{ "type": "topic", "site": { "name": "Leafy Quotes", "language": "en", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com" }, "formats": "Every page has two versions with the same data: JSON (the page address + .json) and markdown (the page address + .md). Append .json or .md to any `url` in this document.", "name": "tradition", "slug": "tradition", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/tradition", "heading": "Quotes about tradition", "json": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/tradition.json", "markdown": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/tradition.md", "quotes_count": 64, "authors_count": 48, "parent": null, "children": [], "quotes": [ { "id": "8aaa4e34-346f-44b6-8abd-f1f9dcbea57d", "slug": "roland-was-as-much", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-king/wolves-of-the-calla/roland-was-as-much", "text": "Roland was as much a prisoner of his rules and traditions as Eddie had ever been of heroin.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Stephen King", "slug": "stephen-king", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-king" }, "book": { "title": "Wolves of the Calla", "slug": "wolves-of-the-calla", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/stephen-king/wolves-of-the-calla" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "tradition", "slug": "tradition", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/tradition" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Dark_Tower_(series)#Vol._V:_Wolves_of_the_Calla", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:18:40" }, { "id": "914ce2cd-29a9-4be9-80f1-3301d1bc6062", "slug": "many-of-us-know", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alice-hoffman/practical-magic/many-of-us-know", "text": "Many of us know what it's like to try to escape a family legacy of one sort or another, only to discover that in the long run we carry our heritage with us no matter how far we might run.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Alice Hoffman", "slug": "alice-hoffman", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alice-hoffman" }, "book": { "title": "Practical Magic", "slug": "practical-magic", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alice-hoffman/practical-magic" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "family", "slug": "family", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/family" }, { "name": "tradition", "slug": "tradition", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/tradition" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Alice_Hoffman#Introduction_to_the_25th_Anniversary_Edition_(2003)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:04:47" }, { "id": "ce6719f5-8e7a-47d2-876e-cc5786db93e3", "slug": "the-nature-of-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/paula-gunn-allen/the-sacred-hoop/the-nature-of-the", "text": "The nature of the cosmos, of the human, the creaturely, and the supernatural universe is like water. It takes numerous forms; it evaporates and it gathers. Survival and continuance are contingent on its presence. Whether it is in a cup, a jar, or an underground river, it nourishes life. And whether the ritual traditions are in ceremony, myth, or novel, they nourish the people. They give meaning. They give life.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Paula Gunn Allen", "slug": "paula-gunn-allen", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/paula-gunn-allen" }, "book": { "title": "The Sacred Hoop", "slug": "the-sacred-hoop", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/paula-gunn-allen/the-sacred-hoop" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "tradition", "slug": "tradition", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/tradition" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Paula_Gunn_Allen#Chapter_Two", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:04:38" }, { "id": "71e00961-dca8-4ed7-9cf3-3347661216b3", "slug": "the-oral-tradition-is", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/paula-gunn-allen/the-sacred-hoop/the-oral-tradition-is", "text": "The oral tradition is more than a record of a people’s culture. It is the creative source of their collective and individual selves.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Paula Gunn Allen", "slug": "paula-gunn-allen", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/paula-gunn-allen" }, "book": { "title": "The Sacred Hoop", "slug": "the-sacred-hoop", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/paula-gunn-allen/the-sacred-hoop" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "identity", "slug": "identity", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/identity" }, { "name": "tradition", "slug": "tradition", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/tradition" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Paula_Gunn_Allen#Chapter_Three", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:04:38" }, { "id": "54e5c941-ad4e-448d-abfd-a6d0384de02d", "slug": "the-oral-tradition-is-a", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/paula-gunn-allen/the-sacred-hoop/the-oral-tradition-is-a", "text": "The oral tradition is a living body. It is in continuous flux, which enables it to accommodate itself to the real circumstances of a people’s lives.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Paula Gunn Allen", "slug": "paula-gunn-allen", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/paula-gunn-allen" }, "book": { "title": "The Sacred Hoop", "slug": "the-sacred-hoop", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/paula-gunn-allen/the-sacred-hoop" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "stories", "slug": "stories", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/stories" }, { "name": "tradition", "slug": "tradition", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/tradition" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Paula_Gunn_Allen#Chapter_Three", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:04:38" }, { "id": "b520c597-d09c-47f9-a191-c0dcbfa1ecc3", "slug": "if-we-allow", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robin-wall-kimmerer/braiding-sweetgrass/if-we-allow", "text": "If we allow traditions to die, relationships to fade, the land will suffer.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Robin Wall Kimmerer", "slug": "robin-wall-kimmerer", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robin-wall-kimmerer" }, "book": { "title": "Braiding Sweetgrass", "slug": "braiding-sweetgrass", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robin-wall-kimmerer/braiding-sweetgrass" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 166, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "nature", "slug": "nature", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/nature" }, { "name": "tradition", "slug": "tradition", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/tradition" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robin_Wall_Kimmerer#Braiding_Sweetgrass_(2013)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:04:31" }, { "id": "93546108-ddb7-4236-baa6-bf0c18f606c7", "slug": "but-it-is-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-wyndham/sleepers-of-mars/but-it-is-the", "text": "\"But it is the old story of new generations refusing to be bound by the promises of their forefathers.\"", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "John Wyndham", "slug": "john-wyndham", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-wyndham" }, "book": { "title": "Sleepers of Mars", "slug": "sleepers-of-mars", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-wyndham/sleepers-of-mars" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 46, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "youth", "slug": "youth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth" }, { "name": "tradition", "slug": "tradition", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/tradition" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Wyndham#Sleepers_of_Mars_(1973)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:03:08" }, { "id": "eb117e02-e831-4324-b4d9-b3d0651fc806", "slug": "i-had-discerned", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/tara-westover/educated/i-had-discerned", "text": "I had discerned the ways in which we had been sculpted by a tradition given to us by others, a tradition of which we were either willfully or accidentally ignorant. I had begun to understand that we had lent our voices to a discourse whose sole purpose was to dehumanize and brutalize others—because nurturing that discourse was easier, because retaining power always feels like the way forward.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Tara Westover", "slug": "tara-westover", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/tara-westover" }, "book": { "title": "Educated", "slug": "educated", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/tara-westover/educated" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 180, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "power", "slug": "power", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/power" }, { "name": "tradition", "slug": "tradition", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/tradition" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Tara_Westover#Educated_(2018)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:02:37" }, { "id": "2b84491e-b82e-4867-b9c2-c687e885fd37", "slug": "we-require-routine", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jordan-b-peterson/12-rules-for-life/we-require-routine", "text": "We require routine and tradition. That’s order. Order can become excessive, and that’s not good, but chaos can swamp us, so we drown—and that is also not good. We need to stay on the straight and narrow path.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jordan B. Peterson", "slug": "jordan-b-peterson", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jordan-b-peterson" }, "book": { "title": "12 Rules for Life", "slug": "12-rules-for-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jordan-b-peterson/12-rules-for-life" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "tradition", "slug": "tradition", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/tradition" }, { "name": "chaos", "slug": "chaos", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/chaos" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jordan_Peterson#12_Rules_for_Life_(2017)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:01:40" }, { "id": "48d5d970-06f2-4100-ac00-2351ab4de689", "slug": "tradition-is-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/pierce-brown/golden-son/tradition-is-the", "text": "Tradition is the crown of the tyrant.