--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: The fixity of a habit is generally in…" description: "\"The fixity of a habit is generally in direct proportion to its absurdity.\" — Marcel Proust" image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c86/marcel-proust-114_absurdity_the-fixity-of-a-habit-is-generally-in-di_1837283.jpg" --- # The fixity of a habit is generally in direct proportion to… ![“The fixity of a habit is generally in direct proportion to its absurdity.” quote by Marcel Proust](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c86/marcel-proust-114_absurdity_the-fixity-of-a-habit-is-generally-in-di_1837283.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c86/marcel-proust-114_absurdity_the-fixity-of-a-habit-is-generally-in-di_1837283.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c86/marcel-proust-114_absurdity_the-fixity-of-a-habit-is-generally-in-di_1837283.jpg) > “The fixity of a habit is generally in direct proportion to its absurdity.” [Marcel Proust](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marcel-proust/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Habits become more entrenched when they are irrational or ridiculous, making them harder to change. **In simple terms:** Absurd habits stick. Key Takeaway Recognize and challenge irrational routines. Themes psychology behavior habit formation Mood reflective critical Type analytical philosophical When to use this quote - personal development - therapy - team management - creative work Key Concepts cognitive dissonance irrationality Questions to Reflect On - What irrational habit do you maintain? - How can you test its usefulness? A Different Perspective Even absurd habits can persist if not examined. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Absurdity](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/absurdity/) [Direct](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/direct/) [Fixity](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/fixity/) [Fixity Habit](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/fixity-habit-2322436/) [Habit](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/habit/) [Habit Generally](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/habit-generally-976962/) [Habits](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/habits/) [Proportion](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/proportion/) [Proportion Absurdity](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/proportion-absurdity-2322435/) ## Related quotes > [“It may, incidentally, be observed that the regularity of a habit is usually in direct proportion to its absurdity.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marcel-proust/it-may-incidentally-be-observed-that-the-regularity-of-a-habit-is/) [Marcel Proust](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marcel-proust/) > [The certainty with which a religious belief is held is usually in direct proportion to its absurdity](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/donald-morgan/the-certainty-with-which-a-religious-belief-is-held-is-usually-in/) [Donald Morgan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/donald-morgan/) > [“...we need to bear in mind that our opinion of other people, our ties with friends or family, have only the semblance of fixity…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marcel-proust/we-need-to-bear-in-mind-that-our-opinion-of-other-people-our-ties/) [Marcel Proust](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marcel-proust/) > [“The chains of habit are generally too small to be felt until they are too strong to be broken." ~Samuel Johnson”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/scott-leopold/the-chains-of-habit-are-generally-too-small-to-be-felt-until-they-are-2/) [Scott Leopold](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/scott-leopold/) > [The chains of habit are generally too small to be felt until they are too strong to be broken.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/the-chains-of-habit-are-generally-too-small-to-be-felt-until-they-are/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [“ There is in all things a pattern that is part of our universe. It has symmetry, elegance, and grace - these qualities you…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/frank-herbert/there-is-in-all-things-a-pattern-that-is-part-of-our-universe-it-has/) [Frank Herbert](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/frank-herbert/) > [Genius is but fine observation strengthened by fixity of purpose.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/edward-bulwer-lytton-1st-baron-lytton/genius-is-but-fine-observation-strengthened-by-fixity-of-purpose/) [Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/edward-bulwer-lytton-1st-baron-lytton/) > [“I read a page of Plato's great work. I can no longer understand anything, because behind the words on the page, which have their…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/eug-ne-ionesco/i-read-a-page-of-plato-s-great-work-i-can-no-longer-understand/) [Eugène Ionesco](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/eug-ne-ionesco/) > [If common sense has not the brilliancy of the sun, it has the fixity of the stars](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/francisco-largo-caballero/if-common-sense-has-not-the-brilliancy-of-the-sun-it-has-the-fixity/) [Francisco Largo Caballero](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/francisco-largo-caballero/) > [“Certainly sand was not suitable for life. Yet, was a stationary condition absolutely indispensable for existence? Didn't unpleasant competition arise precisely because one tried…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kobo-abe/certainly-sand-was-not-suitable-for-life-yet-was-a-stationary/) [Kōbō Abe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kobo-abe/) > [In laying hands upon the sacred ark of absolute permanency, in treating the forms that had been regarded as types of fixity and perfection…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-dewey/in-laying-hands-upon-the-sacred-ark-of-absolute-permanency-in/) [John Dewey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-dewey/) > [Wisdom lies neither in fixity nor in change, but in the dialectic between the two.