William Shakespeare - William Temple - William Wordsworth - Benjamin Franklin - David Hume - William Congreve - Charles De’Avenant - Leo Tolstoy - Leviticus 18:30 - Edmund Burke - Ovid - Plautus - John Updike - Mark Twain - Virginia Woolf - Robert Heinlein - Michel de Montaigne - John Stuart Mill - Carrie Chapman Catt - Charlotte Bronte - Francis M Cornford - Thomas Hardy - Extraordinary Rituals TV - James I -
Assume a virtue, if you have it not.
That monster, custom, who all sense doth eat,
Of habits devil, is angel yet in this. William Shakespeare, Hamlet III iv 160
The tyrant custom, most grave senators,
Hath made the flinty and steel couch of war
My thrice-driven bed of down. William Shakespeare, Othello I iii 230
Authority is by nothing so much strengthened and confirmed as by custom; for no man easily distrusts the things which he and all men have been always bred up to. William Temple
Full soon thy Soul shall have her earthly freight,
And custom lie upon thee with a weight,
Heavy as frost, and deep almost as life! William Wordsworth, Ode, Intimations of Immortality, 1807
Ill customs and bad advice are seldom forgotten. Benjamin Franklin
Custom, then, is the great guide of human life. David Hume
Retired to their tea and scandal, according to their custom. William Congreve, 1670-1729, The Double Dealer
Custom, that unwritten law,
By which the people keep even kings in awe. Charles De’Avenant, 1656-1714
There are no conditions of life to which a man cannot get accustomed, especially if he sees them accepted by everyone about him. Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina
Therefore shall ye keep mine ordinance, that ye commit not any one of these abominable customs, which were committed before you, and that ye defile not yourselves therein: I am the Lord your God. Leviticus 18:30
Marriage brings one into fatal connection with custom and tradition, and traditions and customs are like the wind and weather, altogether incalculable. Soren Kierkegaard
Custom reconciles us to everything. Edmund Burke
Nothing is more powerful than custom or habit. Ovid
Laws are subordinate to custom. Plautus
Customs and convictions change; respectable people are the last to know, or to admit, the change, and the ones most offended by fresh reflections of the facts in the mirror of art. John Updike
Customs do not concern themselves with right or wrong or reason. But they have to be obeyed; one reasons all around them until he is tired, but he must not transgress them, it is sternly forbidden. Mark Twain
Habits and customs are a convenience devised for the support of timid natures who dare not allow their souls free play. Virginia Woolf, The Common Reader
Customs tell a man who he is, where he belongs, what he must do. Better illogical customs than none; men cannot live together without them. Robert A Heinlein, Citizen of the Galaxy
Custom is a second nature, and no less powerful. Michel de Montaigne
The despotism of custom is everywhere the standing hindrance to human advancement. John Stuart Mill
No written law has ever been more binding than unwritten custom supported by public opinion. Carrie Chapman Catt, American suffrage leader
Conventionality is not morality. Charlotte Bronte
Every public action, which is not customary, either is wrong, or, if it is right, is a dangerous precedent. It follows that nothing should ever be done for the first time. Francis M Cornford, Microcosmographia Academica, 1908
With all his attempted independence of judgment of this advanced and well-meaning young man, a sample product of the last five-and-twenty years, was yet the slave to custom and conventionality when surprised back into his early teachings. Thomas Hardy, Tess of the D’Urbervilles
Of course poets have morals and manners of their own, and custom is no argument with them. Thomas Hardy, The Hand of Ethelberta, 1876
All around the world we perform rituals from familiar customs to extreme initiations. Rituals help us mark the most important moments in our lives. Extraordinary Rituals: Circle of Life, BBC 2018
We’ll explore the extraordinary rituals that surround birth. ibid.
In the Amazon a family performs sacred rituals to protect its newborn child. ibid.
We still choose to come together for ceremonies in vast numbers. Extraordinary Rituals: Great Gatherings
In the mountains of Japan 2,000 men create a waterfall of fire in a ritual of spiritual renewal. ibid.
We’ll explore why we hang on to ancient rituals in a modern world. Extraordinary Rituals: Changing World
In Australia an ancient ceremony helps protect the oldest surviving culture on Earth. ibid.
Jainism: An act of self-sacrifice which is why in her ultimate test of faith every hair on her head will be plucked out by hand. ibid.
A custom loathsome to the eye, hateful to the nose, harmful to the brain, dangerous to the lungs, and in the black, stinking fume thereof, nearest resembling the horrible Stygian smoke of the pit that is bottomless. James I, A Counterblast to Tobacco 1604