If you have the guts to be yourself, other people'll pay your price.
John UpdikeRead
For male and female alike, the bodies of the other sex are messages signaling what we must do - they are glowing signifiers of our own necessities.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The bodies of the opposite sex communicate our desires and needs, reflecting our internal emotions and requirements.
In this quote, John Updike suggests that the physical forms of men and women serve as profound indicators of our innate desires and necessities. He implies that our attraction to the bodies of the opposite sex is not merely superficial but rather a deep-seated signal that reveals our own needs, aspirations, and emotional states, thereby intertwining our physical existence with our psychological experiences in relationships.
Themes
BodiesRelationshipsDesiresSignalingNecessities
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be used during a discussion about attraction and relationships in a psychology class.
More from John Updike
All quotes βDost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that's the stuff life is made of. _x000D_ _x000D_ Suspect each moment, for it is a thief, tiptoeing away with more than it brings.
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Museums and bookstores should feel, I think, like vacant lots - places where the demands on us are our own demands, where the spirit can find exercise in unsupervised play.
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But it is just two lovers, holding hands and in a hurry to reach their car, their locked hands a starfish leaping through the dark.
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The reader knows the writer better than he knows himself; but the writer's physical presence is light from a star that has moved on.
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To guarantee the individual maximum freedom within a social frame of minimal laws ensures - if not happiness - its hopeful pursuit.
John UpdikeRead
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