35 Best Quotes from Atomic Habits by James Clear

Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear, is a book about practical strategies to form good habits, break bad ones, and master the tiny behaviors that lead to improved results. Atomic Habits is meant to help you reshape the way we think about progress and success, and to provide the tools and strategies we need to transform our habits.

The author, James Clears, in the beginning of the book introduces his discussion about habits by sharing personal strategies he implemented to recover from a serious accident in high school, an event that forced him to improve the quality of his routine to get his life in order. That experience taught him that “we all deal with setbacks, but in the long run, the quality of our lives often depends on the quality of our habits. With the same habits, you will end up with the same results. But with better habits, anything is possible.”

35 Best Quotes from Atomic Habits by James Clear

“Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become. No single instance will transform your beliefs, but as the votes build up, so does the evidence of your new identity.”― James Clear

“All big things come from small beginnings. The seed of every habit is a single, tiny decision.”― James Clear

“You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.” ― James Clear

“The task of breaking a bad habit is like uprooting a powerful oak within us” ― James Clear

“When you fall in love with the process rather than the product, you don’t have to wait to give yourself permission to be happy. You can be satisfied anytime your system is running.” ― James Clear

“You should be far more concerned with your current trajectory than with your current results.” ― James Clear

“The task of building a good habit is like cultivating a delicate flower one day at a time“― James Clear

“Be the designer of your world and not merely the consumer of it“― James Clear

“Goals are good for setting a direction, but systems are best for making progress.” ― James Clear

“Habits are the compound interest of self-improvement” ― James Clear

“In fact, the tendency for one purchase to lead to another one has a name: the Diderot Effect. The Diderot Effect states that obtaining a new possession often creates a spiral of consumption.“― James Clear

“When nothing seems to help, I go and look at a stonecutter hammering away at his rock, perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred and first blow it will split in two, and I know it was not that last blow that did it—but all that had gone before.” ― James Clear

“All big things come from small beginnings. The seed of every habit is a single, tiny decision. But as that decision is repeated, a habit sprouts and grows stronger. Roots entrench themselves and branches grow. The task of breaking a bad habit is like uprooting a powerful oak within us. And the task of building a good habit is like cultivating a delicate flower one day at a time.” ― James Clear

“Once your pride gets involved, you’ll fight tooth and nail to maintain your habits. ― James Clear

“The greatest threat to success is not failure but boredom. We get bored with habits because they stop delighting us. The outcome becomes expected. And as our habits become ordinary, we start derailing our progress to seek novelty. ― James Clear

“The more pride you have in a particular aspect of your identity, the more motivated you will be to maintain the habits associated with it.“― James Clear

“This is why remaining part of a group after achieving a goal is crucial to maintaining your habits. It’s friendship and community that embed a new identity and help behaviors last over the long run.”
― James Clear

“We imitate the habits of three groups in particular: The close. The many. The powerful.“― James Clear

“When you can’t win by being better, you can win by being different.“― James Clear

“With outcome-based habits, the focus is on what you want to achieve. With identity-based habits, the focus is on who you wish to become.“― James Clear

“Problem #1: Winners and losers have the same goals.” ― James Clear

“The more pride you have in a particular aspect of your identity, the more motivated you will be to maintain the habits associated with it. If you’re proud of how your hair looks, you’ll develop all sorts of habits to care for and maintain it. If you’re proud of the size of your biceps, you’ll make sure you never skip an upper-body workout. If you’re proud of the scarves you knit, you’ll be more likely to spend hours knitting each week. Once your pride gets involved, you’ll fight tooth and nail to maintain your habits.” ― James Clear

“The purpose of setting goals is to win the game. The purpose of building systems is to continue playing the game. True long-term thinking is goal-less thinking. It’s not about any single accomplishment. It is about the cycle of endless refinement and continuous improvement. Ultimately, it is your commitment to the process that will determine your progress.” ― James Clear

“Some people spend their entire lives waiting for the time to be right to make an improvement.” ― James Clear

“When you can’t win by being better, you can win by being different.” ― James Clear

“If you want better results, then forget about setting goals. Focus on your system instead.” ― James Clear

“Professionals stick to the schedule; amateurs let life get in the way.” ― James Clear

“The ultimate form of intrinsic motivation is when a habit becomes part of your identity. It’s one thing to say I’m the type of person who wants this. It’s something very different to say I’m the type of person who is this.” ― James Clear

“Success is the product of daily habits—not once-in-a-lifetime transformations.” ― James Clear

“When scientists analyze people who appear to have tremendous self-control, it turns out those individuals aren’t all that different from those who are struggling. Instead, “disciplined” people are better at structuring their lives in a way that does not require heroic willpower and self-control. In other words, they spend less time in tempting situations.” ― James Clear

“You don’t have to be the victim of your environment. You can also be the architect of it.” ― James Clear

“It is easy to get bogged down trying to find the optimal plan for change: the fastest way to lose weight, the best program to build muscle, the perfect idea for a side hustle. We are so focused on figuring out the best approach that we never get around to taking action. As Voltaire once wrote, “The best is the enemy of the good.” ― James Clear

“Good habits can make rational sense, but if they conflict with your identity, you will fail to put them into action.” ― James Clear

“Your actions reveal how badly you want something. If you keep saying something is a priority but you never act on it, then you don’t really want it. It’s time to have an honest conversation with yourself. Your actions reveal your true motivations.” ― James Clear

“Over the long run, however, the real reason you fail to stick with habits is that your self-image gets in the way. This is why you can’t get too attached to one version of your identity. Progress requires unlearning. Becoming the best version of yourself requires you to continuously edit your beliefs, and to upgrade and expand your identity.” ― James Clear