Tradition Quotes - Page 32

• Our culture has few taboos that can't be violated, and our establishment has largely given up on setting standards in the first place. Except where Islam is concerned. There, the standards are established under threat of violence, and accepted out of a mix of self-preservation and self-loathing. This is what decadence looks like: a frantic coarseness that "bravely" trashes its own values and traditions, and then knuckles under swiftly to totalitarianism and brute force.

  Ross Douthat

  Self, Political, Islam

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• The biggest political change in my lifetime is that Americans no longer assume that their children will have it better than they did. This is a huge break with the past, with assumptions and traditions that shaped us.

  Peggy Noonan

  Children, Past, Political

  Peggy Noonan (2015). “The Time of Our Lives: Collected Writings”, p.113, Hachette UK

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• We are a nation called to defend freedom - a tradition that is not a grant of any government or document, but is an endowment from God.

  John Ashcroft

  Government, Scary, Grants

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• Believe nothing on the faith of traditions, even though they have been held in honor for many generations and in diverse places. Do not believe a thing because many people speak of it. Do not believe on the faith of the sages of the past. Do not believe what you yourself have imagined, persuading yourself that a God inspires you. Believe nothing on the sole authority of your masters and priests. After examination, believe what you yourself have tested and found to be reasonable, and conform your conduct thereto.

  Gautama Buddha

  Buddhist, Believe, Past

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• Do not accept what you hear by report, do not accept tradition, do not accept a statement because it is found in our books, nor because it is in accord with your belief, nor because it is the saying of your teacher. Be lamps unto yourselves. Those who, either now or after I am dead, shall rely upon themselves only and not look for assistance to anyone besides themselves, it is they who shall reach the topmost height.

  Gautama Buddha

  Teacher, Buddhist, Book

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• So in this case, Kalamas, don't go by reports, by legends, by traditions, by scripture, by logical conjecture, by inference, by analogies, by agreement through pondering views, by probability, or by the thought, 'This contemplative is our teacher.' When you know for yourselves that, 'These qualities are unskillful; these qualities are blameworthy; these qualities are criticized by the wise; these qualities, when adopted & carried out, lead to harm & to suffering' - then you should abandon them.

  Gautama Buddha

  Wise, Teacher, Buddhist

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• The idea that consciousness is the ground of being is the basis of all spiritual traditions.

  Amit Goswami

  Spiritual, Ideas, Consciousness

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• Americans, more than any other culture on earth, are cookbook cooks; we learn to make our meals not from any oral tradition, but from a text. The just-wed cook brings to the new household no carefully copied collection of the family's cherished recipes, but a spanking new edition of 'Fannie Farmer' or 'The Joy of Cooking'.

  John Thorne

  Food, Other Cultures, Joy

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• The tradition of nonviolence, optimism, concern for the individual, and unconditional compassion that developed in Tibet is the culmination of a slow inner revolution, a cool one, hard to see, that began 2,500 years ago with the Buddha's insight about the end of suffering. What I have learned from these people has forever changed my life, and I believe their culture contains an inner science particularly relevant to the difficult time in which we live.

  Robert Thurman

  Time, Believe, Compassion

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• There is a fundamental spiritual quality to gratitude that transcends religious traditions. Gratitude is a universal human experience that can seem to be either a random occurrence of grace or a chosen attitude to create a better experience of life; in many ways it contains elements of both. Grateful people sense that they are not separated from others or from God; this recognition of unity with all things brings a deep sense of gratefulness, whether we are religious or not.

  Angeles Arrien

  Spiritual, Gratitude, Religious

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• Whether it is seen in personal terms or trans-personal terms, whether it is Heaven or Nirvana or Happy Hunting Ground or the Garden of Paradise, the weight and authority of tradition maintains that death is just an alteration in our state of consciousness, and that the quality of our continued existence in the afterlife depends on the quality of our living here and now.

  John Smith

  Spiritual, Garden, Hunting

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• Do not believe what you have heard Do not believe in tradition because it is handed down many generations Do not believe in anything that has been spoken of many times Do not believe because the written statements come from some old sage Do not believe in conjecture Do not believe in authority, or teachers, or elders But after careful observation and analysis, when it agrees with reason and it will benefit one and all, then accept it and live by it.

  Gautama Buddha

  Teacher, Believe, Sage

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• The time has come to make the protection of children - all our children - a common cause that can unite us across the boundaries of our political orientation, religious affiliation and cultural traditions. We must reclaim our lost taboos, and make the abuse and brutalization of children simply unaccepetable.

