Custom and Convention
‹ 3 · Outline · 5 ›
4.The case against the tyranny of custom: nonconformity and self-reliance
4a.Custom as enemy of individuality and progress
See also: Man 4e · Liberty 6b
Luke, The Gospel According to LukeVol. 44
- p. 367–368Parables of new wine in old skins show new teaching cannot fit old forms; men prefer the old.read · scan
Marcus Aurelius, The Meditations of Marcus AureliusVol. 2
- p. 220We should not act merely as we have been taught.read · scan
Dante Alighieri, ParadiseVol. 20
- p. 398Human usage is like leaves on a bough, one going and another coming.read · scan
Sir Thomas More, UtopiaVol. 36
- p. 215–224Fear of change is read as divine punishment, preserving old superstitions.read · scan
William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of DenmarkVol. 46
- p. 111Hamlet says the drunken royal revelry is a custom more honoured in the breach, making Danes reproached by other nations.read · scan
John Webster, The Duchess of MalfiVol. 47
- p. 795–799The Duchess says she has not tried to create any new world or custom by marrying.read · scan
John Milton, AreopagiticaVol. 3
- p. 227Outward conformity and the grip of custom leave a slavish print and dead formality in the church.read · scan
Abraham Cowley, Of AgricultureVol. 27
- p. 62An evil custom, strong as law, keeps farming to the poor.read · scan
John Locke, Some Thoughts Concerning EducationVol. 37
- p. 161Custom keeps Latin verse-making in schools: 'who dares disobey?'read · scan
- p. 182Custom fixes the time of travel and early marriage; Locke urges parents to rely on reason rather than old custom.read · scan
Sir Richard Steele, The Spectator ClubVol. 27
- p. 83His singularities contradict the world's manners because he thinks the world is wrong; he is unconfined to modes and forms.read · scan
Voltaire, Letters on the EnglishVol. 34
- p. 65–67Quaker explains 'thee' and 'thou' and refusal to doff hats as rejection of flattering titles and social convention.read · scan
- p. 75Hat-honor and 'thee'/'thou' defied as social conventions.read · scan
Samuel Johnson, Preface to ShakespeareVol. 39
- p. 223–224Rules merely positive and received by authority are to be sacrificed to variety and instruction.read · scan
Friedrich von Schiller, Letters upon the Aesthetic Education of ManVol. 32
- p. 218Refined society subjects free judgment and feeling to bizarre customs and despotic opinions.read · scan
William Wordsworth, Prefaces to Various Volumes of PoemsVol. 39
- p. 274Poetic diction is a family language claimed by prescription, an inherited convention he refuses.read · scan
William Wordsworth, Essay Supplementary to PrefaceVol. 39
- p. 331Original poet must break the bonds of custom and false refinement in readers.read · scan
William Wordsworth, PoemsVol. 41
- p. 597Custom will lie upon the child with a weight heavy as frost.read · scan
Thomas De Quincey, Levana and Our Ladies of SorrowVol. 27
- p. 322Outcasts by traditionary law and children of hereditary disgrace; women's affections stifled by social necessities.read · scan
Victor Hugo, Preface to CromwellVol. 39
- p. 355–356Petty conventional rules of critics fetter the drama like spider webs.read · scan
- p. 358Borrowed rules and dignity of French tragedy are conventions foreign to the drama's essence.read · scan
- p. 363–364Ancient stage conventions differ from modern ones, so ancients cannot serve as models.read · scan
- p. 370–371Conventional decorum forbids kings who swear or chronicle-based drama; refinement is commonplace and stale.read · scan
- p. 383–384Compares old literary regime to old political regime; last century's conventions still weigh on criticism.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, The American ScholarVol. 5
- p. 9–10Creative manners and actions spring from the mind's own sense of good, not custom or authority.read · scan
- p. 17Stone-blind custom and overgrown error persist only by our sufferance; seeing them as lies destroys them.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, An Address Delivered before the Senior Class in Divinity CollegeVol. 5
- p. 38–39Cast aside conformity, fashion, custom and authority; imitation dooms one to mediocrity, and habit enslaves.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Man the ReformerVol. 5
- p. 51Custom runs our household, voting and traffic for us, giving no power and running us into debt.read · scan
- p. 53Calls for clearing ourselves of every usage not rooted in our own mind.read · scan
