Customs Quotes - Page 9

• No language is as depending on arbitrary use and custom can ever be permanently the same, but will always be in a mutable and fluctuating state; and what is deem'd polite and elegant in one age, may be accounted uncouth and barbarous in another.

  Benjamin Martin

  Age, Arbitrary, Use

  Benjamin Martin (1749). “Lingua Britannica Reformata: Or, a New English Dictionary, Under the Following Titles, Viz. I. Universal; ... VIII. Philosophical; ... To which is Prefix'd, an Introduction, Containing a Physico-grammatical Essay on the Propriety and Rationale of the English Tongue, ... By Benj. Martin”, p.482

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• Whatever sphere of the human mind you may select for your special study, whether it be language, or religion, or mythology, or philosophy, whether it be laws or customs, primitive art or primitive science, everywhere, you have to go to India, whether you like it or not, because some of the most valuable and most instructive materials in the history of man are treasured up in India, and in India only.

  Max Muller

  Art, Philosophy, Men

  Max Muller (1999). “India: What Can it Teach Us?”, p.33, Book Tree

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• Is all literature eavesdropping, and all art Chinese imitation? our life a custom, and our body borrowed, like a beggar’s dinner, from a hundred charities?

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Art, Chinese, Literature

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Illustrated)”, p.2612, Delphi Classics

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• It ought to be the first endeavour of a writer to distinguish nature from custom; or that which is established because it is right, from that which is right only because it is established; that he may neither violate essential principles by a desire of novelty, nor debar himself from the attainment of beauties within his view, by a needless fear of breaking rules which no literary dictator had authority to enact.

  Samuel Johnson

  Writing, Views, Desire

  Samuel Johnson, Peter Martin (2009). “Samuel Johnson: Selected Writings”, p.197, Harvard University Press

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• I don't like people who take drugs... Customs men for example.

  Mick Miller

  Men, People, Drug

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• I think that's because believable action is based on authenticity, and accuracy is very important to me. I always spend time researching my novels, exploring the customs and attitudes of the county I'm using for their setting.

  Sidney Sheldon

  Attitude, Thinking, Important

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• As any custom is disused, the words that expressed it must perish with it; as any opinion grows popular, it will innovate speech in the same proportion as it alters practice.

  Samuel Johnson

  Practice, Speech, Opinion

  Samuel Johnson (1833). “A Dictionary of the English Language in which the Words are Deduced from Their Originals, and Illustrated in Their Different Significations by Examples from the Best Writers, to which are Prefixed, a History of the Language and an English Grammar”, p.23

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• The west has decided to channel money and effort into studying other customs and practices, but no one has really given other people the chance to study western customs and practices, except at schools maintained by white expatriates, or by allowing the rich from other cultures to study in Oxford or Paris. What happens then is that they return home to organise fundamentalist movements, because they feel solidarity with those of their compatriots who lack the opportunity for such education.

  Umberto Eco

  Home, School, Opportunity

  "The roots of conflict" by Umberto Eco, www.theguardian.com. October 13, 2001.

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• I appeal from your customs. I must be myself. I cannot break myself anylonger for you, or you. If you can love me for what I am, we shall bethe happier. If you cannot, I will still seek to deserve that youshould. I will not hide my tastes or aversions. I will so trust thatwhat is deep is holy, that I will do strongly before the sun and moonwhatever inly rejoices me, and the heart appoints. If you are noble, Iwill love you; if you are not, I will not hurt you and myself byhypocritical attentions. If you are true, but not in the same truthwith me, cleave to your companions; I will seek my own.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Hurt, Love You, Heart

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1981). “The Portable Emerson: New Edition”, p.128, Penguin

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• Observance of customs and laws can very easily be a cloak for a lie so subtle that our fellow human beings are unable to detect it. It may help us to escape all criticism, we may even be able to deceive ourselves in the belief of our obvious righteousness. But deep down, below the surface of the average man's conscience, he hears a voice whispering, 'There is something not right,' no matter how much his rightness is supported by public opinion or by the moral code.

  Carl Jung

  Lying, Men, Law

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• Anything to declare? the customs inspector said."Two pound of uncut heroin and a manual of pornographic art," Mark answered, looking about for Kity. All Americans are comedians, the inspector thought, as he passed Parker through. A government tourist hostess approached him."Are you Mr. Mark Parker?""Guilty.

  Leon Uris

  Art, Government, Two

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• The door could not be heard slamming; they had probably left it open, as is the custom in homes where a great misfortune has occurred.

  Franz Kafka

  Home, Doors, Metamorphosis

  Franz Kafka, Stanley Corngold (1981). “The Metamorphosis”, Bantam Classics

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• She dealt her pretty words like Blades -- How glittering they shone -- And every One unbared a Nerve Or wantoned with a Bone -- She never deemed -- she hurt -- That -- is not Steel's Affair -- A vulgar grimace in the Flesh -- How ill the Creatures bear -- To Ache is human -- not polite -- The Film upon the eye Mortality's old Custom -- Just locking up -- to Die.