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Pierce Brown", "slug": "pierce-brown", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/pierce-brown" }, "book": { "title": "Golden Son", "slug": "golden-son", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/pierce-brown/golden-son" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "tyranny", "slug": "tyranny", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/tyranny" }, { "name": "tradition", "slug": "tradition", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/tradition" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Pierce_Brown#Golden_Son_(2015)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:00:59" }, { "id": "9479d664-3d23-4621-848e-caea3f5f510f", "slug": "this-was-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/tanith-lee/vazkor-son-of-vazkor/this-was-the", "text": "This was the custom of the tribes, and perhaps, in the fogs of their pasts, the scheme had had its reasons. Yet like many of their ways, only the peel remained, the fruit was long gone.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Tanith Lee", "slug": "tanith-lee", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/tanith-lee" }, "book": { "title": "Vazkor, Son of Vazkor", "slug": "vazkor-son-of-vazkor", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/tanith-lee/vazkor-son-of-vazkor" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 31, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "tradition", "slug": "tradition", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/tradition" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Tanith_Lee#Vazkor,_Son_of_Vazkor_(1978)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:00:20" }, { "id": "5ddb3c86-a048-46c8-bd21-b1a40aed1cb2", "slug": "tradition-means-giving", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/g-chesterton/orthodoxy/tradition-means-giving", "text": "Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit to the small and arrogant oligarchy of those who merely happen to be walking about. All democrats object to men being disqualified by the accident of birth; tradition objects to their being disqualified by the accident of death. Democracy tells us not to neglect a good man's opinion, even if he is our groom; tradition asks us not to neglect a good man's opinion, even if he is our father. I, at any rate, cannot separate the two ideas of democracy and tradition; it seems evident to me that they are the same idea. We will have the dead at our councils. The ancient Greeks voted by stones; these shall vote by tombstones. It is all quite regular and official, for most tombstones, like most ballot papers, are marked with a cross.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "G. Chesterton", "slug": "g-chesterton", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/g-chesterton" }, "book": { "title": "Orthodoxy", "slug": "orthodoxy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/g-chesterton/orthodoxy" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "democracy", "slug": "democracy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/democracy" }, { "name": "tradition", "slug": "tradition", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/tradition" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Orthodoxy_(book)#Chapter_IV._'The_Ethics_of_Elfland%22", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T23:00:12" }, { "id": "ab7fb24c-13a5-4bba-84e2-f8fefdb19a55", "slug": "the-ceremony-was", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/avram-davidson/the-phoenix-and-the-mirror/the-ceremony-was", "text": "The ceremony was long and intricate, probably none of them could have explained why half of it was done, and the explanations for the other half would probably have been thoroughly incorrect.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Avram Davidson", "slug": "avram-davidson", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/avram-davidson" }, "book": { "title": "The Phoenix and the Mirror", "slug": "the-phoenix-and-the-mirror", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/avram-davidson/the-phoenix-and-the-mirror" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "humor", "slug": "humor", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor" }, { "name": "tradition", "slug": "tradition", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/tradition" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Avram_Davidson#The_Phoenix_and_the_Mirror_(1969)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:58:41" }, { "id": "ee102b0f-41fa-45ec-ac89-3704406f6c51", "slug": "the-great-defect", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alain-de-botton/status-anxiety/the-great-defect", "text": "The great defect, for Chamfort, consisted in the public’s reluctance to submit its thinking to the rigors of rational examination, and its tendency to rely instead on intuition, emotion, and custom. “One can be certain that every generally held idea, every received notion, will be an idiocy, because it has been able to appeal to a majority,” the Frenchman observed, adding that what is flatteringly called common sense is usually little more than common nonsense, suffering as it does from simplification and illogicality, prejudice and shallowness: “The most absurd customs and the most ridiculous ceremonies are everywhere excused by an appeal to the phrase, but that’s the tradition.”", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Alain de Botton", "slug": "alain-de-botton", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alain-de-botton" }, "book": { "title": "Status Anxiety", "slug": "status-anxiety", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alain-de-botton/status-anxiety" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 116, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "conformity", "slug": "conformity", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/conformity" }, { "name": "tradition", "slug": "tradition", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/tradition" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Alain_de_Botton#Status_Anxiety_(2004)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:58:07" }, { "id": "eb9201cf-b3b2-4706-81c6-889c99e10dd5", "slug": "i-remembered-once", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams/last-chance-to-see/i-remembered-once", "text": "I remembered once, in Japan, having been to see the Gold Pavilion Temple in Kyoto and being mildly surprised at quite how well it had weathered the passage of time since it was first built in the fourteenth century. I was told it hadn’t weathered well at all, and had in fact been burnt to the ground twice in this century. “So it isn’t the original building?” I had asked my Japanese guide. “But yes, of course it is,” he insisted, rather surprised at my question. “But it’s been burned down?” “Yes.” “Twice.” “Many times.” “And rebuilt.” “Of course. It is an important and historic building.” “With completely new materials.” “But of course. It was burned down.” “So how can it be the same building?” “It is always the same building.” I had to admit to myself that this was in fact a perfectly rational point of view, it merely started from an unexpected premise. The idea of the building, the intention of it, its design, are all immutable and are the essence of the building. The intention of the original builders is what survives. The wood of which the design is constructed decays and is replaced when necessary. To be overly concerned with the original materials, which are merely sentimental souvenirs of the past, is to fail to see the living building itself. I couldn’t feel entirely comfortable with this view, because it fought against my basic Western assumptions, but I did see the point.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Douglas Adams", "slug": "douglas-adams", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams" }, "book": { "title": "Last Chance to See", "slug": "last-chance-to-see", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams/last-chance-to-see" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 148, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "tradition", "slug": "tradition", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/tradition" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Last_Chance_to_See#Chapter_5:_Blind_Panic", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:57:30" }, { "id": "e55ed931-e0b1-40b3-a070-17b0a749567f", "slug": "an-inordinate-love", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jeff-vandermeer/city-of-saints-and-madmen/an-inordinate-love", "text": "An inordinate love of ritual can be harmful to the soul, unless, of course, in times of great crisis, when ritual can protect the soul from fracture.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jeff VanderMeer", "slug": "jeff-vandermeer", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jeff-vandermeer" }, "book": { "title": "City of Saints and Madmen", "slug": "city-of-saints-and-madmen", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jeff-vandermeer/city-of-saints-and-madmen" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 122, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "tradition", "slug": "tradition", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/tradition" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jeff_VanderMeer#City_of_Saints_and_Madmen_(2001%E2%80%932004)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:57:23" }, { "id": "a3446b7c-cf2d-4670-9951-fa5a7f4de24c", "slug": "why-do-we-stop", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/patrick-rothfuss/the-name-of-the-wind/why-do-we-stop", "text": "“Why do we stop for the greystones?” “Tradition, my boy,” he said grandly, throwing his arms wide. “And superstition. They are one and the same, anyway.”", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Patrick Rothfuss", "slug": "patrick-rothfuss", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/patrick-rothfuss" }, "book": { "title": "The Name of the Wind", "slug": "the-name-of-the-wind", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/patrick-rothfuss/the-name-of-the-wind" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 112, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "superstitions", "slug": "superstitions", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/superstitions" }, { "name": "tradition", "slug": "tradition", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/tradition" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Patrick_Rothfuss#The_Name_of_the_Wind_(2007)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:57:08" }, { "id": "04a80898-3322-4bc7-839a-6bc7e39854f1", "slug": "but-merely-being", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/brandon-sanderson/oathbringer/but-merely-being", "text": "But merely being tradition does not make some thing worthy, Kadash. We can’t just assume that because some thing is old it is right.