Everything is dangerous, my dear fellow. If it wasn't so, life wouldn't be worth living.
Oscar WildeRead
She is very clever, too clever for a woman. She lacks the indefinable charm of weakness.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote critiques societal expectations of women and their perceived charm in weakness.
In this quote, Oscar Wilde challenges traditional gender roles by suggesting that a woman's intelligence and cleverness are at odds with the traits society often values in women, such as vulnerability and charm. Wilde's observation speaks to the complex nature of gender dynamics, where strength and intellect can be misunderstood or devalued, highlighting a deeper critique of how society views femininity.
Themes
IntelligenceGender RolesCharmWeaknessSociety
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about gender equality, one could reference this quote to highlight outdated perceptions of women's intelligence.
More from Oscar Wilde
All quotes βLondon 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
Every right is married to a duty, every freedom owes a corresponding responsibility.
Russell KirkRead
The need is not to amputate the ego ... but to transcend it.
Norman CousinsRead
A strong human spirit with control over appetites of the flesh is master over emotions and passions and not a slave to them. That kind of freedom is as vital to the spirit as oxygen is to the body! Freedom from self-slavery is true liberation!
Russell M. NelsonRead
The misuse of language induces evil in the soul.
SocratesRead
The modern habit of doing ceremonial things unceremoniously is no proof of humility; rather it proves the offender's inability to forget himself in the rite, and his readiness to spoil for every one else the proper pleasure of ritual.
C. S. LewisRead
Vastly more important than all questions with regard to methods of preaching is the root question as to what it is that shall be preached.
John Gresham MachenRead