Any act often repeated soon forms a habit and habit allowed, steady gains in strength, At first it may be but as a spider’s web, easily broken through, but if not resisted it soon binds us with chains of steel.

Tryon Edwards (1809–1894) was an American Congregational minister and moralist best known for compiling and publishing aphorisms and devotional reflections. This saying circulates widely in late-19th- and early-20th-century quotation collections under his name, reflecting a common Protestant didactic emphasis on self-discipline and the moral psychology of repeated actions. The imagery of a “spider’s web” becoming “chains of steel” aligns with the era’s popular sermon rhetoric: small, seemingly harmless choices harden into character and can become spiritually and practically enslaving. The quote is typically presented as a general maxim rather than tied to a single recorded speech occasion.

The quotation argues that repetition is the engine of habit: actions, once repeated, acquire momentum and begin to feel natural or inevitable. Edwards stresses the asymmetry of early versus late resistance. At first, a nascent habit is fragile—like a spider’s web—so it can be broken with modest effort. But if indulged, it strengthens until it constrains the will “with chains of steel,” suggesting both loss of freedom and the difficulty of reform. The moral implication is preventative: vigilance in small decisions matters because character is built incrementally, and what begins as choice can end as compulsion.