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Brandon Sanderson", "slug": "brandon-sanderson", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/brandon-sanderson" }, "book": { "title": "Oathbringer", "slug": "oathbringer", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/brandon-sanderson/oathbringer" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 179, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "tradition", "slug": "tradition", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/tradition" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Brandon_Sanderson#Oathbringer_(2017)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:56:38" }, { "id": "8239ed09-fc60-44fa-9fca-17b5d2248178", "slug": "the-man-had", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-brunner/the-stone-that-never-came-down/the-man-had", "text": "The man had declared, with some justification, that the world was going to hell in a handbasket, and then gone on to claim that the only solution lay in returning to the Good Old Moral Values of the glorious past. Unable to stand any more, Malcolm had demanded why, if those values were so marvellous, the people who paid lip-service to them had involved mankind in two world wars with all their accoutrements from poison gas to atom-bombs.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "John Brunner", "slug": "john-brunner", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-brunner" }, "book": { "title": "The Stone That Never Came Down", "slug": "the-stone-that-never-came-down", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-brunner/the-stone-that-never-came-down" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 31, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "war", "slug": "war", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/war" }, { "name": "morality", "slug": "morality", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality" }, { "name": "tradition", "slug": "tradition", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/tradition" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Brunner#The_Stone_That_Never_Came_Down_(1973)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:56:11" }, { "id": "be92f9fe-905e-491f-8473-1d648fe2ca18", "slug": "the-land-of-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/chinua-achebe/things-fall-apart/the-land-of-the", "text": "The land of the living was not far removed from the domain of the ancestors. There was coming and going between them, especially at festivals and also when an old man died, because an old man was very close to the ancestors. A man's life from birth to death was a series of transition rites which brought him nearer and nearer to his ancestors.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Chinua Achebe", "slug": "chinua-achebe", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/chinua-achebe" }, "book": { "title": "Things Fall Apart", "slug": "things-fall-apart", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/chinua-achebe/things-fall-apart" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 115, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "death", "slug": "death", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/death" }, { "name": "tradition", "slug": "tradition", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/tradition" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Chinua_Achebe#Things_Fall_Apart_(1958)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:55:54" }, { "id": "adef1185-c7aa-4e56-8610-ec3b0f10b629", "slug": "the-bird-that", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kate-chopin/the-awakening/the-bird-that", "text": "\"The bird that would soar above the plane of tradition and prejudice must have strong wings. It is a sad spectacle to see the weaklings bruised, exhausted, fluttering back to earth.\"", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Kate Chopin", "slug": "kate-chopin", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kate-chopin" }, "book": { "title": "The Awakening", "slug": "the-awakening", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kate-chopin/the-awakening" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "courage", "slug": "courage", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/courage" }, { "name": "prejudice", "slug": "prejudice", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/prejudice" }, { "name": "tradition", "slug": "tradition", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/tradition" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Kate_Chopin#The_Awakening_(1899)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:55:47" }, { "id": "a190318b-d0da-450c-8f8b-fb53fe8ec79e", "slug": "the-trouble-with", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/anzia-yezierska/hungry-hearts/the-trouble-with", "text": "The trouble with us is that the ghetto of the Middle Ages and the children of the twentieth century have to live under one roof.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Anzia Yezierska", "slug": "anzia-yezierska", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/anzia-yezierska" }, "book": { "title": "Hungry Hearts", "slug": "hungry-hearts", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/anzia-yezierska/hungry-hearts" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "tradition", "slug": "tradition", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/tradition" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Anzia_Yezierska#%22The_Fat_of_the_Land%22", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:54:34" }, { "id": "0f9bd47c-6b10-4a78-8d17-b2f63f272bc5", "slug": "theyre-too-literal-minded", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-stross/singularity-sky/theyre-too-literal-minded", "text": "“They’re too literal-minded,” he said quietly. “All doing, no innovative thinking. They don’t understand metaphors well; half of them think you’re Baba Yaga returned, you know? We’ve been a, ah, stable culture too long. Patterns of belief, attitudes, get ingrained. When change comes, they are incapable of responding. Try to fit everything into their preconceived dogmas.”", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Charles Stross", "slug": "charles-stross", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-stross" }, "book": { "title": "Singularity Sky", "slug": "singularity-sky", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/charles-stross/singularity-sky" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 253, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "prejudice", "slug": "prejudice", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/prejudice" }, { "name": "tradition", "slug": "tradition", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/tradition" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Charles_Stross#Singularity_Sky_(2003)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:54:04" }, { "id": "c120d402-22ce-4d96-85af-41c42d811d57", "slug": "they-do-say", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/shirley-jackson/the-lottery/they-do-say", "text": "\"They do say,\" Mr. Adams said to Old Man Warner, who stood next to him, \"that over in the north village they're talking of giving up the lottery.\" Old Man Warner snorted. \"Pack of crazy fools\", he said. \"Listening to the young folks, nothing's good enough for them. Next thing you know, they'll be wanting to go back to living in caves, nobody work any more, live that way for a while. Used to be a saying about 'Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon.' First thing you know, we'd all be eating stewed chickweed and acorns. There's always been a lottery,\" he added petulantly.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Shirley Jackson", "slug": "shirley-jackson", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/shirley-jackson" }, "book": { "title": "The Lottery", "slug": "the-lottery", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/shirley-jackson/the-lottery" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "tradition", "slug": "tradition", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/tradition" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Shirley_Jackson#The_Lottery_(1948)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:53:12" }, { "id": "987b0737-9342-458e-951e-c76b005bbb21", "slug": "although-the-villagers", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/shirley-jackson/the-lottery/although-the-villagers", "text": "Although the villagers had forgotten the ritual and lost the original black box, they still remembered to use stones.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Shirley Jackson", "slug": "shirley-jackson", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/shirley-jackson" }, "book": { "title": "The Lottery", "slug": "the-lottery", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/shirley-jackson/the-lottery" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "cruelty", "slug": "cruelty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/cruelty" }, { "name": "tradition", "slug": "tradition", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/tradition" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Shirley_Jackson#The_Lottery_(1948)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:53:12" }, { "id": "4229ae6b-f413-4264-af53-fed616ac084e", "slug": "quality-leadership-is-neither", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/cornel-west/race-matters/quality-leadership-is-neither", "text": "Quality leadership is neither the product of one great individual nor the result of odd historical accidents. Rather, it comes from deeply bred traditions and communities that shape and mold talented and gifted persons. Without a vibrant tradition of resistance passed on to new generations, there can be no nurturing of a collective and critical consciousness—only professional conscientiousness survives. (p37)", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Cornel West", "slug": "cornel-west", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/cornel-west" }, "book": { "title": "Race Matters", "slug": "race-matters", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/cornel-west/race-matters" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "leadership", "slug": "leadership", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/leadership" }, { "name": "tradition", "slug": "tradition", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/tradition" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Cornel_West#Race_Matters_(1993)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:53:01" }, { "id": "1f530b90-8ffc-4cea-95bd-2a9a4f95e3ef", "slug": "continuity-is-at-the", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/garrett-hardin/filters-against-folly/continuity-is-at-the", "text": "Continuity is at the heart of conservatism: ecology serves that heart.