Custom and Convention
‹ 2 · Outline · 4 ›
3.Conformity to established custom and obedience to local usage
3a.Obeying the customs of one's country as a maxim of prudence
Confucius, The Sayings of ConfuciusVol. 44
- p. 27Confucius follows the cheaper silk cap but refuses the new custom of bowing above, keeping to what is correct.read · scan
Paul, The First Epistle of Paul to the CorinthiansVol. 45
- p. 499Circumcision and uncircumcision are indifferent; social conditions need not change on conversion.read · scan
- p. 504Veiling and hair length in worship justified by nature, shame and the custom of the churches.read · scan
Luke, The Acts of the ApostlesVol. 44
- p. 470Dispute over circumcision and Mosaic customs for Gentile converts; Paul conforms with a vow ritual.read · scan
- p. 478–479Festus cites Roman custom not to hand over an accused man untried.read · scan
Marcus Aurelius, The Meditations of Marcus AureliusVol. 2
- p. 196Acted in conformity with his country's institutions without affectation.read · scan
Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of ChristVol. 7
- p. 352–353Observe the received custom and institution of the elders rather than one's own feeling.read · scan
Benvenuto Cellini, The Autobiography of Benvenuto CelliniVol. 31
- p. 150Florentine custom requires swords to be bound until the gates are passed, which Cellini laughs at.read · scan
- p. 311–312Council urges striking coins in the French style as always done; Cellini refuses to submit.read · scan
Michel de Montaigne, The Author to the ReaderVol. 32
- p. 4Public reverence and convention limit how frankly he can portray himself, unlike peoples living by natural law.read · scan
Michel de Montaigne, Of the Institution and Education of ChildrenVol. 32
- p. 40Only exceptional souls like Socrates may defy custom; ordinary men should not withstand common fashions.read · scan
Miguel de Cervantes, The History of Don Quixote of the Mancha, Part IVol. 14
- p. 155Sancho insists he tells tales as in his country and will not make new customs.read · scan
René Descartes, Discourse on the Method of Rightly Conducting the Reason and Seeking the Truth in the SciencesVol. 34
- p. 14Warns that most men should keep accustomed opinions and the beaten highway rather than discard past beliefs; Descartes reforms only his own opinions, not public affairs.read · scan
- p. 21First maxim: obey laws and customs of his country, following the moderate opinions of the judicious, judging by their practice.read · scan
Blaise Pascal, Minor WorksVol. 48
- p. 395Example and convenience decide his conduct when probabilities are equal.read · scan
William Penn, More Fruits of SolitudeVol. 1
- p. 392–393Conformity is a civil virtue but should be pressed only in necessaries; more becomes a snare.read · scan
Samuel Johnson, Preface to the English DictionaryVol. 39
- p. 184–185He sacrifices uniformity to custom, writing convey, deceit and the like in compliance with a numberless majority.read · scan
Friedrich von Schiller, Letters upon the Aesthetic Education of ManVol. 32
- p. 210–211A man should not segregate himself from the customs and manners of his age.read · scan
Alessandro Manzoni, I Promessi Sposi (The Betrothed)Vol. 21
- p. 41Poor men must not go empty-handed to gentlemen; the servant expects such presents.read · scan
- p. 174–175Agnese explains that great people have oddities that must be humored and listened to gravely when one needs their favor.read · scan
- p. 411The tailor urges that one shouldn't refuse great people, appealing to what is customary and to social rank.read · scan
Thomas Carlyle, Sir Walter ScottVol. 25
- p. 404–405He made himself at home in a world of conventionalities, treating false and true alike as powers.read · scan
- p. 427–428Scott's letters are conventional, mindful of others' vanities, never from the innermost mind; a man of the world.read · scan
3b.Conformity to keep peace and avoid singularity
Luke, The Acts of the ApostlesVol. 44
- p. 457–458Paul circumcises Timothy to satisfy the Jews who knew his father was Greek.read · scan
Saint Augustine, The Confessions of St. AugustineVol. 7
- p. 88–89Crowd contagion: swept along by the mob, he becomes one of the throng and shares its madness.read · scan
Geoffrey Chaucer, The Prologue to the Canterbury Tales; The Nun's Priest's TaleVol. 40
- p. 31Pilgrims bind themselves by agreement and the host's judgment, obeying the lot freely as fair convention.read · scan
