Culture Quotes

Here was a king who saw his subjects as peers and allies around whom he had growing up rather than semi-alien entities to be suspected and persecuted.

~ Dan Jones

The war brought some changes to Colombo. But it was the villages that changed far more than the towns.

~ මාර්ටින් වික්‍රමසිංහ

It was not to flaunt feelings of superiority that the elders of the Kaisaruwatte family clung to the traditions of their patrician lineage, but for self-preservation of themseleves and their way of life, now declining in the face of social change. It was their inability to adapt to change due to the rigidity of their adherence to tradition, that was also the cause of their decline.

~ මාර්ටින් වික්‍රමසිංහ

A woman anticipates danger by instinct, rather than inductive reasoning. Due to this, when faced with danger due to passionate feelings related to their basic needs, women are impelled by reasoning, conditioned by instincts acquired from family traditions and the conventions of her social stratum, much more than men are.

~ මාර්ටින් වික්‍රමසිංහ

A village woman from a poor family may violate the code of propriety, not because of poverty, but because she has been the victim of the menace of male predators. A woman from a family of the gentry, would never be the victim of such intimidation. Moreover the women of the gentry were bonded to follow their code of conduct and not to transgress, by generations of breeding.

~ මාර්ටින් වික්‍රමසිංහ

An outsider's inquisitiveness to know another's private affairs is natural, but not so in children with respect to their parents. Children know the overt personal life of their parents. It is a crime for children to probe into mistakes made by their parents, like detectives looking for evidence of crimes. Any man can make mistakes, however good he may be. It is wrong for children to inquisitively probe into their parents' lives, and have fun or show anger over what they uncover. It is like digging into the heads of ancient statues in search of archaeological artefacts. Nanda spoke with anger.

~ මාර්ටින් වික්‍රමසිංහ

Tissa reflected that religion is divine poetry whilst morality is made up of customs and traditions that change with the place and the times. How do men who read the same books he reads, live on the same kind of food in the same world and social class, differ so much from him and from each other in mind and body? He concluded that his present state of body and mind that gives rise to his reflections cannot be just the outcome of books he read and the food he ate, nor his own efforts to adapt to his world and his social class. Human beings are born with an individuality that is unique to each, but this cannot be attributed to the presence or absence of a soul. The same individuality is there in each leaf, and one leaf differs from another. Yet all the leaves get the same nourishment from the roots of the tree, and the sun and the air.

~ මාර්ටින් වික්‍රමසිංහ

It did not occur to Kabalana that the behaviour of these two young men was not a consequence of their education and experiences in England. Kabalana did not have the objectivity in thinking to acknowledge this. What they acquired in England was an education that encouraged independent thought. The social environment encouraged independent thought, but also the expression of such thoughts without fear. The English people have no unchanging past. Scientific knowledge, the Arts and social conventions change even in a matter of weeks and months.

~ මාර්ටින් වික්‍රමසිංහ

How youMore people will learn about IBM from Wikipedia in the coming years than from IBM itself.

~ Thomas L. Friedman

Why was Malin deliberately trying to hurt the feelings of his parents? Aravinda could not find an answer. Hurting his own parents' feelings was something alien to Aravinda. He lived among rural folk who encouraged children not to flout the wishes of parents and elders.

~ මාර්ටින් වික්‍රමසිංහ

Malin listened to Wickramanayake's gossip dispassionately. He did not accept Wickramanayake's opinion that it was the influence of Western customs and attitudes that prompted Savulugala, in his straitened economic circumstances, to allow his wife to befriend and exploit wealthy men. There were poor people in both town and village who exploited even their daughters to get money. Did these poor parents degrade themselves because they were enslaved by Western culture? It was the prevailing economic and social order that brought them to this.

~ මාර්ටින් වික්‍රමසිංහ

Chamari: Aravinda, have you been to Kataragama?Aravinda: No, I've never been there.Chamari: What? That's unbelievable for someone born in Deniyaya!Aravinda: Going to Kataragama is not a custom of the rural folk. It is the middle class and wealthy urban people, not the villagers, who venerate the Kataragama god. He is the god of the urbanities. The villagers have now started to imitate the urban people.Chamari:I thought even villagers used to go to Kataragama long ago.Aravinda: No, It came from the rich urban Sinhalese of the towns who followed the rich Hindus.

~ මාර්ටින් වික්‍රමසිංහ

Love is thicker than blood, its blind to color, it is its own culture

~ Evy Michaels

Families could often trace their lineage back several centuries. Their livelihood was earned from drum playing, a service considered to be dis-respectable. As members of a low caste, the drummers were forbidden to build decent houses. There were allowed to build wattle and daub huts, and to live rent-free on their patrons' properties. The right to own the country's land was restricted in this manner, a vicious condition that arose through tradition and was reinforced by law. Patterns of financial power and political hierarchy existed hand in hand.

~ Swarnakanthi Rajapakse

Generally, that humble piece of furniture placed on the front veranda of the house officially belonged to the man of the household; the women never slept on it.