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/octavio-paz/wisdom-lies-neither-in-fixity-nor-in-change-but-in-the-dialectic/) [Octavio Paz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/octavio-paz/) > [“We have made a problem for ourselves by confusing the intelligible with the fixed. We think that making sense out of life is impossible…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alan-wilson-watts/we-have-made-a-problem-for-ourselves-by-confusing-the-intelligible/) [Alan Wilson Watts](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alan-wilson-watts/) > [Human beings were not well served by permanence or stasis. Obviously, if individuals were progressing, they were undergoing a series of presumably desirable alterations,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/tom-robbins/human-beings-were-not-well-served-by-permanence-or-stasis-obviously/) [Tom Robbins](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/tom-robbins/) > [Absurdities are great or small in proportion to custom or insuetude.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-savage-landor/absurdities-are-great-or-small-in-proportion-to-custom-or-insuetude/) [Walter Savage Landor](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-savage-landor/) ## More by Marcel Proust > [“machinery' of life at Versailles; and was able, too, to persuade herself that her silence, a shade of good humour or of arrogance on…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marcel-proust/machinery-of-life-at-versailles-and-was-able-too-to-persuade-herself/) [Marcel Proust](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marcel-proust/) > [ “For her \[Françoise\], wealth was like a necessary condition without which virtue would lack both merit and charm. She made so little distinction between… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marcel-proust/for-her-fran-oise-wealth-was-like-a-necessary-condition-without-which/) [Marcel Proust](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marcel-proust/) > [Knowing does not always allow us to prevent, but at least the things that we know, we hold them, if not in our hands,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marcel-proust/knowing-does-not-always-allow-us-to-prevent-but-at-least-the-things/) [Marcel Proust](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marcel-proust/) > [Death is in truth an illness from which we recover](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marcel-proust/death-is-in-truth-an-illness-from-which-we-recover/) [Marcel Proust](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marcel-proust/) > [The bonds that unite another person to our self exist only in our mind.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marcel-proust/the-bonds-that-unite-another-person-to-our-self-exist-only-in-our-mind/) [Marcel Proust](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marcel-proust/) > [...a writer's works, like the water in an artesian well, mount to a height which is in proportion to the depth to which suffering…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marcel-proust/a-writer-s-works-like-the-water-in-an-artesian-well-mount-to-a-height/) [Marcel Proust](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marcel-proust/) > [“Then from those profound slumbers we awake in a dawn, not knowing who we are, being nobody, newly born, ready for anything, the brain…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marcel-proust/then-from-those-profound-slumbers-we-awake-in-a-dawn-not-knowing-who/) [Marcel Proust](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marcel-proust/) > [“Art extracted from the most familiar reality does indeed exist and its domain is perhaps the largest of any.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marcel-proust/art-extracted-from-the-most-familiar-reality-does-indeed-exist-and/) [Marcel Proust](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marcel-proust/) > [I find very reasonable the Celtic belief that the souls of our dearly departed are trapped in some inferior being, in an animal, aplant,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marcel-proust/i-find-very-reasonable-the-celtic-belief-that-the-souls-of-our-dearly/) [Marcel Proust](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marcel-proust/) > [“When you heard anyone in the middle of a talk which was being deliberately kept off the Affair announce furtively some piece of political…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marcel-proust/when-you-heard-anyone-in-the-middle-of-a-talk-which-was-being/) [Marcel Proust](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marcel-proust/) > [“We betroth ourselves by proxy, and then feel obliged to marry the intermediary.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marcel-proust/we-betroth-ourselves-by-proxy-and-then-feel-obliged-to-marry-the/) [Marcel Proust](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marcel-proust/) > [“But the old lady on the contrary, far from justifying her daughter’s fears, felt every time someone of her own age “disappeared” that she…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marcel-proust/but-the-old-lady-on-the-contrary-far-from-justifying-her-daughter-s/) [Marcel Proust](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marcel-proust/) > [Often it is just lack of imagination that keeps a man from suffering very much.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marcel-proust/often-it-is-just-lack-of-imagination-that-keeps-a-man-from-suffering/) [Marcel Proust](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marcel-proust/) > [“When we are nice to others, we generally lose all claim to their respect.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marcel-proust/when-we-are-nice-to-others-we-generally-lose-all-claim-to-their/) [Marcel Proust](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marcel-proust/) > [“Nobility is often no more than the inner aspect which our egotistical feelings assume when we have not yet named and classified them.