Everything is dangerous, my dear fellow. If it wasn't so, life wouldn't be worth living.
Oscar WildeRead
The English country-gentleman galloping after a fox — the unspeakable in full pursuit of the uneatable.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Wilde critiques the absurdity of British fox hunting, highlighting the folly of pursuing something unattainable.
In this quote, Oscar Wilde cleverly uses humor to critique the activity of fox hunting, a pastime associated with the English aristocracy. By describing the 'unspeakable' chasing the 'uneatable,' he emphasizes the absurdity and futility of the chase, suggesting that people often pursue activities that are inherently pointless or nonsensical.
Themes
AbsurdityHuntingHumorPursuitFutility
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech addressing the absurdities of modern life, one might use this quote to illustrate how society often chases unrealistic goals.
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.
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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
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