220 Higgledy-Piggledy

On Breaking Habits

To begin knocking off the habit in the evening, then
the afternoon as well and, finally, the morning too is better
than to begin cutting it off in the morning and then go on
to the afternoon and evening. I speak from experience
as regards smoking and can say that when one comes to
within an hour or two of smoke-time one begins to be im-
patient for it, whereas there will be no impatience after
the time for knocking off has been confirmed as a habit.

Dogs

The great pleasure of a dog is that you may make a fool
of yourself with him and not only will he not scold you, but
he will make a fool of himself too.

Future and Past

The Will-be and the Has-been touch us more nearly than
the Is. So we are more tender towards children and old
people than to those who are in the prime of life.

Nature

As the word is now commonly used it excludes nature's
most interesting productions—the works of man. Nature
is usually taken to mean mountains, rivers, clouds and un-
domesticated animals and plants. I am not indifferent
to this half of nature, but it interests me much less than the
other half.

Lucky and Unlucky

People are lucky and unlucky not according to what
they get absolutely, but according to the ratio between
what they get and what they have been led to expect.

Definitions

As, no matter what cunning system of checks we devise,
we must in the end trust some one whom we do not check,