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Agitators are a set of interfering, meddling people, who come down to some perfectly contented class of the community and sow the seeds of discontent amongst them. That is the reason why agitators are so absolutely necessary. Without them, in our incomplete state, there would be no advance towards civilization.
Oscar Wilde
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Interpretation

What this quote means

Agitators challenge the status quo, stimulating progress in society.

This quote by Oscar Wilde emphasizes the crucial role that agitators play in society by disrupting complacency and sparking discontent among individuals who may be otherwise satisfied. Wilde suggests that these agents of change are essential for progress and civilization, as they push people to confront issues that may have been ignored or accepted, ultimately leading to a more evolved society.

Themes

AgitatorsProgressContentmentCivilizationDiscontent

In practice

Example use cases

A speaker at a rally might use this quote to highlight the importance of activism.

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Everything is dangerous, my dear fellow. If it wasn't so, life wouldn't be worth living.
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When one has never heard a man's name in the course of one's life, it speaks volumes for him; he must be quite respectable.
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A truth ceases to be true when more than one person believes in it.
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His morality is all sympathy, just what morality should be
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