Standards are always out of date. That's what makes them standards.
Interpretation
Standards become obsolete over time as society evolves, which is what defines them as 'standards'.
This quote by Alan Bennett emphasizes that standards are not static; they reflect the norms and expectations of a particular time, and as society changes, so too must these standards. The acknowledgment that standards become outdated is a call to recognize that progress and growth require the willingness to adapt and re-evaluate what we consider to be the 'norm'.
In practice
In a speech about innovation in technology, one might refer to the quote to highlight the need for evolving standards.
To begin with, it's true, she read with trepidation and some unease. The sheer endlessness of books outfaced her and she had no idea how to go on; there was no system to her reading, with one book leading to another, and often she had two or three on the go at the same time.
A book is a device to ignite the imagination.
Those who have known the famous are publicly debriefed of their memories, knowing as their own dusk falls that they will only be remembered for remembering someone else.
To read is to withdraw.To make oneself unavailable. One would feel easier about it if the pursuit inself were less...selfish.
The best moments in reading are when you come across something - a thought, a feeling, a way of looking at things - which you had thought special and particular to you. And now, here it is, set down by someone else, a person you have never met, someone even who is long dead. And it is as if a hand has come out, and taken yours
...she felt about reading what some writers felt about writing: that it was impossible not to do it and that at this late stage of her life she had been chosen to read as others were chosen to write.
As a human being, member of society, you must clearly state your mind. It's a responsibility. It is the way you identify yourself otherwise you don't know who you are and why you are here.
The thoughts written on the walls of madhouses by their inmates might be worth publicizing.
All resistance is a rupture with what is. And every rupture begins, for those engaged in it, through a rupture with oneself.
The human heart is a factory of idols...Everyon e of us is, from his mother's womb, expert in inventing idols.
In the name of certainty, the greatest crimes have been committed against humanity.
Therefore it is unnecessary for a prince to have all the good qualities I have enumerated, but it is very necessary to appear to have them. And I shall dare to say this also, that to have them and always to observe them is injurious, and that to appear to have them is useful; to appear merciful, faithful, humane, religious, upright, and to be so, but with a mind so framed that should you require not to be so, you may be able and know how to change to the opposite.
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