~ Swarnakanthi Rajapakse

In a front of each home garden the villagers fixed a triangular wooden lamp-house on the top of a pole planted on the ground to hold a small statue of Lord Buddha and some deities. They used to offer flowers at this small shrine and light a tiny clay oil lamp.

~ Swarnakanthi Rajapakse

Master Salamon usually set off a little later as neither he nor other male members of their community were in the habit of walking on the road alongside their wives.

~ Swarnakanthi Rajapakse

The villagers considered it lucky to make the New Year's first money transaction with her because she was a prosperous person.

~ Swarnakanthi Rajapakse

When he had accompanied his father on drumming errands he noticed how high caste men and women treated them as inferior. They had to enter from the back door and wait near the kitchen or at a side veranda and sit on low benches or reed mats. They were never offered a decent seat. At meals times they were never invited to eat at the main table with the family or other guests. Instead, they had to eat the food served to them on the reed mat. This they ate in silence while the patrons sat at a lavishly laid table and enjoyed their food amidst chat and cheer.

~ Swarnakanthi Rajapakse

Our innocent kids undergo much trouble. Not only do the children of high caste families look down upon our children calling them low caste brats, but even some teachers ridicule them. They beat our children for no reason.

~ Swarnakanthi Rajapakse

Even though we are supposed to be low caste and poor our vote also has the same value and validity as that of great people.

~ Swarnakanthi Rajapakse

She believed that people born to low caste families were meant to suffer. That was their karma. She had learnt that those who indulge in sinful activities in their previous birth, especially those who humiliated others, would be reborn to low caste families. She firmly believed also that one has to suffer until the sin was paid for through suffering and good deeds.

~ Swarnakanthi Rajapakse

The author says that one of the difficulties of modern parenting is the uncertainty of what parents are preparing children for. In traditional societies this was clear, as parents prepared children for a society and for roles much like their own. She writes, There is no folk wisdom.

~ Jennifer Senior

Any nation that wishes to enjoy the fruits of development and civilization, must follow the golden rules of this scripture as a national policy and culture.

~ Sunday Adelaja

They don't know the distinction between taking care of a child and raising a child.

~ Charles Murray

They glided out of the heat-haze on their camels like specters. There were twenty of them, and they were Tuareg. Their faces were hidden by black veils that left only slits for the eyes, and they wore purple robes that fluttered in the desert wind. They carried swords, muskets and seven-foot iron spears, and wore stilettos in sheaths on their left forearms. They were an impressive, sinister sight.

~ Michael Asher

Villagers saw me as a person when I played with them, as opposed to when I talked with them.

~ Rebekah Nathan

We do not need to explain how the Aryans entered and settled in the Dravidian country (tira¯vit»a na¯» t»u), and subjugated and oppressed the Dravidians. Nor do we need to explain how before the Aryans entered the Dravidian country, the Dravidian country had a civilization and arts of the highest rank.

~ Periyar E.v. Ramasamy

Violent crimes had increased from 120 per 100,000 in 1962 180 per 100,000 by 1964.

~ Rick Perlstein

When I was packing those, I caught myself taking all the important, profound, and indispensable titles I could – nearly filled the box. But one of the more eccentric librarians at the internment compound I’d gotten permission to riffle had put up a whole shelf full of cubes of women writers or texts about women. She was convinced nobody could be truly educated unless they’d read them – though nobody I ever met had, except her, maybe. […]

~ Samuel R. Delany

Over a seven year span, only 10% of college slaying remained in place.

~ Connie Eble

The deepest reason why the Church is weak and the world is dying is that there are not enough saints. No, that's not quite honest. The reason is that WE are not saints.

~ Peter Kreeft

For the first time on Planet Earth (in 1964 America), a nation was made up of more college students than farmers. An unheard-of 42% of high school graduates sought higher education.

~ Rick Perlstein

The average Harvard freshman in 1952 would have placed in the bottom 10 percent of the incoming class by 1960.

~ Charles Murray

Just like today, the Protestants and their teachings had to fight with the prevalent order of the day which taught that: Work is only for making profit. Make money with minimum effort. The culture of the day viewed work as a burden to be avoided. The secular world of the time taught that you should do no more than what was enough for good living.

~ Sunday Adelaja

Nobody loves a policeman until he needs one.

~ Will Durant

The state is the soul of man enlarged under the microscope of history.

~ Will Durant

Teddy White lamented that TV might spell the death of serious politics: to give a thoughtful response to serious questions, politician needed a good thirty seconds to ponder, but television allowed only five seconds of silence at best. DDB (ad men) found nothing to lament and the fact. They were convinced you could learn everything you needed to KNOW about a product, which in this case happens to be a human being, in half a minute – the speed not of thought but of emotion.

~ Rick Perlstein

Culture is taking whatever background you come from and either running with it or running from it.

~ Imani Nettles

It used to be that parents didn't have to be home. If a neighbor so I child misbehaving, it was considered appropriate for the neighbor to intervene. The parents would be grateful when they found out, and they would take the word of the neighbor if the child protested his innocence.Unmarried and divorced parents tend not to behave that way. Instead, they tend to try to be the good guy to their children.

~ Charles Murray