that seems too large for a single burst of effort, making consistency itself a practical form of strength.
Source note: Poor Richard’s Almanack; a compact maxim about cumulative effort.
Source identified
“Diligence is the mother of good luck.”
Persistent effort improves the odds of useful results because steady work creates more opportunities for progress than waiting for favorable circumstances.
Source note: Poor Richard’s Almanack; the maxim appears in Franklin’s collected Poor Richard material.
Source identified
“the paramount importance of the work-habit”
The address stresses that useful work becomes more dependable when it is habitual, making consistency part of professional formation rather than something left to occasional motivation.
Source note: The Master-Word in Medicine, 1903. Osler immediately acknowledges that acquiring the work-habit can be a hard battle; the context therefore supports persistence without turning the passage into a modern workaholism prescription.
Source identified
“Character is the interpenetration of habits.”
Dewey describes character as the interaction of repeated habits rather than a collection of isolated acts, emphasizing how established ways of acting continually reinforce or modify one another.
Source note: Human Nature and Conduct, Part One, discussion of character and conduct; Project Gutenberg #41386. This is Dewey’s philosophical and early social-psychological framework and should not be presented as a modern clinical definition of personality.
Source identified
“Opportunity is important but exertion is indispensable.”
Douglass grants the importance of opportunity while insisting that sustained exertion remains necessary for achievement, refusing to let either circumstance or effort erase the importance of the other.
Source note: Self-Made Men lecture, commonly dated to 1872 in edited versions. Library of Congress preserves undated manuscript, typescript and printed-copy materials, including a later Carlisle version; Douglass delivered and revised the lecture across his speaking career. The lecture also stresses social interdependence, so this line should not be reduced to a simplistic bootstrap claim.