Laws are sand, customs are rock. Laws can be evaded and punishment escaped, but an openly transgressed custom brings sure punishment.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Laws are portrayed as flexible like sand, while customs are solid as rock; breaking a custom leads to certain punishment unlike evading a law.
- In plain terms
- Customs are stricter and more punishable than laws.
- What can you take from it?
- Social expectations can be more binding than legal ones.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- Why might a custom be enforced more strongly than a law?
- How do societies balance law and tradition?
Another view
The analogy oversimplifies complex legal and cultural interactions.
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