Michel de Montaigne Quotes

It is my opinion that whatever is the custom of a nation, and is practiced by the first characters of that nation towards their chief, cannot degrade strangers who perform the same.

Each man calls barbarism whatever is not his own practice; for indeed it seems we have no other test of truth and reason than the example and pattern of the opinions and customs of the country we live in

The universality of a custom is pledge of its worth.

There is endless variety in the details of the customs and laws which prevail of the world at large.

Every culture is different in terms of what is taboo and what is acceptable. I grew up in Singapore, where people are very mindful of that. One can see that as restriction or as consideration for a fellow person living within a shared environment.

There's a difference between being culturally insensitive - being insensitive towards a culture - and being insensitive.

The moral, then, is that familiar categories of behavior - marriage customs, food taboos, folk superstitions, and so on - certainly do vary across cultures and have to be learned, but the deeper mechanisms of mental computation that generate them may be universal and innate.

In Europe, they like everything you do. The mistakes and everything. That's a little bit too much.

Everyone gives the title of barbarism to everything that is not in use in his own country.

Forgive him, for he believes that the customs of his tribe are the laws of nature!

Culture is everything you don't have to do.

Customs represent the experience of mankind.

Traditions are neither good nor bad, they simply are... Rationality is not an arbiter of traditions, it is itself a tradition or an aspect of a tradition.

Our customs, behaviors, and values are byproducts of our culture.

New customs, Though they be never so ridiculous (Nay, let em be unmanly), yet are followed.

If someone were to put a proposition before men bidding them choose, after examination, the best customs in the world, each nation would certainly select its own.

To me, I learned along the way, you know, culture is behavior. That's all it is; culture is people's behaviors.

All cultures are different. Some commit genocide. Some are uniquely peaceful. Some frequent bathhouses in groups. Some don't show each other the soles of their shoes or like pictures taken of them. Some have enormous hunting festivals or annual stretches when nobody speaks. Some don't use electricity.

Anthropology is the science which tells us that people are the same the whole world over - except when they are different.

Different members of different cultures will think that some things are beautiful.

If you want to judge the performance of the Egyptian people by the standards of German or Chinese or American culture, then there is no room for judgment.

The customs of the [Khmer] barbarians are so different from our own that even if we were to capture all their territory, it would not be certain that we could change them.

I don't understand anything about America's culture.

Elegance for one society is not elegance for another. It's in the eyes of the beholder.

In Japan, violence isn't as controversial as it is in the West.