Some tourists think Amsterdam is a city of sin, but in truth it is a city of freedom. And in freedom, most people find sin.
Interpretation
Amsterdam represents a place of freedom, which can lead individuals to explore moral boundaries.
This quote by John Green highlights the contrast between the common perception of Amsterdam as a morally permissive 'city of sin' and its true nature as a city that embraces freedom. It suggests that freedom allows individuals to experiment with their choices, which may lead some to engage in behaviors that society deems sinful. Ultimately, this reflects on the human condition and our relationship with freedom and morality.
In practice
During a speech on personal liberties, one might quote this to illustrate the complexity of freedom.
Always' was a promise! How can you just break the promise?" "Sometimes people don't always understand the promises they're making when they make them," I said. Isaac shot me a look. "Right, of course. But you keep the promise anyway. That's what love is. Love is keeping the promise anyway. Don't you believe in true love?" I didn't answer. I didn't have an answer. But I thought that if true love did exist, that was a pretty good definition of it.
Augustus Waters was the great star-crossed love of my life. Ours was an epic love story, and I won’t be able to get more than a sentence into it without disappearing into a puddle of tears. Gus knew. Gus knows. I will not tell you our love story, because—like all real love stories—it will die with us, as it should.
I find it really offensive when people say that the emotional experiences of teenagers are less real or less important than those of adults. I am an adult, and I used to be a teenager, and so I can tell you with some authority that my feelings then were as real as my feelings are now.
I don't think pandemics make us afraid of death, I think they make us afraid of oblivion. They force us to grapple with the futility of effort. Also they make us barf which isn't fun either... Wash your hands, cover your coughs, and find a way to hold in balance the futility of effort with the necessity to struggle.
So often we try to make other people feel better by minimizing their pain, by telling them that it will get better (which it will) or that there are worse things in the world (which there are). But that's not what I actually needed. What I actually needed was for someone to tell me that it hurt because it mattered. I have found this very useful to think about over the years, and I find that it is a lot easier and more bearable to be sad when you aren't constantly berating yourself for being sad.
We kiss. Her hands are freezing on my face, and she tastes like coffee and the smell of the onion is still stuck in my nose, and my lips are all dry from the endless winter. And it's awesome.
Be a good man to Allah and a bad man to yourself (desires); and be one of the commoners among the people
There is nothing to save, now all is lost, but a tiny core of stillness in the heart like the eye of a violet.
Fear is a relative thing; its effects are relative to power.
A miracle signifies nothing more than an event... the cause of which cannot be explained by another familiar instance, or.... which the narrator is unable to explain.
The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much it is whether we provide enough for those who have little.
Those who are used to a cage will weep for a cage.
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