Shrines! Shrines! Surely you don't believe in the gods. What's your argument? Where's your proof?
AristophanesRead
Times change. The vices of your age are stylish today.
Interpretation
Societal norms and values evolve over time, often making past vices seem fashionable in a new context.
This quote by Aristophanes highlights the idea that societal values and perceptions of morality are not static; they shift with the times. What may have been considered vices or negative behaviors in one era can become accepted or even celebrated in another, suggesting that each generation has its own unique set of customs and standards that shape its identity and behavior.
In practice
During a lecture on historical shifts in social norms, this quote could be used to illustrate how perceptions of morality evolve.
Shrines! Shrines! Surely you don't believe in the gods. What's your argument? Where's your proof?
[Y]ou [man] are fool enough, it seems, to dare to war with [woman=] me, when for your faithful ally you might win me easily.
Quickly, bring me a beaker of wine, so that I may wet my mind and say something clever.
Open your mouth and shut your eyes and see what Zeus will send you.
When men drink, then they are rich and successful and win lawsuits and are happy and help their friends. Quickly, bring me a beaker of wine, so that I may wet my mind and say something clever.
These impossible women! How they do get around us! The poet was right: Can't live with them, or without them.
You have to know how to evolve with age without trying to hang on to your younger image of yourself from the past.
The whole world is starting to realize that it was the most unwise thing for our society to have ignored women power, to run the society with male priorities.
The butterfly does not look back upon its caterpillar self, either fondly or wistfully; it simply flies on.
Kings are falling like leaves this autumn.
Nothing that you plan is going to work out. Everything is going to be totally different than the way you expected. And things will constantly challenge you. Wherever you look the world is not as solid it seems to be.
Come, come, my conservative friend, wipe the dew off your spectacles, and see that the world is moving.
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