Quotes About Custom

The unnatural principle of human sacrifice was carried by the British Druids to a ruthless pitch. The mysterious priesthoods of the forests bound themselves and their votaries together by the most deadly sacrament that men can take. Here, perhaps, upon these wooden altars of a sullen island, there lay one of the secrets, awful, inflaming, unifying, of the tribes of Gaul. And whence did this sombre custom come?

Tradition is the illusion of permanence.

I will make you my brothers and table companions and give you a share of all our gains. To you, Xenophon, I will give my daughter, and, if you have a daughter, I will, according to the Thracian custom, buy her from you.

Change becomes a habit and habits are hard to change .

As was his custom, Han stood propped against the wall, looking as ruthless as possible.

Marriage: a ceremony in which rings are put on the finger of the lady and through the nose of the gentleman.

A ceremony in which rings are put on the finger of the lady and through the nose of the gentleman.

It is the gods' custom to bring low all things of surpassing greatness.

People would consider it excessive and rather Italian if you started wailing at the death of an elderly person. Instead, you say things like, 'Well, he had a good innings, didn't he!' No

it had always been the custom in Jemmerdy for young women between the ages of fourteen and (if unmarried) forty, to hold positions in the Nine Knightly Fellowships which comprised the army of the Jemmerdines. At seventeen, Xarda was dubbed knight — or "knightrix," as the female soldiers were called in her homeland.

Partial truth - the seeds of wisdom- can be found in many places. In primal instinct may partial truth be found ... in earthly law, social custom, scientific research, philosophy and religious doctrine. The seeds of wisdom are contained in all scriptures ever written ... especially in art, music and poetry ... and, above all, in Nature.

People seem to get used to anything, and it is a short step from adaptation to attachment.

For a key perception of the book is that most human beings are not ideologues; intellectual coherence is not a notable feature of their politics. People's political views may be rigid but they are not necessarily rigorous. They tend to derive from, or to be reflections of, some mixture of sentiment, custom, and moral aspiration.

Ages when custom is unsettled are necessarily ages of prophecy. The moralist cannot teach what is revealed; he must reveal what can be taught. He has to seek insight rather than to preach.

My grandfather used to be a dentist, and he made me these retainers that have vampire teeth on them.

A chocolate cake can include almond praline or blackberry, and a vanilla one can have cinnamon, cappuccino, or pistachio... Each is distinctive, and I bake only to order.

Having payesh and five types of vegetable fries is a must in our house on birthdays. It is a kind of ritual.

What we believe as human nature in actuality is human habit.

What we call human nature in actuality is human habit.

Her old Grannie and subject must be the first to kiss her hand.

To me the female principle is, or at least historically has been, basically anarchic. It values order without constraint, rule by custom not by force. It has been the male who enforces order, who constructs power structures, who makes, enforces, and breaks laws.

Whenever I drive under a yellow light, I always kiss my finger and tap it on the roof of the car. And I do that when I get onto a plane as well!

Then as we passed down this Passage we were knocked against certain Women of the Town, who gave us Eye-language, since there were many Corners and Closets in Bedlam where they would stop and wait for Custom: indeed it was known as a sure Market for Lechers and Loiterers, for tho' they came in Single they went out by Pairs. This is a Showing-room for Whores, I said. And what better place for Lust, Sir Chris. replied, than among those whose Wits have fled?

Everything grows out of the soil of contingent circumstance. Convenience, rather than the shibboleth of progress of evolution, is the agent of change. Error and misjudgment therefore play a large part in what we are pleased to call the 'development' of institutions. A body of uses and misuses then takes on the carapace of custom and becomes part of a tradition.