Everything is dangerous, my dear fellow. If it wasn't so, life wouldn't be worth living.
Oscar WildeRead
Conscience and cowardice are really the same things, Basil. Conscience is the trade-name of the firm. That is all.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Conscience and cowardice are two sides of the same coin, with conscience being a socially accepted term.
In this quote, Oscar Wilde suggests that what we often perceive as moral conscience may actually be a manifestation of cowardice. He implies that the motivations driving our ethical choices might not stem from noble intentions, but rather from a fear of judgment or consequences, thus questioning the true nature of moral integrity and the complexity of human motivations.
Themes
ConscienceCowardiceMoralityFearHuman Nature
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about moral dilemmas, this quote could be used to illustrate the complexity of ethical decision-making.
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.
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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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Men always want to be a woman's first love - women like to be a man's last romance.
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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
Oscar WildeRead
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