Most of the things we do, we do for no better reason than that our fathers have done them or that our neighbors do them, and the same is true of a larger part than we suspect of what we think. – Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

People still retain the errors of their childhood, their nation, and their age, long after they have accepted the truths needed to refute them. – Condorcet, Progress of the Human Mind, 1794

Custom will reconcile people to any atrocity; and fashion will drive them to acquire any custom. – George Bernard Shaw