Almost always tradition is nothing but a record and a machine-made imitation of the habits that our ancestors created. The average conservative is a slave to the most incidental and trivial part of his forefathers glory - to the archaic formula which happened to express their genius or the eighteenth-century contrivance by which for a time it was served.

While the right to talk may be the beginning of freedom, the necessity of listening is what makes that right important.

When philosophers try to be politicians they generally cease to be philosophers.

Men can know more than their ancestors did if they start with a knowledge of what their ancestors had already learned....That is why a society can be progressive only if it conserves its traditions.

The great social adventure of America is no longer the conquest of the wilderness but the absorption of fifty different peoples.

Between ourselves and our real natures we interpose that wax figure of idealizations and selections which we call our character.

You don't have to preach honesty to men with a creative purpose. A genuine craftsman will not adulterate this product. The reason isn't because duty says he shouldn't, but because passion says he couldn't.