Everything is dangerous, my dear fellow. If it wasn't so, life wouldn't be worth living.
Oscar WildeRead
I did not think I should be ever loved: do you indeed Love me so much as now you say you do? Ask of the sea-bird if it loves the sea, Ask of the roses if they love the rain, Ask of the little lark, that will not sing Till day break, if it loves to see the day: And yet, these are but empty images, Mere shadows of my love, which is a fire So great that all the waters of the main Can not avail to quench it.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The speaker expresses doubt about being truly loved, comparing love to elements of nature, emphasizing its depth and intensity.
In this quote, Oscar Wilde captures the complexity of love, where the speaker questions the authenticity and depth of their partner's affection. Through vivid natural imagery, Wilde illustrates that while other things in nature may seem to have an innate love, their own love is profound and powerful, likening it to a fire that cannot be extinguished. This suggests that true love is both overwhelming and essential, transcending ordinary expressions and comparisons.
Themes
LoveDepthNaturePassionEmotion
In practice
Example use cases
A romantic dinner conversation to express deep feelings.
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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I am dying into your mystery, and dying, I am now no other than that mystery. I open to your majesty as an orchard welcomes rain, and twenty times that.
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