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Garrett Hardin", "slug": "garrett-hardin", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/garrett-hardin" }, "book": { "title": "Filters against Folly", "slug": "filters-against-folly", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/garrett-hardin/filters-against-folly" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "ecology", "slug": "ecology", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/ecology" }, { "name": "tradition", "slug": "tradition", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/tradition" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Garrett_Hardin#Filters_Against_Folly_(1985)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:52:10" }, { "id": "0d6cb220-37bb-42b6-9f10-5c92a3ea89d2", "slug": "a-coldly-rationalist", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/garrett-hardin/filters-against-folly/a-coldly-rationalist", "text": "A coldly rationalist individualist can deny that he has any obligation to make sacrifices for the future. By contrast, those who, for whatever reason, regard the resources at their disposal as an inheritance from the past that they feel obliged to pass on to their descendants, have a better chance of producing future generations prosperous enough to be able to continue to wrestle with the problems of increasing the quality of life.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Garrett Hardin", "slug": "garrett-hardin", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/garrett-hardin" }, "book": { "title": "Filters against Folly", "slug": "filters-against-folly", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/garrett-hardin/filters-against-folly" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "responsibility", "slug": "responsibility", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/responsibility" }, { "name": "the future", "slug": "the-future", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-future" }, { "name": "tradition", "slug": "tradition", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/tradition" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Garrett_Hardin#Filters_Against_Folly_(1985)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:52:10" }, { "id": "0dff703d-4e4e-4c30-8c1d-d6846c97f481", "slug": "perhaps-we-could", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jared-diamond/the-world-until-yesterday/perhaps-we-could", "text": "Perhaps we could benefit by selectively adopting some of those traditional practices. Some of us already do so, with demonstrated benefits to our health and happiness. In some respects we moderns are misfits; our bodies and our practices now face conditions different from those under which they evolved, and to which they became adapted. But we should also not go to the opposite extreme of romanticizing the past and longing for simpler times. Many traditional practices are ones that we can consider ourselves blessed to have discarded — such as infanticide, abandoning or killing elderly people, facing periodic risk of starvation, being at heightened risk from environmental dangers and infectious diseases, often seeing one’s children die, and living in constant fear of being attacked. Traditional societies may not only suggest to us some better living practices, but may also help us appreciate some advantages of our own society that we take for granted.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jared Diamond", "slug": "jared-diamond", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jared-diamond" }, "book": { "title": "The World Until Yesterday", "slug": "the-world-until-yesterday", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jared-diamond/the-world-until-yesterday" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "civilization", "slug": "civilization", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/civilization" }, { "name": "tradition", "slug": "tradition", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/tradition" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jared_Diamond#The_World_Until_Yesterday:_What_Can_We_Learn_from_Traditional_Societies%3F_(2012)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:52:07" }, { "id": "327083c1-83a6-4191-ac38-f273566ae9bb", "slug": "the-confederate-states", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove/american-empire-blood-and-iron/the-confederate-states", "text": "The Confederate States had been founded on the principle that change was a bad idea.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Harry Turtledove", "slug": "harry-turtledove", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove" }, "book": { "title": "American Empire: Blood and Iron", "slug": "american-empire-blood-and-iron", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/harry-turtledove/american-empire-blood-and-iron" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 164, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "change", "slug": "change", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/change" }, { "name": "tradition", "slug": "tradition", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/tradition" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Harry_Turtledove#American_Empire:_The_Center_Cannot_Hold_(2002)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:51:51" }, { "id": "2bef0c60-ba68-4f3f-8a3c-6be751b86e0c", "slug": "in-a-technocracy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/neil-postman/technopoly/in-a-technocracy", "text": "In a technocracy, tools play a central role in the thought-world of the culture. Everything must give way, in some degree, to their development. The social and symbolic worlds become increasingly subject to the requirements of that development. Tools are not integrated into the culture; they attack the culture. They bid to become the culture. As a consequence, tradition, social mores, myth, politics, ritual, and religion have to fight for their lives...", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Neil Postman", "slug": "neil-postman", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/neil-postman" }, "book": { "title": "Technopoly", "slug": "technopoly", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/neil-postman/technopoly" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" }, { "name": "tradition", "slug": "tradition", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/tradition" }, { "name": "technological progress", "slug": "technological-progress", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/technological-progress" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Neil_Postman#Technopoly:_the_Surrender_of_Culture_to_Technology_(1992)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:51:39" }, { "id": "bab276d1-223b-4f9e-86bc-26de93de8959", "slug": "the-old-notion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-george-frazer/the-golden-bough/the-old-notion", "text": "The old notion that the savage is the freest of mankind is the reverse of the truth. He is a slave, not indeed to a visible master, but to the past, to the spirits of his dead forefathers, who haunt his steps from birth to death, and rule him with a rod of iron.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "James George Frazer", "slug": "james-george-frazer", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-george-frazer" }, "book": { "title": "The Golden Bough", "slug": "the-golden-bough", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-george-frazer/the-golden-bough" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "freedom", "slug": "freedom", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/freedom" }, { "name": "the past", "slug": "the-past", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past" }, { "name": "tradition", "slug": "tradition", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/tradition" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/James_Frazer#The_Golden_Bough_(1890)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:51:38" }, { "id": "4e73ccf5-1008-4f3c-833c-b6309253f393", "slug": "for-myth-changes", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-george-frazer/the-golden-bough/for-myth-changes", "text": "For myth changes while custom remains constant; men continue to do what their did before them, though the reasons on which their fathers acted have been long forgotten.The history of religion is a long attempt to reconcile old custom with new reason, to find a sound theory for an absurd practice.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "James George Frazer", "slug": "james-george-frazer", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-george-frazer" }, "book": { "title": "The Golden Bough", "slug": "the-golden-bough", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/james-george-frazer/the-golden-bough" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "religion", "slug": "religion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/religion" }, { "name": "reason", "slug": "reason", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/reason" }, { "name": "tradition", "slug": "tradition", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/tradition" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/James_Frazer#The_Golden_Bough_(1890)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:51:38" }, { "id": "b5fe15c8-67f5-4dea-8daa-f20e4a67bca1", "slug": "a-french-or-english", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/j-m-coetzee/elizabeth-costello/a-french-or-english", "text": "A French or English writer has thousands of years of written tradition behind him…We on the other hand are heirs to an oral tradition.