Culture and Tradition

By the shores of Gitche Gumee, By the shining Big-Sea-Water, Stood the wigwam of Nokomis, Daughter of the Moon, Nokomis.

Who are these coming to the sacrifice? To what green altar, O mysterious priest, Lead’st thou that heifer lowing at the skies, And all her silken flanks with garlands drest?

The antique Persians taught three useful things— To draw the bow, to ride, and speak the truth.

The harp that once through Tara’s halls The soul of music shed, Now hangs as mute on Tara’s walls As if that soul were fled.

We must be free or die, who speak the tongue That Shakespeare spake; the faith and morals hold Which Milton held.

A true German can’t stand the French, Yet willingly he drinks their wines.

Peel’d, patch’d, and piebald, linsey-woolsey brothers, Grave mummers! sleeveless some, and shirtless others. That once was Britain.

In pious times, ere priestcraft did begin, Before polygamy was made a sin.

’Twas Presbyterian true blue.

How should I your true love know From another one? By his cockle hat and staff, And his sandal shoon. 35

But to my mind,—though I am native here And to the manner born—it is a custom More honor’d in the breach than the observance.

Report of fashions in proud Italy, Whose manners still our tardy apish nation Limps after in base imitation.

There’s no good speech save in Paris. 3

Our concern be peace of mind: some old crone let us seek, To spit on us for luck and keep unlovely things afar.

It is indeed a desirable thing to be well-descended, but the glory belongs to our ancestors.

Moral habits, induced by public practices, are far quicker in making their way into men's private lives, than the failings and faults of individuals are in infecting the city at large.

Culture makes all men gentle.

It has been said that a Scotchman has not seen the world until he has seen Edinburgh; and I think that I may say that an American has not seen the United States until he has seen Mardi Gras in New Orleans.

A crime persevered in a thousand centuries ceases to be a crime, and becomes a virtue. This is the law of custom, and custom supersedes all other forms of law.

An American has not seen the United States until he has seen Mardi-Gras in New Orleans.

Laws are sand, customs are rock. Laws can be evaded and punishment escaped, but an openly transgressed custom brings sure punishment.

Give an Irishman lager for a month and he's a dead man. An Irishman's stomach is lined with copper, and the beer corrodes it. But whiskey polishes the copper and is the saving of him.

The less there is to justify a traditional custom, the harder it is to get rid of it

The Koran does not permit Mohammedans to drink. Their natural instincts do not permit them to be moral. They say the Sultan has eight hundred wives. This almost amounts to bigamy.