Benvenuto Cellini, The Autobiography of Benvenuto CelliniVol. 31
- p. 154Cellini objects that paying in the morning is the custom everywhere, but the host insists on his own way.read · scan
Michel de Montaigne, Of the Institution and Education of ChildrenVol. 32
- p. 55Odd personal aversions and singularities are enemies of society and should be removed early.read · scan
- p. 64His father yielded to common opinion and custom, like cranes following the leader, abandoning his own method.read · scan
John Bunyan, The Pilgrim's ProgressVol. 15
- p. 70–72The neighbors' derision of Pliable shows a community despising both the pilgrim way and those who forsake it.read · scan
Voltaire, Letters on the EnglishVol. 34
- p. 65Quaker's plain dress, refusal of bows and hat-doffing contrasted with French ceremony, which is hard to shed as habit.read · scan
Benjamin Franklin, His AutobiographyVol. 1
- p. 44–45Workmen's beer habit and the bien venu fee are enforced by shop custom; Franklin yields to live in peace.read · scan
John Woolman, The Journal of John WoolmanVol. 1
- p. 254–255Friends suspect his hat of affected singularity; he answers it is not his own will.read · scan
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Hermann and DorotheaVol. 19
- p. 337–338The landlord notes that custom compels him to wear surtout and boots, forbidding night-cap and slippers.read · scan
Alessandro Manzoni, I Promessi Sposi (The Betrothed)Vol. 21
- p. 138Friar asks the women to walk behind him lest people speak evil of a friar walking with a young woman.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, WorshipVol. 5
- p. 284–285The countryman abroad finds habits and sect broken up, and misses the neighborhood's eye that held him to decorum.read · scan
Robert Louis Stevenson, Samuel PepysVol. 28
- p. 300The merely respectable need the countenance of others; Pepys followed Mrs. Grundy and repented only when found out.read · scan
- p. 300–301Pepys governs dress, carriage and even honesty by what society deems decent; he remains a thief rather than appear singular.read · scan
3c.Fashion and the imitation of the great
The Bhagavad-Gita; or, Song CelestialVol. 45
- p. 800The multitude follows what the best men do, so exemplary action matters.read · scan
Plutarch, AlcibiadesVol. 12
- p. 107His ridicule made flute-playing cease to be counted among liberal accomplishments.read · scan
Michel de Montaigne, Of the Institution and Education of ChildrenVol. 32
- p. 62–64Careless fashion in dress and speech; affectation unseemly in a courtier; imitation of speech is easy, of judgment slow.read · scan
William Harrison, A Description of Elizabethan EnglandVol. 35
- p. 237–238Fashions in food change: herbs and roots once neglected as food for hogs are now dainty dishes of gentry.read · scan
- p. 275Ordinary diet of gentlemen and merchants, servants' allowances, and fashion of sugar once used only in medicineread · scan
- p. 289English fashion is fickle and imitates Spanish, French, Turkish modes; nothing is more constant than inconstancy of attire.read · scan
- p. 289Satirizes fussy fashions in clothes, hair and beards, and English imitation of all nations like the chameleon.read · scan
- p. 289–291Harrison laments fashions in dress, foreign French influence, and the blurring of sex and rank distinctions in attire as decay of old English manners.read · scan
William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of DenmarkVol. 46
- p. 193–194Age so refined that peasant's toe galls courtier's heel; social ranks blurread · scan
Thomas Dekker, The Shoemaker's HolidayVol. 47
- p. 497–498Fashion and manners: farthingales, French hoods, and tobacco, which she calls filthy.read · scan
Ben Jonson, The AlchemistVol. 47
- p. 625–626Face satirically praises all things Spanish as the fashion, horses, beards, ruffs, dances, showing fashion's sway over opinion.read · scan
Blaise Pascal, ThoughtsVol. 48
- p. 73Unbelief is a fashion imitated to seek esteem, not genuine conviction.read · scan
- p. 107Few are capable of originality; most simply follow.read · scan
- p. 312–313Probability follows worldly compliance, as with duelling fashion.read · scan
John Locke, Some Thoughts Concerning EducationVol. 37
- p. 30–31Public testimony and fashion silence reason against luxury practised by those of quality.read · scan
- p. 79Fashion in education prevails through custom and implicit faith, and dissenters are cried down as heretics.read · scan
