Habits of opinion are the toughest of all habits; when they have become second nature, and are supposedly thrown out of the door, they creep in again as stealthily and surely as does first nature.
This statement reflects Dewey's understanding of how deeply ingrained habits of thought can resist change.
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More from John Dewey
Extensive, enduring, intricate and serious indirect consequences of the conjoint activity of a comparatively few persons traverse the globe.
But it indicates where the problem resides, whatever guise it assumes.
They are made that way; it is “the nature of the beast.” We do not gain anything by inserting instincts to run, creep, swim and fly between the structure and the act.
There are those who speak as if ability to choose between two tickets were a high exercise of individual freedom.