It seldom happens that a man changes his life through his habitual reasoning. No matter how fully he may sense the new plans and aims revealed to him by reason, he continues to plod along in old paths until his life becomes frustrating and unbearable - he finally makes the change only when his usual life can no longer be tolerated.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- People rarely change habits until their current life becomes unbearable.
- In plain terms
- You will not change your life until it is too painful to keep going.
- What can you take from it?
- Change comes when comfort is no longer possible.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- What makes you uncomfortable?
- Do you wait for pain?
Another view
It implies pain is the only motivator for change.
More from Leo Tolstoy
In the name of God, stop a moment, cease your work, look around you.
Permalink to quote #115 Joy can be real only if people look on their life as a service, and have a definite object in life outside themselves and their personal happiness.
Permalink to quote #117 In all history there is no war which was not hatched by the governments, the governments alone, independent of the interests of the people, to whom war is alwa…
Permalink to quote #114
Related quotes
One might call habit a moral friction: something that prevents the mind from gliding over things but connects it with them and makes it hard for it to free its…
Georg Christoph LichtenbergGeorg Christoph Lichtenberg quote #2 What is necessary to change a person is to change his awareness of himself.
Abraham MaslowAbraham Maslow quote #6 It takes a son of a bitch to change a habit.
Stephen KingStephen King quote #10