“Americans are constantly extolling "traditions"; litanies to family values are at the center of every politician's discourse. And yet the culture of America is extremely corrosive of family life, indeed of all traditions except those redefined as "identities" that can be accepted as part of larger patterns of distinctiveness, cooperation, and openness to innovation.”

“Families don’t follow tradition as much as they used to. Family is still important, but many of the customs have fallen to the wayside. Some families, though, still hold onto tradition. Good, bad, or ugly.”

“While no tradition coincides with experience, every tradition is essentially unique and valuable. While all traditions are of value, none is finally binding.”

“A mother’s traditional role prepared her to love her family by being with the family she loved.”

“I think that New York is not the cultural center of America, but the business and administrative center of American culture.”

“It is the function of Tradition to assure continuity. Tradition is the memory of a superpersonal soul [of culture]. It must see that the same creative spirit of the grand past is present at each innovation.”

“A father’s traditional role prepared him to love his family by being away from the love of his family.”

“Family life itself, that safest, most traditional, most approved of female choices, is not a sanctuary: It is, perpetually, a dangerous place.”

“[W]hat al Qaeda is fighting for is a traditional understanding of the family. This is not a minor part of their program: it is at its heart. The traditional family is built around some clearly defined principles. First, the home is the domain of the woman and life outside the house is the purview of the man. Second, sexuality is something confined to the family and the home, and extramarital, extrafamilial sexuality is unacceptable. Women who move outside the home invite extramarital sexuality just by being there. Third, women have as their primary tasks reproduction and nurturing of the next generation. Therefore, intense controls on women are necessary to maintain the integrity of the family and of society. In an interesting way it is all about women, and bin Laden's letter [to the U. S. ] drives this home. What he hates about America is that it promotes a completely different view of women and the family.”

“Love for life — love for people, above all respect for their values and traditions, and for everything that can give deep meaning to it.”