“Habit is a second nature that destroys the first.”Blaise Pascal · Cugetări · 1670 · fragmentul 126 (Brunschvicg)
A repeated habit no longer needs a decision: the will sleeps, and the reflex speaks for you.
Pascal observes that we are not the natural creatures we imagine ourselves to be, but beings shaped by repetition. The mechanism is simple: an act performed thousands of times no longer requires a decision, and the will goes to sleep. The second layer becomes automatic and covers the first. Someone who has learned to answer every emotion with irony has lost, without noticing, access to sincerity; the reflex speaks in their place.
Passage 1: If habit can cover nature, it can also recreate it. Pascal leaves no one trapped in old reflexes: what was built through repetition can be rebuilt the same way. The good news is that the mechanism works both ways. Someone who became ironic out of habit can become sincere out of habit too, by repeating the right gesture. For example, someone who wants to stop hedging can choose, every time, to say plainly what they feel, even when it feels awkward. At first it will be hard, because the old reflex pushes back. But each conscious choice weakens the old layer and strengthens a new one. The question that remains: how do you notice which habit is already running in your place?
Why it matters Useful when you want to change a behavior: wanting is not enough. You must admit the old habit has already taken command and replace it with a new one, practiced deliberately.