- p. 54Youth not yet harnessed to drag in the ruts of custom; institutions are a house of cards.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self-RelianceVol. 5
- p. 59Moses, Plato and Milton set at naught books and traditions.read · scan
- p. 62Society conspires against manhood; conformity is the virtue in demand, and traditions and dead institutions are not sacred.read · scan
- p. 64Conformity to dead usages and party or sect scatters force, blurs character and makes men false in all particulars.read · scan
- p. 65Non-conformity brings the world's displeasure; the multitude's frowns are arbitrary, blown by the wind and newspapers, and must be disregarded.read · scan
- p. 66Rejects consistency demanded by others; speak what you think today, whatever you said yesterday.read · scan
- p. 66Conformity explains nothing; scorn appearances and act singly.read · scan
- p. 67Attacks conformity, smooth mediocrity and the tyranny of custom, trade and office.read · scan
- p. 68Criticizes deference to kings, history and received prestige; private men should act from original views rather than awe of conventional greatness.read · scan
- p. 69–70Attacks reverence for the past and inherited phraseology, texts and teachers; the soul's present perception outweighs tradition and history.read · scan
- p. 74Appeals from others' customs and covenants; will not live by appearances or hypocritical attentions.read · scan
- p. 74–75Society has chosen our housekeeping, arts, marriages and religion for us; we shun the battle of fate.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, HeroismVol. 5
- p. 127Simple hearts play in innocent defiance of the world's Blue-Laws, history and customs.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, CharacterVol. 5
- p. 187–188The nonconformist who rejects conventional opinions and practices is a goad to society and helps it.read · scan
- p. 191–192Sanctity and charm of the young come from nonconformity to people's law and gospel.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, NatureVol. 5
- p. 223The knapsack of custom falls from the man of the world on entering the forest.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, New England ReformersVol. 5
- p. 253–254Reform scrutinizes institutions and domestic life, and vocations of lawyer, merchant and clergyman.read · scan
- p. 255Smooth social conventions are unhealthy; conformity exacts a destructive tax.read · scan
- p. 270Powers are wrapped up under the coarse mattings of custom, preventing wonder.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, English TraitsVol. 5
- p. 326Wordsworth's rare elevation is paid for by tameness and conformity in everything else.read · scan
- p. 443–444Emerson attacks English 'idolatry of usage' and squalid contentment with conventions as signs of ebbing spirit.read · scan
John Stuart Mill, AutobiographyVol. 25
- p. 143–145Existing institutions foster selfishness; all social arrangements are held merely provisional.read · scan
- p. 164A fixed state of society stereotypes opinions; institutions and customs need to be recognized as bad.read · scan
John Stuart Mill, On LibertyVol. 25
- p. 198Society imposes its ways on dissenters and prevents the formation of individuality out of harmony with them.read · scan
- p. 250–251Where custom rather than one's own character rules conduct, a chief ingredient of happiness and progress is missing.read · scan
- p. 252Conforming to custom merely as custom develops no human faculties; customs suit customary circumstances and may be too narrow or unsuitable.read · scan
- p. 252–253Letting the world choose one's plan of life requires only imitation and leaves character torpid.read · scan
- p. 254–255Modern people ask what is customary for their station, not what they prefer; conformity withers their nature and capacities.read · scan
- p. 258–259Beliefs and practices degenerate into the mechanical and merely traditional unless originality renews their grounds; society's moulds compress character.read · scan
- p. 260–262Non-conformity and refusal to bend to custom is itself a service; uncustomary things should be tried to see which deserve becoming customs.read · scan
- p. 262–264Society condemns anyone doing what nobody does; public opinion demands conformity to an approved standard.read · scan
- p. 265The despotism of custom is the standing hindrance to human advancement; in the East custom is the final appeal.read · scan
- p. 265Fashion changes for change's sake while conformity is enforced; China's good customs fixed a whole people.read · scan