  Olara Otunnu

  Religious, Children, Political

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• The modern tradition of equating death with an ensuing nothingness can be abandoned. For there is no reason to believe that human death severs the quality of the oneness in the universe.

  Larry Dossey

  Believe, Science, Oneness

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• I enjoy writing songs that could have been written before [my time]. When I feel like I'm tapping into a deep vein in the body of American music, it gives me strength as a writer, like I'm dipping my pen into a deep ink well. That's the folk music tradition. Like Pete Seeger said, 'Everyone's a link in the chain.' It's a strong chain, so rely on it. ... I believe it takes all those great songs in the past to make your song even a little bit good.

  Ketch Secor

  Song, Strong, Believe

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• Women represent 70 percent of the 1.3 billion people in our world who live in absolute poverty. Consequently, as Joan Holmes, president of the Hunger Project, points out, any realistic efforts to change patterns of chronic hunger and poverty require changing traditions of discrimination against women.

  Riane Eisler

  Our World, Hunger And Poverty, People

  Riane Eisler (2008). “The Real Wealth of Nations: Creating a Caring Economics”, p.124, Berrett-Koehler Publishers

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• Tobias Buckell combines old world with new in his novel CRYSTAL RAIN. While the rich cultures, drawn in part from Caribbean history and lore, echo a familiar landscape, he brings it out of the Earth milieu and into a bold new universe where technology and tradition collide. I enjoyed his colorful characters and musical use of language; his voice is fresh and entirely readable.

  Karin Lowachee

  Rain, Character, Technology

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• If you filter my words through any tradition or '-ism', you will miss altogether what I am saying. The liberating truth is not static; it is alive. It cannot be put into concepts and be understood by the mind. The truth lies beyond all forms of conceptual fundamentalism. What you are is the beyond—awake and present, here and now already. I am simply helping you to realize that.

  Adyashanti

  Lying, Missing, Mind

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• As I wrote 'The Christmas Lamp' I realized that tradition is priceless, whether you have a small family, a large family, or no family.
  Tradition doesn't have to be logical; it only has to emphasize the light of Christ and his everlasting love.

  Lori Copeland

  Christmas, Light, Lamps

  Lori Copeland (2009). “The Christmas Lamp: A Novella”, p.60, Zondervan

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• No literature is richer than that of the sea. No story is more enthralling, no tradition is more secure.

  Felix Riesenberg

  Sea, Sailing, Nautical

  Felix Riesenberg (1926). “Vignettes of the Sea”

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• I have strong doubts that the first Thanksgiving even remotely resembled the 'history' I was told in second grade. But considering that (when it comes to holidays) mainstream America's traditions tend to be over-eating, shopping, or getting drunk, I suppose it's a miracle that the concept of giving thanks even surfaces at all.

  Ellen Orleans

  Thanksgiving, Strong, Holiday

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• Little brats yellin 'Trick or Treat' all through my screen door,
  When y'all should be at home sleep,
  Instead of at my front porch 15 deep.
  The jack o' lantern came in handy...
  I can turn my porch light out like I ain't got no candy.
  But ain't that somethin?
  You buy a Halloween costume and a pumpkin,
  Almost gave your children a heart attack.
  It's a tradition, but who the hell started that?

  Kam

  Children, Halloween, Rap

  Song: Holiday Madness, Album: Neva Again, 1993

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• And I should like to assure you, my Islamic friends, that under the American Constitution, under American tradition, and in American hearts, this Center, this place of worship, is just as welcome as could be a similar edifice of any other religion. Indeed, America would fight with her whole strength for your right to have here your own church and worship according to your own conscience. This concept is indeed a part of America, and without that concept we would be something else than what we are.

  Dwight D. Eisenhower

  Islamic, Heart, Fighting

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• One thing is certain: you will find plenty of worthwhile things to do. You will not be bored, or lack fulfillment in your life. Most important of all, you will know that you have not lived and died for nothing, because you will have become part of the great tradition of those who have responded to the amount of pain and suffering in the universe by trying to make the world a better place.

  Peter Singer

  Pain, Worthwhile Things, Bored

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• Going around this country, I have found a great hunger in America for spiritual revival; for a belief that law must be based on a higher law; for a return to traditions and values that we once had. Our government, in its most sacred documents - the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence and all - speak of man being created, of a Creator; that we're a nation under God.

  Ronald Reagan

  Spiritual, Country, Men

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