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marcel-proust/nobility-is-often-no-more-than-the-inner-aspect-which-our-egotistical/) [Marcel Proust](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marcel-proust/) [Explore all 1,113 Marcel Proust quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marcel-proust/) ## More Absurdity quotes > [Even though you can't expect to defeat the absurdity of the world, you must make that attempt. That's morality, that's religion. That's art. That's…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/phil-ochs/even-though-you-can-t-expect-to-defeat-the-absurdity-of-the-world-you/) [Phil Ochs](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/phil-ochs/) > [The inner defenses are unconscious. They consist of a kind of magic aura which the mind builds around cherished belief. Arguments which penetrate into…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/arthur-koestler/the-inner-defenses-are-unconscious-they-consist-of-a-kind-of-magic/) [Arthur Koestler](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/arthur-koestler/) > [For it is an absurdity to call a country civilized in which a decent and industrious man, laboriously mastering a trade which is valuble…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/h-l-mencken/for-it-is-an-absurdity-to-call-a-country-civilized-in-which-a-decent/) [H. L. Mencken](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/h-l-mencken/) > [Every sensible man, every honorable man, must hold the Christian sect in horror." "Christianity is the most ridiculous, the most absurd and bloody religion…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/voltaire/every-sensible-man-every-honorable-man-must-hold-the-christian-sect/) [Voltaire](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/voltaire/) > [One would think that a system loaded with such gross and vulgar absurdities as Scripture religion is could never have obtained credit; yet we…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-paine/one-would-think-that-a-system-loaded-with-such-gross-and-vulgar/) [Thomas Paine](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-paine/) > [Such squeamish youths as cannot bear to be connected with a little absurdity are not worth a regret.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jane-austen/such-squeamish-youths-as-cannot-bear-to-be-connected-with-a-little/) [Jane Austen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jane-austen/) > [Thought of the incomprehensible sequence of changes and chances that make up a life, all the beauties and horrors and absurdities whose conjunctions create…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/aldous-huxley/thought-of-the-incomprehensible-sequence-of-changes-and-chances-that/) [Aldous Huxley](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/aldous-huxley/) > [We all live inside the terrible engine of authority, and it grinds and shrieks and burns so that no one will say: lines on…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/catherynne-m-valente/we-all-live-inside-the-terrible-engine-of-authority-and-it-grinds-and/) [Catherynne M. Valente](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/catherynne-m-valente/) > [Desire is this absurdity that holds open the infinity of possibility. Ever optimistic, ever resourceful, desire tells us what it sees as it speeds…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wendy-farley/desire-is-this-absurdity-that-holds-open-the-infinity-of-possibility/) [Wendy Farley](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/wendy-farley/) > [I've always felt that comedy doesn't just come from misery. It comes from an absurdity around that misery.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/simon-amstell/i-ve-always-felt-that-comedy-doesn-t-just-come-from-misery-it-comes/) [Simon Amstell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/simon-amstell/) > [Unaware of the absurdity of it, we introduce our own petty household rules into the economy of the universe for which the life of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alexander-herzen/unaware-of-the-absurdity-of-it-we-introduce-our-own-petty-household/) [Alexander Herzen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alexander-herzen/) > [“Christianity would be helpless without the idea of free will and the idea of free will would be helpless without incongruity.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kedar-joshi/christianity-would-be-helpless-without-the-idea-of-free-will-and-the/) [Kedar Joshi](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kedar-joshi/) > [Sensible Catholics have for generations been ignoring the views on contraception held by reactionary old men in the Vatican, but alas, since it is…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/a-c-grayling/sensible-catholics-have-for-generations-been-ignoring-the-views-on/) [A.C. Grayling](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/a-c-grayling/) > [The tales of our exploits will survive as long as the human voice itself,' he said. 'And even after that, when the robots recall…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-green/the-tales-of-our-exploits-will-survive-as-long-as-the-human-voice/) [John Green](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-green/) > [Life packed a clever one-two punch: cruelty and absurdity.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/dean-koontz/life-packed-a-clever-one-two-punch-cruelty-and-absurdity/) [Dean Koontz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/dean-koontz/) [Browse all 689 Absurdity quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/absurdity/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "The fixity of a habit is generally in direct proportion to its absurdity.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Marcel Proust" }, "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marcel-proust/the-fixity-of-a-habit-is-generally-in-direct-proportion-to-its/", "about": { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Absurdity" }, "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marcel-proust/the-fixity-of-a-habit-is-generally-in-direct-proportion-to-its/#quotation", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c86/marcel-proust-114_absurdity_the-fixity-of-a-habit-is-generally-in-di_1837283.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c86/marcel-proust-114_absurdity_the-fixity-of-a-habit-is-generally-in-di_1837283.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c86/marcel-proust-114_absurdity_the-fixity-of-a-habit-is-generally-in-di_1837283.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“The fixity of a habit is generally in direct proportion to its absurdity.” — Marcel Proust", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } }, { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Quotes", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Marcel Proust", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marcel-proust/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "The fixity of a habit is...", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marcel-proust/the-fixity-of-a-habit-is-generally-in-direct-proportion-to-its/" } ], "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marcel-proust/the-fixity-of-a-habit-is-generally-in-direct-proportion-to-its/#breadcrumb" }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "publisher": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } }, { "@type": "Organization", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/themes/sq/assets/icons/icon-512.png", "width": 512, "height": 512 } } ] } ```