Although, you could take the approach that superstitions initially arose out of a need to protect people from some semi-dangerous endeavour. Hence superstitions like the talk about "devil dogs" in the German Black Forest, which I'm sure at one point prevented villagers from wandering out in the woods at night, and getting mugged or attacked by wolves or bears. There were no devil dogs, but people probably occasionally got eaten. Thus, the superstition. I'd say, keep the quotes. They look nicer, I think, and keep things cleaner. I'm a real believer in erring on the side of formality. ;) Philip P.