Quotes About Tradition

The paradox is that some of the most artistically valuable contemporary photographs are content with being photographs, are not under the same compulsion to pass themselves off - or pimp themselves out - as art. The simple truth is that the best exponents of the art of contemporary photography continue to produce work that fits broadly within the tradition of what Evans termed 'documentary style'.

During their long period of unease about a hot Christmas, Australians rarely noticed that they had more access than their British relatives to a vital part of the traditional Christmas story: 'the stars in the bright sky'. Eventually they ceased to lament that their Christmas came in hot weather.

For out of olde feldes, as men seyth,Cometh al this newe corn fro yer to yere;And out of olde bokes, in good feyth,Cometh al this newe science that men lere.

In my view, difficult poetry is the most democratic, because you are doing your audience the honour of supposing that they are intelligent human beings. So much of the populist poetry of today treats people as if they were fools. And that particular aspect, and the aspect of the forgetting of a tradition, go together.

The idea of considering the infinitely large not only in the form of the unlimitedly increasing magnitude and in the closely related form of convergent infinite series...but to also fix it mathematically by numbers in the definite form of the completed infinite was logically forced upon me, almost against my will since it was contrary to traditions which I had come to cherish in the course of many years of scientific effort and investigations.

Darüber, daß sie nichts zum zweitenmal erfinden wollen, lernen sie alles so ansehen, wie es ihre Vorfahren angesehen haben. Der zweite Fehler ist aber gewiß schlimmer, als der erste.

Societies need strong mediating communities through which traditions of personal virtue, common good and ultimate meaning are transmitted to new generations. It is hard to see how such communities can flourish without a religious dimension, and in traditionally Christian lands, that means a Christian one.

it is the nature of religions to put a higher premium on your proper attention to ritual than on your convenience.

There are no mothers-in-law in ballet.

The English are not very spiritual people, so they invented cricket to give them some idea of eternity.

Our ideals, like the gods of old, are constantly demanding human sacrifices.

Gin was mother's milk to her.

It is a noteworthy fact that kicking and beating have played so considerable a part in the habits which necessity has imposed on mankind in past ages that the only way of preventing civilized men from beating and kicking their wives is to organize games in which they can kick and beat balls.

Englishmen hate Liberty and Equality too much to understand them. But every Englishman loves a pedigree.

I was brought up to respect my elders, so now I don't have to respect anybody.

There will be a rain dance Friday night, weather permitting

Baseball is the only major sport that appears backward in a mirror

Marry an orphan: you'll never have to spend boring holidays with the in-laws.

We're having something a little different this year for Thanksgiving. Instead of a turkey, we're having a swan. You get more stuffing.

There is evidently a set song and sentiment for every dance, for the songs are perfectly measured, and sung in exact time with the beat of the drum; and always with an uniform and invariable set of sounds and expressions, which clearly indicate certain sentiments, which are expressed by the voice, though sometimes not given in any known language whatever.

John Bull; or, The Englishman's Fireside

religion arises from culture; spirituality arises from biology.

The tendancy of liberals is to create bodies of men and women-of all classes-detached from tradition, alienated from religion, and susceptible to mass suggestion-mob rule. And a mob will be no less a mob if it is well fed, well clothed, well housed, and well disciplined.

Pessimism is as American as apple pie — frozen apple pie with a slice of processed cheese.