James Baldwin: Comparing Sex to Cash
on Sunday, January 9, 2011James Baldwin Funny Money Quote saying when you have what you want, you are free to think of other things besides the desire to get what you most want. James Baldwin said:
“Money, it turned out, was exactly like sex, you thought of nothing else if you didn’t have it and thought of other things if you did” — James Baldwin
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In this quote, James Baldwin seems to be drawing a comparison between the psychological effects of lacking money and sex. Some key points:
- He states that when lacking money, it dominates one’s thoughts just as lacking sex dominates the mind.
- Baldwin implies that in the absence of these things, they become obsessive preoccupations due to their importance to basic security and fulfillment.
- However, he suggests that once an individual’s needs are met in these areas, they can focus mental energies elsewhere rather than constantly dwelling on what is missing.
Overall, the quote conveys Baldwin’s perspective that lacking resources as fundamental as money or intimacy results in a single-minded fixation on obtaining them, but having basics covered allows the mind to broaden its concerns beyond survival needs. Both money and sex take on disproportionate significance in their absence according to this view of how scarcity shapes human psychology.
Birthday: August 2, 1924 – Death: December 1, 1987