  Emily Dickinson

  Hurt, Eye, Steel

  Emily Dickinson (2012). “Emily Dickinson: Everyman's Poetry”, p.83, Hachette UK

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• Ogbuef Ezedudu,who was the oldest man in the village, was telling two other men when they came to visit him that the punishment for breaking the Peace of Ani had become very mild in their clan. "It has not always been so," he said. "My father told me that he had been told that in the past a man who broke the peace was dragged on the ground through the village until he died. but after a while this custom was stopped because it spoiled the peace which it was meant to preserve.

  Chinua Achebe

  Father, Past, Men

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• In the olden times, the diversity of groups was largely a geographical matter. There were many societies, but each, within its own territory, was comparatively homogeneous. But with the development of commerce, transportation, intercommunication, and emigration, countries like the United States are composed of a combination of different groups with different traditional customs. It is this situation which has, perhaps more than any other one cause, forced the demand for an educational institution which shall provide something like a homogeneous and balanced environment for the young.

  John Dewey

  Country, Educational, Diversity

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• In undeveloped social groups, we find very little formal teaching and training. Savage groups mainly rely for instilling needed dispositions into the young upon the same sort of association which keeps adults loyal to their group. They have no special devices, material, or institutions for teaching save in connection with initiation ceremonies by which the youth are inducted into full social membership. For the most part, they depend upon children learning the customs of the adults, acquiring their emotional set and stock of ideas, by sharing in what the elders are doing.

  John Dewey

  Children, Teaching, Emotional

  John Dewey, (2013). “Democracy and Education - An Introduction to the Philosophy of Education”, p.16, Read Books Ltd

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• A people among whom custom is altogether sovereign endures the despotism of the dead.

  Bertrand de Jouvenel

  People, Sovereign, Despotism

  Bertrand de Jouvenel (1952). “Power: the natural history of its growth”, London, Batchworth P

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• What's with this weird hotel custom of leaving a piece of chocolate on the pillow? I awoke thinking my brain had hemorrhaged some sort of fecal matter.

  Jerry Seinfeld

  Thinking, Leaving, Chocolate

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• If rulers learn to undervalue the lives of their own subjects by the custom of war, how much more do they undervalue the lives of their enemies! As they learn to hear of the loss of five hundred or a thousand of their own men, with perhaps less feeling than they would hear of the death of a favorite horse or dog, so they learn to hear of the death of thousands after thousands on the side of the enemy with joy and exultation.

  Noah Worcester

  Inspirational, Dog, Horse

  Noah Worcester, Massachusetts Peace Society (Founded 1815) (1816). “The friend of peace”, p.24

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• A long flight. Jetlag. Immigration. Customs. And then finally, that first step into a new place, that moment of exhilaration and disorientation, each feeding the other. That moment when anything can happen

  Gayle Forman

  Long, Immigration, Exhilaration

  Gayle Forman (2013). “Just One Year”, p.34, Penguin

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• Let me tell you about customs, James," said Lillian. "I am not accustomed to being summoned to someone else's home. You're very fortunate that I came." "I am indeed blessed," Dad told her. "I am also, by the way, called Jon." Lillian looked faintly surprised. "Are you?" "Really?" Dad asked. "Really? I was the only Asian guy who went to our school. I kind of stood out. While you are an identical twin, and I still managed to know your name.

  Sarah Rees Brennan

  Dad, Blessed, Home

  Sarah Rees Brennan (2013). “Untold”, p.175, Simon and Schuster

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• Sophronia was minding her own business and running late to luncheon, as was her custom. She'd let to learn the advantage of punctuality. As she told Sister Mattie the third time she was late to household potions and poisons, nothing interesting happened until after an event commenced.

  Gail Carriger

  Running, Interesting, Events

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• THE WILD ROSE” – BY WENDELL BERRY Sometimes, hidden from me in daily custom and in ritual I live by you unaware, as if by the beating of my heart. Suddenly you flare again in my sight A wild rose at the edge of the thicket where yesterday there was only shade And I am blessed and choose again, That which I chose before.

  Wendell Berry

  Blessed, Heart, Wild Roses

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• Inside the modern city, in spite of its nominal political unity, there are probably more communities, more differing customs, traditions, aspirations, and forms of government or control, than existed in an entire continent at an earlier epoch.

  John Dewey

  Cities, Government, Community

  John Dewey, (2013). “Democracy and Education - An Introduction to the Philosophy of Education”, p.29, Read Books Ltd

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• Elaborate burial customs are a sure sign of decadence.

  J. G. Ballard

  Decadence, Burial

  J. G. Ballard (2001). “The complete short stories”, Fourth Estate

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