If you have the guts to be yourself, other people'll pay your price.
John UpdikeRead
If she’d been born at the right time they would have burned her over in Salem.
Interpretation
The quote reflects on the theme of societal judgment and the consequences of being different or ahead of one's time.
John Updike's quote highlights the historical context of societal intolerance towards individuals who challenge norms or display unique qualities. By referencing the witch trials in Salem, he suggests that individuals who innovate or think differently can face severe backlash in any era, underscoring the continuous struggle for acceptance and understanding across time.
In practice
During a lecture on social justice, one might use this quote to discuss societal norms and the consequences of ostracizing those who are different.
If you have the guts to be yourself, other people'll pay your price.
Dost 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.
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.
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.
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.
To guarantee the individual maximum freedom within a social frame of minimal laws ensures - if not happiness - its hopeful pursuit.
In short, no pattern is an isolated entity. Each pattern can exist in the world only to the extent that is supported by other patterns: the larger patterns in which it is embedded, the patterns of the same size that surround it, and the smaller patterns which are embedded in it.
My mission is to kill time, and time's to kill me in its turn. How comfortable one is among murderers.
We build buildings based on the false assumption that women go to mosques half as much as they actually do. In fact, the US is the only country in the world where women and men report that they attend the mosque in equal numbers, but our institutions aren't representing this reality.
It is only by doing good to others that one attains to one's own good
Heaven does without doing through its purity, Earth does without doing through its calmness.
Life's meaning has always eluded me and I guess always will. But I love it just the same.
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