Custom governs the world; it is the tyrant of our feeling and our manners, and rules us with the imperious read more

Custom governs the world; it is the tyrant of our feeling and our manners, and rules us with the imperious hand of a despot

The old ways are the safest and surest ways.

The old ways are the safest and surest ways.

Men will sooner surrender their rights than their customs.

Men will sooner surrender their rights than their customs.

Custom meets us at the cradle and leaves us only at the tomb.

Custom meets us at the cradle and leaves us only at the tomb.

The custom and fashion of today will be the awkwardness and outrage of tomorrow--so arbitrary are these transient laws.

The custom and fashion of today will be the awkwardness and outrage of tomorrow--so arbitrary are these transient laws.

The customs and fashions of men change like leaves on the bough, some of which go and others come.

The customs and fashions of men change like leaves on the bough, some of which go and others come.

Custom has furnished the only basis which ethics have ever had.

Custom has furnished the only basis which ethics have ever had.

There is nothing that strengthens a nation like reading of a nation's own history, whether that history is recorded in read more

There is nothing that strengthens a nation like reading of a nation's own history, whether that history is recorded in books or embodied in customs, institutions and monuments.

We do everything by custom, even believe by it; our very axioms, let us boast of free-thinking as we may, read more

We do everything by custom, even believe by it; our very axioms, let us boast of free-thinking as we may, are oftenest simply such beliefs as we have never heard questioned.