Everything is dangerous, my dear fellow. If it wasn't so, life wouldn't be worth living.
Oscar WildeRead
I do not approve of anything that tampers with natural ignorance. Ignorance is like a delicate exotic fruit; touch it and the bloom is gone. The whole theory of modern education is radically unsound. Fortunately in England, at any rate, education produces no effect whatsoever. If it did, it would prove a serious danger to the upper classes, and probably lead to acts of violence in Grosvenor Square.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Wilde critiques the impact of education on societal ignorance and the potential danger it poses to the elite.
In this quote, Oscar Wilde expresses his skepticism about the value of education, suggesting that it disrupts the natural state of ignorance which he likens to an exquisite fruit. He argues that education, instead of enlightening individuals, might actually challenge the status quo and lead to unrest among the privileged classes, emphasizing his belief that a lack of awareness can be safer for societal harmony.
Themes
EducationIgnoranceSocietyOscar WildeUpper Classes
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a speech on the flaws of the educational system.
More from Oscar Wilde
All quotes →London is too full of fogs and serious people. Whether the fogs produce the serious people, or whether the serious people produce the fogs, I don't know.
Oscar WildeRead
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.
Oscar WildeRead
Men always want to be a woman's first love - women like to be a man's last romance.
Oscar WildeRead
A truth ceases to be true when more than one person believes in it.
Oscar WildeRead
His morality is all sympathy, just what morality should be
Oscar WildeRead
Similar quotes
The education of women is the best way to save the environment.
E. O. WilsonRead
Remember, it is no sign of weakness or defeat that your manuscript ends up in need of major surgery. This is a common occurrence in all writing, and among the best writers.
William Strunk, Jr.Read
Take the example of my daughter. A lot of people were speaking out about education when the Taliban were bombing schools in Swat Valley, but Malala's voice was like a crescendo. It spread all around the world. She was the smallest but her voice was the biggest, because she was speaking for herself.
Ziauddin YousafzaiRead
I went to a segregated school; I was born a Negro, not a black man.
Michael Eric DysonRead
I refuse to accept that the world is so poor, when just one week of global spending on armies is enough to bring all of our children into classrooms.
Kailash SatyarthiRead
To sit alone in the lamplight with a book spread out before you, and hold intimate converse with men of unseen generations - such is a pleasure beyond compare.
Yoshida KenkoRead