“Stepan Arkadyevitch took in and read a liberal paper, not an extreme one, but one advocating the views held by the majority. And in spite of the fact that science, art, and politics had no special interest for him, he firmly held those views on all these subjects which were held by the majority and by his paper, and he only changed them when the majority changed them–or, more strictly speaking, he did not change them, but they imperceptibly changed of themselves within him.

Stepan Arkadyevitch had not chosen his political opinions or his views; these political opinions and views had come to him of themselves, just as he did not choose the shapes of his hat and coat, but simply took those that were being worn… If there was a reason for  his preferring liberal to conservative views, which were held also by many of his circle, it arose not from his considering liberalism more rational, but from its being in closer accordance with his manner of life.” –from Anna Karenina, by Leo Tolstoy

 

“Lydgate did things in an episodic way, much as he gave orders to his tailor for every requisite of perfect dress, without any notion of being extravagant… it had never occurred to him that he should live in any other way than what he would have called an ordinary way… he walked by hereditary habit… –from Middlemarch, by George Eliot