POLITICIAN—"Impossible! I'll demand a recount."—Puck.
Ill habits gather by unseen degrees,
As brooks make rivers, rivers run to seas.
—Dryden.
"Habit" is hard to overcome.
If you take off the first letter, it does not change "a bit."
If you take off another, you have a "bit" left.
If you take still another the whole of "it" remains.
If you take still another, it is not "t"-totally used up.
All of which goes to show that if you wish to be rid of a "habit," you must throw it off altogether.
"Why did your wife leave you?"
"Force of habit, I guess. She was a cook before I married her."