- p. 267–269Demand for uniformity grows; deviations come to be considered impious and immoral.read · scan
Alfred, Lord Tennyson, PoemsVol. 42
- p. 981–982Curses social wants, lies and sickly forms that warp youth from nature.read · scan
- p. 986Even a good custom may corrupt the world if it never yields to new ways.read · scan
- p. 998–1000Do not cling to some ancient saw or be mastered by a modern term.read · scan
Henry David Thoreau, WalkingVol. 28
- p. 400–401Roads are made for men of business; he avoids them and walks across lots.read · scan
- p. 417–418Society's culture is inbreeding of man on man, producing merely an English nobility and a civilization of limited life.read · scan
James Russell Lowell, Abraham LincolnVol. 28
- p. 437–439Conventionalities shrivel at the touch of nature; Lincoln's lack of elegance does not affect his fitness.read · scan
Walt Whitman, Preface to Leaves of GrassVol. 39
- p. 388Old forms, castes and religions pass away while opinions and manners still cling.read · scan
- p. 397The heroic person walks freely out of custom, precedent or authority that does not suit him.read · scan
- p. 408Manners, institutions and arts must meet American standards rather than old models of special ranks.read · scan
William Thomson, Lord Kelvin, The Wave Theory of LightVol. 30
- p. 253Continued use of English measures rests only on imagined difficulty of change; he calls it brain-destroying bondage.read · scan
4b.Conscience against prevailing custom
Luke, The Acts of the ApostlesVol. 44
- p. 444Peter resists eating unclean animals, and the vision overturns Jewish law of clean and unclean.read · scan
Saint Augustine, The Confessions of St. AugustineVol. 7
- p. 80An African custom of festival offerings at saints' churches is given up when the bishop forbids it.read · scan
Martin Luther, Address to the Christian Nobility of the German NationVol. 36
- p. 296–297The custom of kissing the Pope's feet is condemned as anti-Christian.read · scan
- p. 297–298Proverbs like 'the nearer to Rome, the farther from Christ' show pilgrimage's corrupting effect.read · scan
- p. 301Souls held in bondage by customs and laws invented by men.read · scan
Martin Luther, Concerning Christian LibertyVol. 36
- p. 357–358Hurtful custom transferred the names priest and clergy to a few, creating an unscriptural distinction.read · scan
- p. 372Ceremonies and traditions are neither to be despised nor trusted for salvation.read · scan
- p. 374Traditions and dietary ceremonies are indifferent in themselves, yet bind conscience of the weak.read · scan
William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of King LearVol. 46
- p. 225–226Edmund rejects the curiosity of nations and custom that deprive younger and illegitimate sons of inheritance.read · scan
- p. 266–267The Fool's satiric list of social abuses among priests, nobles, lawyers, usurers and squires.read · scan
Nathaniel Ward, The Body of LibertiesVol. 43
- p. 74–75No custom or prescription may sustain anything proved morally sinful by God's word.read · scan
John Bunyan, The Pilgrim's ProgressVol. 15
- p. 97–98Envy accuses Faithful of disregarding Law and Custom, saying Christianity and the customs of Vanity are opposed and irreconcilable.read · scan
- p. 98–99Faithful says laws, customs and people contrary to God's Word are opposed to Christianity.read · scan
John Woolman, The Journal of John WoolmanVol. 1
- p. 177Many in his meeting kept slaves; the young man accepted the slave as a gift to his wife.read · scan
- p. 192Deep-rooted customs, though wrong, are not easily altered.read · scan
- p. 210–211Customs first settled affect successors; bad ones burden children.read · scan
- p. 217Society's general practice and the example of others is not a sufficient reason to act against his scruple.read · scan
- p. 235–236Asks whether conduct springs from custom rather than sincere duty.read · scan
- p. 252Conformity to customs contrary to pure wisdom entangles even religious people; he resolves to abandon them.read · scan
- p. 253Dyed clothing and excess garments are customs lacking foundation in pure wisdom, yet fear of singularity holds him.read · scan
- p. 253–254Plain natural-colored hat sets him against changeable fashions and unsettles fellow Friends.read · scan
- p. 274Warns against conforming to unwise, expensive, hard-hearted customs that breed discord.read · scan
- p. 276Settlers grounded in customs contrary to truth were awakened by preaching; corrupt manners darken the times.read · scan