- p. 171–172Fencing and riding are fashions considered necessary marks of a gentleman though little to do with civil life.read · scan
- p. 176Pride of wealth and custom made cards, dice and drinking fashionable and made useful work seem unfit for gentlemen.read · scan
Sir Richard Steele, The Spectator ClubVol. 27
- p. 86Will Honeycomb knows the history of every fashion and mode and is the well-bred fine gentleman of the female world.read · scan
Voltaire, Letters on the EnglishVol. 34
- p. 96–97French follow fashion and whim, deferring to clergy and physicians; Chinese practised inoculation a century.read · scan
- p. 135Fashion of inserting love into plays passed from Paris to London about 1660, and writers adapt to manners of age.read · scan
Samuel Johnson, Preface to the English DictionaryVol. 39
- p. 202–203Speech alters with practice, fashion and politeness; usage decides what becomes obsolete.read · scan
Samuel Johnson, Preface to ShakespeareVol. 39
- p. 216Personal habits and modes are superficial and fade, while true passion persists.read · scan
John Woolman, The Journal of John WoolmanVol. 1
- p. 272Fashions of the world and costly garments became customary among Friends.read · scan
- p. 304–305Superfluities in dress and furniture spread among Friends by example, from less to more.read · scan
- p. 308–309Dyeing cloth to hide dirt, and the delicacy of the great, criticized as a mistaken fashion.read · scan
Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of NationsVol. 10
- p. 97–98In Holland custom regulates fashion, so it is unfashionable and ridiculous not to be a man of business.read · scan
- p. 205Dress and stockings reveal old practices, such as stockings unknown until Queen Elizabeth.read · scan
Oliver Goldsmith, She Stoops to ConquerVol. 18
- p. 205–206Hardcastle loves old manners and scorns town fashion and affectation; his wife hates old-fashioned ways and wants town polish.read · scan
- p. 208–209Hardcastle complains that town fashions and vain finery infect the age and his daughter.read · scan
- p. 229–230Mrs. Hardcastle affects London fashions and manners from magazines; Hastings flatters her about dress, age and the mode.read · scan
Edmund Burke, A Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and BeautifulVol. 24
- p. 43Imitation is a mutual compliance that links society and shapes manners and opinions.read · scan
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, The Tragedy of Faust, Part IVol. 19
- p. 106–108Mephistopheles says culture has reached even the devil, who now hides horns and tail and poses as a nobleman.read · scan
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Hermann and DorotheaVol. 19
- p. 356Changing fashion in houses and furnishings makes his once-admired carved and gilded decor unbearable to current taste.read · scan
Richard Brinsley Sheridan, The School for ScandalVol. 18
- p. 128–129Lady Teazle claims women of fashion in London are accountable to nobody after marriage.read · scan
- p. 129–130Lady Teazle insists on being in fashion; Sir Peter recalls her simple country pursuits.read · scan
- p. 196–197Fashionable London customs, card-playing and social display are contrasted with rustic retirement.read · scan
Robert Burns, Poems and SongsVol. 6
- p. 189–192Vanity of dress and gait, and affected devotion at church, satirized.read · scan
William Ellery Channing, On the Elevation of the Laboring ClassesVol. 28
- p. 315–317Rejects fashion and upper-rank show as unreal; laborers should not imitate the manners of the fashionable.read · scan
- p. 317Warns against servile copying of fashionable caste and its luxury and show.read · scan
Thomas Carlyle, Sir Walter ScottVol. 25
- p. 440–441The novels' interest rests on contrasts of costume, fashion and speech, which are temporary.read · scan
Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the BeagleVol. 29
- p. 408Tattooing and fashions of dress and hair are governed by prevailing custom; fashion rules at Tahiti as at Paris despite missionaries.read · scan
- p. 429Tattooing persists as a fashion and mark of rank despite the missionaries' wives' urging.read · scan
William Makepeace Thackeray, Jonathan SwiftVol. 28
- p. 13–14Latin display, periwigs and lace were the fashion of a gentleman.read · scan
Robert Louis Stevenson, Samuel PepysVol. 28
- p. 298–299Doing things because others do rather than because good is surrender of moral control; Pepys conformed to the Restoration tide.read · scan
‹ 2 · Outline · 4 ›