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "J. M. Coetzee", "slug": "j-m-coetzee", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/j-m-coetzee" }, "book": { "title": "Elizabeth Costello", "slug": "elizabeth-costello", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/j-m-coetzee/elizabeth-costello" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "literature", "slug": "literature", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/literature" }, { "name": "tradition", "slug": "tradition", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/tradition" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/J._M._Coetzee#Elizabeth_Costello_(2003)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:51:32" }, { "id": "e80ecac0-3a7b-46f4-b3d1-2a155897d82f", "slug": "all-societies-maintain", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/six-moon-dance/all-societies-maintain", "text": "“All societies maintain themselves by forcing personal behavior into a mold or pattern which the society calls its ‘culture.’ The patterns are imposed by natural or political conditions; for example, either recurrent drought or recurrent persecution can result in similar patterns. Most patterns require changes in behavior, and that requires changes in belief systems, or vice versa, sort of chicken and egg as to which comes first. “So a few thousand years go by and the climate changes, or the politics, but the people still follow the same taboos because by now they believe their deity ordered them to do it. Long-practiced behaviors that started as a response to conditions, always fossilize into ‘traditional values,’ that is, the only ‘right way’ to do things. At that point people no longer use the system in order to survive, the system uses them in order to survive. That’s something people often don’t understand. Systems are parasitical, they have a life of their own, and they, too, evolve and change and try to survive. The one factor that is true of all cultures, without exception, is that it never represents the free desires of the people who are jammed into it even when people are conditioned from childhood to accept uniformation.” “Really?” asked Ellin. “Never?” Questioner grinned at her. “Only mavericks live in accordance with their desires, and even they don’t often get away with it. They are usually labeled as troublemakers and gotten rid of.”", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Sheri S. Tepper", "slug": "sheri-s-tepper", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper" }, "book": { "title": "Six Moon Dance", "slug": "six-moon-dance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/six-moon-dance" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 286, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "society", "slug": "society", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/society" }, { "name": "culture", "slug": "culture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/culture" }, { "name": "tradition", "slug": "tradition", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/tradition" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Sheri_S._Tepper#Six_Moon_Dance_(1998)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:51:25" }, { "id": "0d9111ab-0b66-4cee-83a0-847a79293e5a", "slug": "but-youre-saying", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/six-moon-dance/but-youre-saying", "text": "“But you’re saying all societies are coercive,” said Ellin in a troubled voice. Questioner laughed. “But Honorable Ellin, of course they are. This is what makes reading history so amusing. Most cultures think of themselves as free while regarding others as coerced. They do so because they are following traditional values, and the generations of coercion that resulted in those values is long forgotten.”", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Sheri S. Tepper", "slug": "sheri-s-tepper", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper" }, "book": { "title": "Six Moon Dance", "slug": "six-moon-dance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/six-moon-dance" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 287, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "freedom", "slug": "freedom", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/freedom" }, { "name": "society", "slug": "society", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/society" }, { "name": "tradition", "slug": "tradition", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/tradition" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Sheri_S._Tepper#Six_Moon_Dance_(1998)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:51:25" }, { "id": "32e51a1e-8ca6-4051-967d-603da9ce9f7b", "slug": "every-hundred-years", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/shadows-end/every-hundred-years", "text": "Every hundred years they would be disillusioned, and each time they would swear to hide their disillusionment in order to retain their power. “We won’t tell anyone,” they’d say. “We won’t let anyone know. We’ll deny it. We’ll defend the traditional teachings!” Such things that happened before! Men in power had made mistakes or foolish claims and spent the rest of their lives and their successors’ lives defending the indefensible, or hiding it.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Sheri S. Tepper", "slug": "sheri-s-tepper", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper" }, "book": { "title": "Shadow’s End", "slug": "shadows-end", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/shadows-end" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 344, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "power", "slug": "power", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/power" }, { "name": "lies", "slug": "lies", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/lies" }, { "name": "tradition", "slug": "tradition", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/tradition" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Sheri_S._Tepper#Shadow's_End_(1994)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:51:24" }, { "id": "8a9ba639-f943-416e-b6b3-44bbeb5cfdd2", "slug": "i-was-a-free", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/sideshow/i-was-a-free", "text": "“I was a free person.” “Free to what?” “To…to do anything I wanted to.” Jory laughed, shaking her head. “Weren’t you told as a child that one way was better than another, one belief better than another? Weren’t you told some things were higher and some lower? That some things were suitable for women, others for men? That your God was more powerful? That your religion was truer? That your language was more expressive? That your customs had more heart, or more soul? That your cooking tasted better? That your way of child-rearing was preferable? That all your ways were so much better than others ways that you would die to keep yours as they were, or die to destroy others if they seemed threatening? Weren’t you taught not to change, not to adapt, not to become anything different? Weren’t you taught the word ‘loyalty’? The word ‘tradition’? Didn’t they tell you that animals were higher than vegetables, mammals were higher than other animals, man was higher than other mammals, and your kind of man was higher than other men? “You think you weren’t enslaved by that? You think you had freedom of choice? I have said this to Fringe, I say it to you: A man’s choice becomes his son’s duty and his grandson’s tradition! Thus men assure enslavement of their progeny.”", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Sheri S. Tepper", "slug": "sheri-s-tepper", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper" }, "book": { "title": "Sideshow", "slug": "sideshow", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/sideshow" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 419, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "freedom", "slug": "freedom", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/freedom" }, { "name": "upbringing", "slug": "upbringing", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/upbringing" }, { "name": "tradition", "slug": "tradition", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/tradition" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Sheri_S._Tepper#Sideshow_(1992)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:51:23" }, { "id": "73943e95-8bd1-40da-be8d-6331ef89e4d5", "slug": "old-mens-religions", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/raising-the-stones/old-mens-religions", "text": "Old men’s religions and old men’s legends, always elsewhere, in the dark, so they could not be seen too clearly. So they could not be examined too closely. So they could go on, breeding, fulminating, burning, and rotting in the dark.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Sheri S. Tepper", "slug": "sheri-s-tepper", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper" }, "book": { "title": "Raising The Stones", "slug": "raising-the-stones", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/raising-the-stones" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 505, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "religion", "slug": "religion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/religion" }, { "name": "tradition", "slug": "tradition", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/tradition" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Sheri_S._Tepper#Raising_the_Stones_(1990)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:51:22" }, { "id": "d69c3d66-cee8-4798-a5e4-249d54409ca0", "slug": "to-us-it-does", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/marianne-the-magus-and-the-manticore/to-us-it-does", "text": "“To us it does not seem that long ago, possibly because our children hear stories told around the fire of things which happened fifteen centuries back. Such stories carry an immediacy one does not get from books.