- p. 279The spirit of the world introduces grievous and oppressive customs, along with pride and wantonness.read · scan
- p. 281He had agreed with the custom of keeping young freed negroes in service without wages until thirty.read · scan
- p. 284He notes expensive customs not agreeable to Christ's simplicity that tempt fellow-creatures.read · scan
- p. 289–290Scruples over conformity to the world's fashions in ornament and workmanship.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Man the ReformerVol. 5
- p. 43Young men urged to cast aside evil customs and timidities.read · scan
- p. 46–47Professions require accepting evil customs and compromising integrity.read · scan
John Stuart Mill, On LibertyVol. 25
- p. 242St. Paul assumed the preexisting morality of Greeks and Romans and accommodated to it, even sanctioning slavery.read · scan
- p. 277Restoration grossness followed Puritan moral intolerance.read · scan
4c.The appeal to ancestors and antiquity as a cover for error
Luke, The Acts of the ApostlesVol. 44
- p. 454–455Circumcision after the custom of Moses is urged as necessary for salvation.read · scan
Pliny the Younger, Letters of PlinyVol. 9
- p. 262He appeals to the example of eminent Romans regardless of rank to justify his practice.read · scan
- p. 304–305Objectors appeal to custom; Pliny notes recitation has precedent.read · scan
Chapters from the KoranVol. 45
- p. 904–905The idolaters justify worship only by saying they found their fathers doing thus.read · scan
- p. 1004–1005Rejects appeal to ancestral custom, 'what we found our fathers agreed upon', and pagan camel taboos invented against God.read · scan
Sir Thomas More, UtopiaVol. 36
- p. 141–142Appeal to forefathers' ways stifles improvement; men fear being found wiser than their ancestors.read · scan
John Calvin, Dedication of the Institutes of the Christian ReligionVol. 39
- p. 32–33Adversaries object that the doctrine is novel and against antiquity and the consent of the holy fathers; Calvin replies that the gospel is ancient.read · scan
- p. 35Calvin argues that tradition and the fathers' authority serve but do not rule believers, and that opponents themselves cross the ancient landmarks.read · scan
- p. 35Current church practice departs from ancient landmarks set by the fathers.read · scan
- p. 35–38Calvin argues that custom is no proof of right; long-practiced public error is a common agreement of vices and a pestilence to be resisted.read · scan
Blaise Pascal, ThoughtsVol. 48
- p. 112–113Custom should be followed because it is custom, but people follow it believing it just; antiquity is taken as proof of truth.read · scan
John Bunyan, The Pilgrim's ProgressVol. 15
- p. 43–44Formalist and Hypocrisy plead thousand-year custom as legal warrant for entering by climbing the wall.read · scan
William Penn, More Fruits of SolitudeVol. 1
- p. 385–386Regard due to education and fathers' tradition, but truth deserves preference.read · scan
Jonathan Swift, A Letter of Advice to a Young PoetVol. 27
- p. 107–108Moderns receive their forefathers' opinions unexamined, though they reject this one.read · scan
Voltaire, Letters on the EnglishVol. 34
- p. 156–157Repeating eulogies grew into custom and law, so that fault lies in the age rather than the persons.read · scan
David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human UnderstandingVol. 37
- p. 383Received opinions from ignorant ancestors are transmitted with inviolable sanction and authority.read · scan
John Woolman, The Journal of John WoolmanVol. 1
- p. 206Error grows by degrees through general concurrence and appeals to reputable men's example.read · scan
Sydney Smith, Fallacies of Anti-ReformersVol. 27
- p. 226–227Reverence for ancestors is used as a cover for nonsense and to repel innovations of conscience and duty.read · scan
- p. 233–234Ridicules clinging to ancient institutions and laws as preserved sweetmeats, valued for antiquity rather than usefulness.read · scan
- p. 239Established institutions like judges, juries and pews were once innovations.read · scan
- p. 248The Noodle's Oration appeals to ancestors, antiquity and the wisdom of centuries against any change.read · scan
Victor Hugo, Preface to CromwellVol. 39
- p. 346Critics appeal to the ancients, Aristotle, Boileau as authorities; Hugo simply states a fact.read · scan
James Russell Lowell, PoemsVol. 42
- p. 1372–1374Ancestral creeds should not become our jailer; reverence for the past hinders present virtue.read · scan
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