Tradition


  • Tradition is the result of a long sequence of improvements. And it is itself open to further refinements.

  • Tradition is like a bookmark: it reminds us how far we've come, it doesn't mark the end of the story.

  • The tradition you worship like an immutable fetish was handed down to you by an unbroken series of generations, through various stages. If at any one of those levels someone had thought they'd reached the finish line, you would have been given something more primitive. You have toward your descendants both the duty and the responsibility to leave the doors open to change, just as those who handed you that gift from the past left them open.

  • Tradition is a lot, sure, but it isn't everything.

  • The traditions of different cultures should never be set against each other: they are all complex, intricate, sophisticated chains of adaptation to specific circumstances, with the first link fastened to the same hook, and every later link is one more piece added to a single mosaic.

  • Tradition can act as a brake on the present or as an accelerator for the future: it only depends on which pedal you've decided to press.

Drafted from Italian with Blog Translator, then revised by me.

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