…” “Which is why some countries carry such old grudges,” offered Marianne. “What children learn at their grandmas’ knees they act upon as though it happened yesterday.” He nodded gravely, even sadly. “Perhaps that is true. Those who have an oral tradition full of old wrongs and old revenge do seem to fight the same battles forever. If the Irish were not forever singing of their ancient wrongs—or writing poetry about it…well, we see the result in every morning’s newspapers.”", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Sheri S. Tepper", "slug": "sheri-s-tepper", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper" }, "book": { "title": "Marianne, the Magus and the Manticore", "slug": "marianne-the-magus-and-the-manticore", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/marianne-the-magus-and-the-manticore" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 67, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "history", "slug": "history", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/history" }, { "name": "revenge", "slug": "revenge", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/revenge" }, { "name": "tradition", "slug": "tradition", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/tradition" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Sheri_S._Tepper#Marianne,_the_Magus,_and_the_Manticore_(1985)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:51:20" }, { "id": "61a594d1-b2a7-4b9c-9140-e65a6729c360", "slug": "by-jesuss-time", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-graves/king-jesus/by-jesuss-time", "text": "By Jesus’s time the Law of Moses, originally established for the government of a semi-barbarous nation of herdsmen and hill-farmers, resembled a petulant great-grandfather who tries to govern a family business from his sick-bed in the chimney-corner, unaware of the changes that have taken place in the world since he was able to get about: his authority must not be questioned, yet his orders, since no longer relevant, must be reinterpreted in another sense, if the business is not to go bankrupt. When the old man says, for instance: “It is time for the women to grind their lapfuls of millet in the querns,” this is taken to mean: “It is time to send the sacks of wheat to the water-mill.”", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Robert Graves", "slug": "robert-graves", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-graves" }, "book": { "title": "King Jesus", "slug": "king-jesus", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-graves/king-jesus" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "religion", "slug": "religion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/religion" }, { "name": "law", "slug": "law", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/law" }, { "name": "tradition", "slug": "tradition", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/tradition" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robert_Graves#King_Jesus_(1946)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:51:06" }, { "id": "d39db038-83af-46e6-8ec1-ebfb51ba4dd9", "slug": "i-appreciate-this", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-moorcock/the-condition-of-muzak/i-appreciate-this", "text": "“I appreciate this quest for national identity,” she said, “but it does seem that most traditions were dropped for the good reason that they were revoltingly cruel and stupid.”", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Michael Moorcock", "slug": "michael-moorcock", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-moorcock" }, "book": { "title": "The Condition of Muzak", "slug": "the-condition-of-muzak", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-moorcock/the-condition-of-muzak" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 772, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "tradition", "slug": "tradition", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/tradition" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Michael_Moorcock#The_Condition_of_Muzak_(1977)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:48:37" }, { "id": "678ecb44-4dc4-445e-a3fb-971190d47872", "slug": "i-simply-state", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/fscott-fitzgerald/this-side-of-paradise/i-simply-state", "text": "I simply state that I'm a product of a versatile mind in a restless generation — with every reason to throw my mind and pen in with the radicals. Even if, deep in my heart, I thought we were all blind atoms in a world as limited as a stroke of a pendulum, I and my sort would struggle against tradition; try, at least, to displace old cants with new ones. I've thought I was right about life at various times, but faith is difficult. One thing I know. If living isn't seeking for the grail it may be a damned amusing game.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "F.Scott Fitzgerald", "slug": "fscott-fitzgerald", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/fscott-fitzgerald" }, "book": { "title": "This Side of Paradise", "slug": "this-side-of-paradise", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/fscott-fitzgerald/this-side-of-paradise" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "youth", "slug": "youth", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/youth" }, { "name": "tradition", "slug": "tradition", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/tradition" }, { "name": "rebellion", "slug": "rebellion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/rebellion" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/F._Scott_Fitzgerald#This_Side_of_Paradise_(1920)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:47:49" }, { "id": "04134f66-7ebe-4f8c-882b-a927530db770", "slug": "we-have-to-recognize", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jomo-kenyatta/facing-mount-kenya/we-have-to-recognize", "text": "We have to recognize the fact that an African who looks at things from the tribal point of view and at the same time from that of western civilization, experiences the tragedy of the modern world in an especially acute manner.\"", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jomo Kenyatta", "slug": "jomo-kenyatta", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jomo-kenyatta" }, "book": { "title": "Facing Mount Kenya", "slug": "facing-mount-kenya", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jomo-kenyatta/facing-mount-kenya" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "tradition", "slug": "tradition", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/tradition" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jomo_Kenyatta#Facing_Mount_Kenya_(1938)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:47:25" }, { "id": "28f1ae34-a0c4-445d-a1d4-3283692469d4", "slug": "why-do-you", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ayn-rand/the-fountainhead/why-do-you", "text": "\"Why do you want me to think that this is great architecture?\" He pointed to the picture of the Parthenon. \"That,\" said the Dean, \"is the Parthenon!\" \"So it is.\" \"I haven't the time to waste on silly questions.\" \"All right, then.\" Roark got up, he took a long ruler from the desk, he walked to the picture. \"Shall I tell you what's rotten about it?\" \"It’s the Parthenon!\" said the Dean. \"Yes, God damn it, the Parthenon.\" The ruler struck the glass over the picture. \"Look, \" said Roark. \"The famous flutings on the famous columns—what are they there for? To hide the joints in the wood—when columns were made of wood, only these aren't, they're marble. The triglyphs, what are they? Wood. Wooden beams, the way they had to be laid when people began to build wooden shacks. Your Greeks took marble and they made copies of their wooden structures out of it, because others had done it that way. Then your masters of the Renaissance came along and made copies in plaster of copies in marble of copies in wood. Now here we are, making copies in steel and concrete of copies in plaster of copies in marble of copies in wood. Why?\"", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Ayn Rand", "slug": "ayn-rand", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ayn-rand" }, "book": { "title": "The Fountainhead", "slug": "the-fountainhead", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/ayn-rand/the-fountainhead" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 23, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "conformity", "slug": "conformity", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/conformity" }, { "name": "tradition", "slug": "tradition", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/tradition" }, { "name": "architecture", "slug": "architecture", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/architecture" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Fountainhead#Part_I_(_Peter_Keating_)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:47:08" }, { "id": "a04e8d48-cf45-4f1c-aa9b-0e07532adda3", "slug": "several-times-i-have", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/derrick-jensen/the-culture-of-make-believe/several-times-i-have", "text": "Several times I have commented that hatred felt long and deeply enough no longer feels like hatred, but more like tradition, economics, religion, what have you. It is when those traditions are challenged, when the entitlement is threatened, when the masks of religion, economics, and so on are pulled away that hate transforms from its more seemingly sophisticated, \"normal,\" chronic state--where those exploited are looked down upon, or despised--to a more acute and obvious manifestation. Hate becomes more perceptible when it is no longer normalized. Another way to say all of this is that if the rhetoric of superiority works to maintain the entitlement, hatred and direct physical force remain underground. But when that rhetoric begins to fail, force and hatred waits in the wings, ready to explode.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Derrick Jensen", "slug": "derrick-jensen", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/derrick-jensen" }, "book": { "title": "The Culture of Make Believe", "slug": "the-culture-of-make-believe", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/derrick-jensen/the-culture-of-make-believe" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 106, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "hatred", "slug": "hatred", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/hatred" }, { "name": "tradition", "slug": "tradition", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/tradition" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Derrick_Jensen#The_Culture_of_Make_Believe_(2003)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:44:51" }, { "id": "062adb71-7d86-44da-a871-ed69779c0b67", "slug": "rituals-should-have", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kim-stanley-robinson/green-mars/rituals-should-have", "text": "Rituals should have some unpleasantness, or you don’t appreciate them properly.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Kim Stanley Robinson", "slug": "kim-stanley-robinson", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kim-stanley-robinson" }, "book": { "title": "Green Mars", "slug": "green-mars", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kim-stanley-robinson/green-mars" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 291, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "humor", "slug": "humor", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor" }, { "name": "tradition", "slug": "tradition", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/tradition" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Kim_Stanley_Robinson#Green_Mars_(1993)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:44:44" }, { "id": "7ac858c7-fdf5-4aab-9377-72cc1f813968", "slug": "however-much-science", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robertson-davies/the-cornish-trilogy/however-much-science", "text": "However much science and educational theory and advanced thinking you pump into a college or a university, it always retains a strong hint of its medieval origins, and the fact that Spook was a New World college in a New World university made surprisingly little difference.