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
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.
In practice
A discussion on changing social norms during a university lecture on ethics.
Every island to a child is a treasure island.
If from infancy you treat children as gods, they are liable in adulthood to act as devils.
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.
What a child doesn't receive he can seldom later give.
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.
It was one of those perfect English autumnal days which occur more frequently in memory than in life.
Meek Walton's heavenly memory.
It seems to me that any full grown, mature adult would have a desire to be responsible, to help where he can in a world that needs so very much, that threatens us so very much.
In my hometown of New Orleans, grief is a public spectacle that, somewhat paradoxically, necessitates celebration. The dead are not mourned so much as they are posthumously venerated with music and dance.
Mari remembered what she had read in the young girl's eyes the moment she had come into the refectory: fear. Fear. Veronika might feel insecurity, shyness, shame, constraint, but why fear? That was only justifiable when confronted by a real threat: ferocious animals, armed attackers, earthquakes, but not a group of people gathered together in a refectory. But human beings are like that,' she thought. 'We've replaced nearly all our emotions with fear.
It just doesn't make any sense for someone to say, 'Is there room for people who support the state of Israel and do not criticize it in the movement?' There can't be in feminism. You either stand up for the rights of all women, including Palestinians, or none. There's just no way around it.
Take faith, for example. For many people in our world, the opposite of faith is doubt. The goal, then, within this understanding, is to eliminate doubt. But faith and doubt aren't opposites. Doubt is often a sign that your faith has a pulse, that it's alive and well and exploring and searching. Faith and doubt aren't opposites, they are, it turns out, excellent dance partners.
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