Habit, and not the last time we'll hear of it

Habit! that skillful but slow-moving arranger who begins by letting our minds suffer for weeks on end in temporary quarters, but whom our minds are none the less only too happy to discover at last, for without it, reduced to their own devices, they would be powerless to make any room seem habitable.


Needless to say it would be good to be reading all this in French. But I drew the line at learning French merely to be able to read Proust in it. And so I am not sure if in the original language the words "habit" and "habitable" are related. A clever pun/insight if so. In any case, Proust writes often and articulately on the concept of "habit" and how it affects behavior, emotion, personality itself.