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Robertson Davies", "slug": "robertson-davies", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robertson-davies" }, "book": { "title": "The Cornish Trilogy", "slug": "the-cornish-trilogy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robertson-davies/the-cornish-trilogy" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "education", "slug": "education", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/education" }, { "name": "tradition", "slug": "tradition", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/tradition" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Cornish_Trilogy#The_Rebel_Angels", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:44:15" }, { "id": "c867e0bf-73bd-4f88-b384-c03bcaa888aa", "slug": "it-is-one", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robertson-davies/the-deptford-trilogy/it-is-one", "text": "It is one of the touching aspects of our work here in the College [of Arms] that so many of you New World people, up to the eyebrows in all the delights of republicanism, hanker after a link with what is ancient and rubbed by time to a fine sheen. It's more than snobbery; more than romanticism; it's a desire for an ancestry that somehow postulates a posterity and for an existence in the past that is a covert guarantee of immortality in the future.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Robertson Davies", "slug": "robertson-davies", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robertson-davies" }, "book": { "title": "The Deptford Trilogy", "slug": "the-deptford-trilogy", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robertson-davies/the-deptford-trilogy" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "immortality", "slug": "immortality", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/immortality" }, { "name": "tradition", "slug": "tradition", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/tradition" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Deptford_Trilogy#(1972)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:44:14" }, { "id": "952883f6-630f-412d-8bb8-62705b08c9dc", "slug": "precedent-is-merely", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/space-cadet/precedent-is-merely", "text": "Precedent is merely the assumption that somebody else, in the past with less information, nevertheless knows better than the man on the spot.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Robert A. Heinlein", "slug": "robert-a-heinlein", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein" }, "book": { "title": "Space Cadet", "slug": "space-cadet", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/robert-a-heinlein/space-cadet" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 180, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "tradition", "slug": "tradition", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/tradition" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robert_A._Heinlein#Space_Cadet_(1948)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:43:56" }, { "id": "1382d4bf-f4c9-4793-9fb8-d05b17590b9c", "slug": "only-children-are", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jack-vance/marune-alastor-933/only-children-are", "text": "“Only children are intolerant of conventions. They are indispensable to an organized civilization, like discipline to an army, or foundations to a building, or landmarks to a traveler. Without conventions civilization is a handful of water. An army without discipline is a mob. A building without foundations is rubble. A traveler without landmarks is lost.” Lorcas stated that he opposed not all convention, but only those which he found irksome and pointless.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jack Vance", "slug": "jack-vance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jack-vance" }, "book": { "title": "Marune: Alastor 933", "slug": "marune-alastor-933", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jack-vance/marune-alastor-933" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 246, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "civilization", "slug": "civilization", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/civilization" }, { "name": "tradition", "slug": "tradition", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/tradition" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jack_Vance#Marune:_Alastor_933_(1975)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:43:02" }, { "id": "a79bc8af-e26e-41bc-9c4d-c49415da8bad", "slug": "i-perceive-your", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jack-vance/trullion-alastor-2262/i-perceive-your", "text": "“I perceive your ideological bias.” “It is not bias to favor the tried and true ways of the past; it is ordinary common sense.”", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jack Vance", "slug": "jack-vance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jack-vance" }, "book": { "title": "Trullion: Alastor 2262", "slug": "trullion-alastor-2262", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jack-vance/trullion-alastor-2262" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 144, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "tradition", "slug": "tradition", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/tradition" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jack_Vance#Trullion:_Alastor_2262_(1973)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:43:01" }, { "id": "f0f78fa8-6d1b-4afa-8e6a-53602ce201cd", "slug": "the-cantons-of-shant", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jack-vance/the-anome/the-cantons-of-shant", "text": "The cantons of Shant were alike only in their mutual distrust. Each regarded as Universal Principles its own customs, costumes, jargon, and mannerisms and considered all else eccentricity.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Jack Vance", "slug": "jack-vance", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jack-vance" }, "book": { "title": "The Anome", "slug": "the-anome", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/jack-vance/the-anome" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 63, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "prejudice", "slug": "prejudice", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/prejudice" }, { "name": "tradition", "slug": "tradition", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/tradition" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jack_Vance#The_Anome_(1973%3B_serialized_1971)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:43:00" }, { "id": "27f1812c-db83-45b1-8300-d6a379c7ad74", "slug": "the-village-would", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut/welcome-to-the-monkey-house/the-village-would", "text": "The village would never accept it. It has a policy of never accepting anything. As a happy consequence, it changes about as fast as the rules of chess.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Kurt Vonnegut", "slug": "kurt-vonnegut", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut" }, "book": { "title": "Welcome to the Monkey House", "slug": "welcome-to-the-monkey-house", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/kurt-vonnegut/welcome-to-the-monkey-house" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 3, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "humor", "slug": "humor", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor" }, { "name": "change", "slug": "change", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/change" }, { "name": "tradition", "slug": "tradition", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/tradition" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Kurt_Vonnegut#Welcome_to_the_Monkey_House_(1968)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:42:38" }, { "id": "f6b26f98-433b-49a2-9a9a-6fe13395b9ac", "slug": "i-have-respect", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nassim-nicholas-taleb/the-bed-of-procrustes/i-have-respect", "text": "I have respect for mother nature's methods of robustness (billions of years allow most of what is fragile to break); classical thought is more robust (in its respect for the unknown, the epistemic humility) than the modern post-Enlightenment naïve pseudoscientific autism. Thus my classical values make me advocate the triplet of erudition, elegance, and courage; against modernity’s phoniness, nerdiness and philistinism.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Nassim Nicholas Taleb", "slug": "nassim-nicholas-taleb", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nassim-nicholas-taleb" }, "book": { "title": "The Bed of Procrustes", "slug": "the-bed-of-procrustes", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nassim-nicholas-taleb/the-bed-of-procrustes" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 107, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "courage", "slug": "courage", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/courage" }, { "name": "humility", "slug": "humility", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humility" }, { "name": "tradition", "slug": "tradition", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/tradition" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Nassim_Nicholas_Taleb#The_Bed_of_Procrustes:_Philosophical_and_Practical_Aphorisms_(2010)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:42:32" }, { "id": "00c32eb3-bbd1-4ff8-80cd-d5df89ae665c", "slug": "read-nothing-from", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nassim-nicholas-taleb/the-bed-of-procrustes/read-nothing-from", "text": "Read nothing from the past one hundred years; eat no fruits from the past one thousand years; drink nothing from the past four thousand years (just wine and water); but talk to no ordinary man over forty.