Tradition (n.) is what keeps man from following every whim that passes. If taken away from a people, then that people is easily persuaded.
Tradition (n.) no longer has time to form: every new-formed relation becomes antiquated before it can ossify.
Tradition (n.) is how the ruling section of society sanctifies the existing situation — custom hardens into usage and finally into explicit law, simply by the order repeating itself.
Tradition (n.) lets an ousted interest linger for centuries in the State and the law, holding a power that in the last resort only a revolution can break.
Tradition (n.) weighs like a nightmare on the brain of the living: it is the tradition of all the dead generations.