Most writers tend to get worse rather than better. I'm determined to be one that gets better.
Edmund WhiteRead
It's true that Paris is made up of equal parts of social conservatism and anarchic experimentation, but foreigners never quite know where to place the moral accent mark.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Paris embodies a tension between tradition and innovation, often leaving outsiders confused about its moral values.
Edmund White highlights the complex identity of Paris as a city that simultaneously respects its social traditions and embraces a spirit of rebellion and creativity. This duality creates a unique cultural landscape that may perplex foreigners trying to understand the ethical implications of Parisian life, suggesting that morality can be subjective and context-dependent.
Themes
ParisTraditionInnovationMoralityCulture
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be used in a discussion on the complexities of cultural identity in a globalized world.
More from Edmund White
All quotes βI've always seen writing as a way of telling the truth. For me, writing is about truth. I have always tried to be faithful to my own experience.
Edmund WhiteRead
In a memoir, your main contract with the reader is to tell the truth, no matter how bizarre.
Edmund WhiteRead
If bigots oppose gay marriage so vehemently, it must be because marriage is a defining institution for them; gays will never be fully accepted until they can marry and adopt, like anyone else.
Edmund WhiteRead
When we are young... we often experience things in the present with a nostalgia-in-advance, but we seldom guess what we will truly prize years from now.
Edmund WhiteRead
I was never an assimilationist. I always thought gays had some special mission.
Edmund WhiteRead
Similar quotes
Today the logic goes something like this: 'Calling a ruler Son of God is out of style. No one really does that nowadays. We can support a president while also worshiping Jesus as the Son of God.' But how is this possible? For one says that we must love our enemies, and the other says we must kill them; one promotes the economics of competition, while the other admonishes the forgiveness of debts. To which do we pledge allegiance?
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It is by its promise of a sense of power that evil often attracts the weak.
Eric HofferRead
But guilt is guilt. It doesn't go away. It can't be nullified. It can't even be fully understood, I'm certain - it's roots run too deep into private and long-standing karma. About the only thing that saves my neck when I get to feeling this way is that guilt is an imperfect form of knowledge. Just because it isn't perfect doesn't mean that it can't be used. The hard thing to do is to put it to practical use, before it gets around to paralyzing you.
J. D. SalingerRead
All problems are illusions of the mind.
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I would rather dwell in the dim fog of superstition than in air rarefied to nothing by the air-pump of unbelief-in which the panting breast expires, vainly and convulsively gasping for breath.
Jean PaulRead
Whoever has lived long enough to find out what life is, knows how deep a debt of gratitude we owe to Adam, the first great benefactor of our race. He brought death into the world.
Mark TwainRead