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Nassim Nicholas Taleb", "slug": "nassim-nicholas-taleb", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nassim-nicholas-taleb" }, "book": { "title": "The Bed of Procrustes", "slug": "the-bed-of-procrustes", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nassim-nicholas-taleb/the-bed-of-procrustes" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 25, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "humor", "slug": "humor", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor" }, { "name": "tradition", "slug": "tradition", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/tradition" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Nassim_Nicholas_Taleb#The_Bed_of_Procrustes:_Philosophical_and_Practical_Aphorisms_(2010)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:42:32" }, { "id": "39bcbbee-44d8-482a-87b3-924f8c309ccc", "slug": "a-ge-is-beauty", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nassim-nicholas-taleb/fooled-by-randomness/a-ge-is-beauty", "text": "[A]ge is beauty. ...[M]y instinct is to value distilled thought over newer thinking, regardless of its apparent sophistication—another reason to accumulate the hoary volumes by my bedside... For an idea to have survived so many cycles is indicative of its relative fitness. Noise, at least some noise, was filtered out. ...[P]rogress means that some new information is better than past information, not that the average of new information will supplant past information...", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Nassim Nicholas Taleb", "slug": "nassim-nicholas-taleb", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nassim-nicholas-taleb" }, "book": { "title": "Fooled by Randomness", "slug": "fooled-by-randomness", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/nassim-nicholas-taleb/fooled-by-randomness" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "wisdom", "slug": "wisdom", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/wisdom" }, { "name": "tradition", "slug": "tradition", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/tradition" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Nassim_Nicholas_Taleb#Fooled_by_Randomness_(2001)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:42:30" }, { "id": "c3cbba3b-eeb2-4365-8d0c-acf9fb4da1f9", "slug": "the-doctrine-he-was", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/orson-scott-card/earthborn/the-doctrine-he-was", "text": "The doctrine he was going to be teaching, starting tonight, was not the sort of ideology that would stir souls; no one would die for this religion. It would only attracts converts by promising a return to old tradition and by seeming to be the religion of the future.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Orson Scott Card", "slug": "orson-scott-card", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/orson-scott-card" }, "book": { "title": "Earthborn", "slug": "earthborn", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/orson-scott-card/earthborn" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "religion", "slug": "religion", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/religion" }, { "name": "tradition", "slug": "tradition", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/tradition" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Orson_Scott_Card#Earthborn_(1995)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:42:11" }, { "id": "f2102254-6895-42c8-ae53-7312da2cea4f", "slug": "out-of-respect", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/orson-scott-card/earthborn/out-of-respect", "text": "Out of respect for custom he treats me as if all women were equally worthless. He gives custom more respect than he gives me.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Orson Scott Card", "slug": "orson-scott-card", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/orson-scott-card" }, "book": { "title": "Earthborn", "slug": "earthborn", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/orson-scott-card/earthborn" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "women", "slug": "women", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/women" }, { "name": "tradition", "slug": "tradition", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/tradition" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Orson_Scott_Card#Earthborn_(1995)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:42:10" }, { "id": "4f3a87e1-67c8-44cb-91a3-0540f7e791a9", "slug": "in-general-human", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/dragons-of-eden/in-general-human", "text": "In general, human societies are not innovative. They are hierarchical and ritualistic. Suggestions for change are greeted with suspicion: they imply an unpleasant future variation in ritual and hierarchy: an exchange of one set of rituals for another, or perhaps for a less structured society with fewer rituals. And yet there are times when societies must change. “The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate for the stormy present” was Abraham Lincoln’s description of this truth. Much of the difficulty in attempting to restructure American and other societies arises from this resistance by groups with vested interests in the status quo. Significant change might require those who are now high in the hierarchy to move downward many steps. This seems to them undesirable and is resisted.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Carl Sagan", "slug": "carl-sagan", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan" }, "book": { "title": "Dragons of Eden", "slug": "dragons-of-eden", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-sagan/dragons-of-eden" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 199, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "change", "slug": "change", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/change" }, { "name": "society", "slug": "society", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/society" }, { "name": "tradition", "slug": "tradition", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/tradition" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Carl_Sagan#The_Dragons_of_Eden_(1977)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:40:25" }, { "id": "90739c9d-c744-4f32-ad42-d5a4c7a64c4c", "slug": "do-not-despise", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/j-r-r-tolkien/the-fellowship-of-the-ring/do-not-despise", "text": "Do not despise the lore that has come down from distant years; for oft it may chance that old wives keep in memory word of things that once were needful for the wise to know.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "J. R. R. Tolkien", "slug": "j-r-r-tolkien", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/j-r-r-tolkien" }, "book": { "title": "The Fellowship of the Ring", "slug": "the-fellowship-of-the-ring", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/j-r-r-tolkien/the-fellowship-of-the-ring" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "wisdom", "slug": "wisdom", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/wisdom" }, { "name": "tradition", "slug": "tradition", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/tradition" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Fellowship_of_the_Ring#Farewell_to_L%C3%B3rien", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:40:21" }, { "id": "76c120f2-871a-40ee-b36d-185f30c75888", "slug": "tradition-is-a-guide", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-somerset-maugham/the-summing-up/tradition-is-a-guide", "text": "Tradition is a guide and not a jailer.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "William Somerset Maugham", "slug": "william-somerset-maugham", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-somerset-maugham" }, "book": { "title": "The Summing Up", "slug": "the-summing-up", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-somerset-maugham/the-summing-up" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": 223, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "tradition", "slug": "tradition", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/tradition" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/W._Somerset_Maugham#The_Summing_Up_(1938)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:28" }, { "id": "f1b11035-27a6-45cb-9c28-6d349d1642c1", "slug": "it-appears-to", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno/tragic-sense-of-life/it-appears-to", "text": "It appears to me to be indisputable that he who I am to-day derives, by a continuous series of states of consciousness, from him who was in my body twenty years ago. Memory is the basis of individual personality, just as tradition is the basis of the collective personality of a people. We live in memory, and our spiritual life is at bottom simply the effort of our memory to persist, to transform itself into hope, the effort of our past to transform itself into our future.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Miguel de Unamuno", "slug": "miguel-de-unamuno", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno" }, "book": { "title": "Tragic Sense of Life", "slug": "tragic-sense-of-life", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/miguel-de-unamuno/tragic-sense-of-life" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "identity", "slug": "identity", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/identity" }, { "name": "memory", "slug": "memory", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/memory" }, { "name": "tradition", "slug": "tradition", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/tradition" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Miguel_de_Unamuno#I_:_The_Man_of_Flesh_and_Bone", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:39:20" }, { "id": "b572e7cc-c93f-43a5-a6ca-ec6ff0050156", "slug": "what-is-today", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/tacitus/annals/what-is-today", "text": "What is today supported by precedents will hereafter become a precedent.", "language": "en", "author": { "name": "Tacitus", "slug": "tacitus", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/tacitus" }, "book": { "title": "Annals", "slug": "annals", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/tacitus/annals" }, "character": null, "chapter": null, "chapter_parent": null, "page": null, "verified": false, "original": null, "other_languages": [], "topics": [ { "name": "law", "slug": "law", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/law" }, { "name": "tradition", "slug": "tradition", "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/tradition" } ], "source": { "name": "Wikiquote", "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Tacitus#Annals_(117)", "license": { "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } }, "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:38:43" } ] }