Every island to a child is a treasure island.
P. D. JamesRead
In 1930s mysteries, all sorts of motives were credible which aren't credible today, especially motives of preventing guilty sexual secrets from coming out. Nowadays, people sell their guilty sexual secrets.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects on shifting societal values regarding sexual secrets and morality over time.
P. D. James highlights the evolution of societal attitudes towards personal sexual secrets from the 1930s to today. In the past, individuals went to great lengths to hide their sexual indiscretions, often motivated by a fear of social stigma and moral judgment. However, contemporary society appears more open and accepting, leading to a situation where such secrets can even be commodified and exposed for profit, showcasing a significant change in how society views morality and sexuality.
Themes
SecretsSocietyMoralitySexualityChange
In practice
Example use cases
A discussion on changing social norms during a university lecture on ethics.
More from P. D. James
All quotes βIf from infancy you treat children as gods, they are liable in adulthood to act as devils.
P. D. JamesRead
I believe that political correctness can be a form of linguistic fascism, and it sends shivers down the spine of my generation who went to war against fascism.
P. D. JamesRead
What a child doesn't receive he can seldom later give.
P. D. JamesRead
Open your mind to new experiences, particularly to the study of other Βpeople. Nothing that happens to a writer β however happy, however tragic β is ever wasted.
P. D. JamesRead
It was one of those perfect English autumnal days which occur more frequently in memory than in life.
P. D. JamesRead
Similar quotes
There's an unwritten law that you cannot have a Jewish character in a film who isn't 100 percent perfect, or you're labeled anti-Semitic.
Spike LeeRead
The more materialistic science becomes, the more angels shall I paint. Their wings are my protest in favor of the immortality of the soul.
Edward Burne-JonesRead
If you feel that you must suffer, then plan your suffering carefully -- as you choose your dreams, as you conceive your ancestors.
Edward AbbeyRead
From another direction he felt the sensation of being a sheep startled by a flying saucer, but it was virtually indistinguishable from the feeling of being a sheep startled by anything else it ever encountered, for they were creatures who learned very little on their journey through life, and would be startled to see the sun rising in the morning, and astonished by all the green stuff in the fields.
Douglas AdamsRead
White people in North America live in a social environment that protects and insulates them from race-based stress. This insulated environment of racial protection builds white expectations for racial comfort while at the same time lowering the ability to tolerate racial stress.
Robin DiangeloRead
One important theme is the extent to which one can ever correct an error, especially outside any frame of religious forgiveness. All of us have done something we regret - how we manage to remove that from our conscience, or whether that's even possible, interested me.
Ian McewanRead