customs quotes

Espiar a vida alheia, inquirir dos escravos o que se passava no interior das casas, era naquele tempo coisa ta‹  o comum e enraizada nos costumes, que ainda hoje, depois depassados tantos anos, restam grandes vest|gios de" s se belo ha  bito. Spying on other people's lives, asking slaves what was goingoninsidetheirhouseswasthenso commonandsuch a part of ourcustomsthat today, after so many years have passed, we have many remnants of such a beautiful habit.

- Manuel Anto"  nio de Almeida
  Memo  rias de um sargento de mil|  cias (Memoirs of a Militia Sergeant,1959), ch.3.

To customs and beliefs, the very ones we hold sacred, sociology ruthlesslyattaches the adjective 'arbitrary'.

- Raymond Claude Ferdinand Aron
Politics and History.

The essence of Toryism is enjoyment†but as far as communicating and establishing your creed are concernedtrya little pleasure. The way to keep up old customs is, to enjoy old customs; the way to be satisfied with the present state of things is, to enjoy that state of things.

-Walter Bagehot
  Essay on Macaulay.

I must confess I am a fop in my heart; ill customs influence my very senses, and I have been so used to affectation that without the help of the air of the court what is natural cannot touch me.

- Sir George Etherege
  Letter to Mr Poley,12  Jan.

IwasbornaTory, amaTory, and shall dieaTory.Inever yet heard that it was any part of the faith of aTory to take the institutions and liberties, the laws and customs that his country has evolved over the centuries, and mergethem with those of eight other nations into a new-made artificial stateand what is more, to do so without the willing approbation and consent of the nation.

- (John) Enoch Powell
  Speech against Britain's entry into the Common Market, Shipley, 25 Feb.

It isnot to be understood that the natural price of labour, estimated even in food and necessaries, is absolutely fixed and constant.It varies at different times in thesame countryand very materially differs in different countries. It essentially depends on the habits and customs of the people.

- David Ricardo
  Principles of Political Economy andTaxation.

He is a barbarian, and thinksthat the customs of his tribe and island are the laws of nature.

- George Bernard Shaw
  Of the Briton. Caesar toTheodotus. Caesar and Cleopatra, act 2.