We must never expect discretion in first love: it is accompanied by such excessive joy that unless the joy is allowed to overflow, it will choke you.
Alexandre DumasRead
The custom and fashion of today will be the awkwardness and outrage of tomorrow - so arbitrary are these transient laws.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote reflects on the fleeting nature of societal norms and how what is accepted today may be seen as strange in the future.
Alexandre Dumas's quote emphasizes the idea that the fashions and customs of any given time period can seem normal and acceptable, yet with the passage of time, these same practices may become outdated or even ridiculed. This serves as a reminder of the arbitrary nature of societal standards and the inevitability of change in human behavior and thought.
Themes
SocietyNormsChangeCustomsFuture
In practice
Example use cases
During a discussion on fashion trends in a cultural studies class.
More from Alexandre Dumas
All quotes →There are two ways of seeing: with the body and with the soul. The body's sight can sometimes forget, but the soul remembers forever.
Alexandre DumasRead
I do not often laugh, sir, as you may perceive by the air of my countenance; but nevertheless, I retain the privilege of laughing when I please.
Alexandre DumasRead
There is neither happiness nor misery in the world; there is only the comparison of one state with another, nothing more. He who has felt the deepest grief is best able to experience supreme happiness.
Alexandre DumasRead
Those born to wealth, and who have the means of gratifying every wish, know not what is the real happiness of life, just as those who have been tossed on the stormy waters of the ocean on a few frail planks can alone realize the blessings of fair weather.
Alexandre DumasRead
It is the way of weakened minds to see everything through a black cloud. The soul forms its own horizons; your soul is darkened, and consequently the sky of the future appears stormy and unpromising
Alexandre DumasRead
Similar quotes
God is in the slums, in the cardboard boxes where the poor play house. God is in the silence of a mother who has infected her child with a virus that will end both their lives. God is in the cries heard under the rubble of war. God is in the debris of wasted opportunity and lives, and God is with us if we are with them.
BonoRead
Sometimes I knew in all my mind and heart why I had done what I had done, and I welcomed the sacrifice. But there were times too when I lived in a desert and felt no joy and saw no hope and could not remember my old feelings. Then I lived by faith alone, faith without hope. What good did I get from it? I got to have love in my heart.
Wendell BerryRead
The only freedom supposed to be left to the masses is that of grazing on the ration of simulacra the system distributes to each individual.
Michel De CerteauRead
I don't wish to be the symbol of anything. I'm only myself.
Ayn RandRead
Let a man set his heart only on doing the will of God and he is instantly free. If we understand our first and sole duty to consist of loving God supremely and loving everyone, even our enemies, for God's dear sake, then we can enjoy spiritual tranquility under every circumstance.
Aiden Wilson TozerRead
His [Erwin Schrödinger's] private life seemed strange to bourgeois people like ourselves. But all this does not matter. He was a most lovable person, independent, amusing, temperamental, kind and generous, and he had a most perfect and efficient brain.
Max BornRead