Literary notes about custom (AI summary)
In literature, the word "custom" carries a wealth of meanings, from deeply rooted cultural practices to mundane personal routines. Authors use it to evoke traditions that regulate behavior and social order, as when it is portrayed as the unwritten law of a society ([1]) or the established practices that define everyday life ([2], [3]). At times, custom is imbued with historical significance, reinforcing the continuity of ancient rites and national identity ([4], [5]), while in other instances it highlights the peculiarities and idiosyncrasies of individual conduct ([6], [7]). This versatile term thus serves both as a symbol of collective memory and as a marker of personal habit, weaving together the fabric of societal norms with the threads of human experience ([8], [9]).
- The one by which we regulate our constitutions in our cities, is the written law; that which arises from custom, is the unwritten law.
— from The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers by Diogenes Laertius - According to my usual custom, I kissed M. Chantal, Madame Chantal and Mademoiselle Pearl, and I made a deep bow to the Misses Louise and Pauline.
— from Complete Original Short Stories of Guy De Maupassant by Guy de Maupassant - It is the nightly custom of every good mother after her
— from Peter and Wendy by J. M. Barrie - During a long period, however, the remains of the ancient constitution, and the influence of custom, preserved the dignity of Rome.
— from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon - To have many wives is a custom common to these and to other nations.
— from The Geography of Strabo, Volume 3 (of 3) by Strabo - The man seemed engaged in prayer, according to his custom, and was much bent over.
— from Les Misérables by Victor Hugo - It was his custom, indeed, to speak calmly of his approaching dissolution, as of a matter neither to be avoided nor regretted.
— from The Works of Edgar Allan Poe — Volume 2 by Edgar Allan Poe - * A fortnight passed; I was getting once more inured to the harness of school, and lapsing from the passionate pain of change to the palsy of custom.
— from Villette by Charlotte Brontë - It was the custom for everybody to wait on the doorstep till asked inside.
— from The Rainbow by D. H. Lawrence
