Freda Adler Quotes

I like the English. They have the most rigid code of immorality in the world.

We don't kiss in public. It's not done.

to a Southerner it is faux pas, not sins, that matter in this world.

Social taboos are shy like virtue; once lost, there is no remedy

What's appropriate in America anymore?

If enough people openly engage in conduct once considered reprehensible, we rewrite the rule book and assume that God, as a good democrat, will go along.

There are thus great swathes of the past where understanding is more important and reputable than judgement, because the principal actors performed in line with the ideas and values of that time, not of ours.

Something I miss terribly from the '60s - the most important phrase in the English language was, 'I got hung up.' Somebody says they got hung up, it's unassailable, you know? You don't go near that. Whoa! I know what that can be like.

Laws are never as effective as habits.

But we're still in somewhat a Puritanical society in a lot of ways.

We seem okay with violence, but nudity we race to criticize and censor.

In Japan, people don't really sing about sexual content.

One may no more live in the world without picking up the moral prejudices of the world than one will be able to go to hell without perspiring.

I grew up in society when lots of things were hidden, and they were not hidden just one way, but it was very complicated.

Ethics is a fluid term ...It's the standards by which a civilized society lives.

If we think we regulate printing thereby to rectify manners, we must regulate all recreations and pastimes ...

… a country's laws are written upon paper, and that its customs are engraved upon brass. One may play with the one, but not with the other. It is less risky for a stranger to dance upon our Constitution in the public square than to affront one of our solidified customs. The one is merely eminently respectable, the other is sacred.

Society doesn't have values. People have values.

History requires us to judge the figures of the past not by our moral standards but by those of the ages in which they lived and worked.

In some people's eyes, nudity is so much more dangerous than violence. I never really understood that.

Every culture is different in terms of what is taboo and what is acceptable. I grew up in Singapore, where people are very mindful of that. One can see that as restriction or as consideration for a fellow person living within a shared environment.

I was raised in a very Middle Eastern household, and modesty was very important, and dressing to not be desirable or provocative was very important.

I guess I'm concerned that vulgarity has now officially entered the mainstream of our culture, and I think people have to respectfully stand up and say, 'No thanks.'

I come from a part of Nigeria where a lot of value is placed on implicit communication. The 'well brought up' child is the one who can pick up nonverbal cues from adults and interpret them correctly.

Why would I need to have sex on TV for my living? No Indian should do this; I can't do such things.