Quotes About Tradition

If you build a society in which children honor their parents, your society will long survive. And the corollary is: A society in which children do not honor their parents is doomed to self-destruction.

If you build a society in which children honor their parents, your society will long survive. And the corollary is: a society in which children do not honor their parents is doomed to self-destruction. In our time, this connection between honoring parents and maintaining civilization is not widely recognized.

In our haste to modernize under the banner of science, we seem to have gone too far in casting out all mystery and magic from our world.

A certain Roland le Fartère was given a small manor in Suffolk by the king on condition that every Christmas he gave a jump, a whistle and a fart before Henry and his courtiers. (Unum saltum et siffletum et unum bumbulum.)

But i must have a husband, darling. All women must have a husband.

Why does no one in America recite poetry?" Aziz complains. "They go to the coffeehouse and they just drink the coffee.

At work, Sirine announces that this year will be an Arabic Thanksgiving with rice and pine nuts and ground lamb in the turkey instead of cornbread, and yogurt sauce instead of cranberries. Mireille sulks and says she doesn't like yogurt and Sirine says, annoyed, why can't we ever do things differently? And Um-Nadia says, girls, never mind already, we can have the for-crying-out-loud rice stuffing and I'll bring the can of the red berries sauce.

She looks over, still smiling, to Sirine behind the counter, and says, Roasted lamb, rice and pine nuts, tabbouleh salad, apricot juice. Then she blows a kiss. Hanif glances at Sirine. She looks down, quick, a bunch of parsley pinched in her fingertips, rocks the big cleaver through a profusion of green leaves, onions, cracked wheat. Suddenly she remembers the leben and hurries to the big potful of yogurt sauce, which is just on the verge of curdling.

She pulls her uncle's topaz prayer beads out of her pockets and settles herself by thinking of braised squab: a sauce for wild game with motes of cinnamon and smoke.

Li Pin Chu tells them that if he could eat one dish every day for the rest of his life it would be sliced pork and egg in palm sugar. Han says he would enjoy some chicken stewed in onion yogurt sauce. Sirine thinks she might like some reheated spaghetti and meatballs- a breakfast that her mother used to make from the previous night's dinner.

But a man is not forgotten, as long as there are two people left under the sky. One, to tell the story; the other, to hear it.

Scots have long memories, and they're not the most forgiving of people.

It's a bit undignified to get into, but it's verra easy to take off How do you get into it? I asked curiously. Well, ye lay it out on the ground, like this -he knelt, spreading the cloth so that it lined the leaf-strewn hollow- and then ye pleat it every few inches, lie down on it, and row. I burst out laughing, and sank to my knees, helping to smooth the thick tartan wool.

Alright, all right, I said. What if I tell you a story, instead? Highlanders loved stories, and Jamie was no exception. Oh, aye, he said, sounding much happier. What sort of story is it?

Once I told him I thought beating your son was a most uncivilized method of getting your own way. He said I'd about as much sense as the post I was standing next to, if as much. He said respect for your elders was one of the cornerstones of civilized behavior, and until I learned that, I'd better get used to looking at my toes while one of my barbaric elders thrashed my arse off.

He hadn't worn the kilt since Culloden, but his body had not forgotten the way of it.

But a man is not forgotten, as long as there are two people left under the sky. One, to tell the story; the other, to hear it. So.

The thing was, some men needed killing. The Church didn't admit that, save it was war. The Mohawk understood it fine. So did Uncle Jamie.

And then later, at the funeral, members of the family, followed by the tenants and then the servants, had come one by one to add a stone each to the weight of remembrance.

respect for your elders was one of the cornerstones of civilized behavior

And so he and Ian—who, it turned out, could also knit and was prostrated by mirth at my lack of knowledge—had taught me the simple basics of knit and purl, explaining, between snorts of derision over my efforts, that in the Highlands all boys were routinely taught to knit, that being a useful occupation well suited to the long idle hours of herding sheep or cattle on the shielings.

While Fergus was possessed of dark good looks and a dashing manner that might well win a young girl's heart, he lacked a few of the things that might appeal somewhat more to conservative Scottish parents, such as property, income, a left hand, and a last name.

seemed a bit unsanitary to be burying people in the marketplace.

Did the ancient Gaels not wear undergarments? Frank leered. You've never heard that old song about what a Scotsman wears beneath his kilts?