Everything is dangerous, my dear fellow. If it wasn't so, life wouldn't be worth living.
Oscar WildeRead
LADY STUTFIELD I adore silent men. MRS ALLONBY Oh, Ernest isn't silent. He talks the whole time. But he has got no conversation. What he talks about I don't know. I haven't listened to him for years.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote highlights the difference between talking and meaningful conversation, emphasizing the idea that mere words don't equate to genuine communication.
In this quote, Oscar Wilde captures the ironic observation about individuals who speak constantly yet fail to engage in meaningful dialogue. It humorously suggests that the amount one talks does not necessarily reflect their conversational depth or ability to connect with others, ultimately mocking superficiality in social interactions.
Themes
ConversationCommunicationHumorSuperficialityIronism
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be used in a discussion about the nature of conversation during a speech at a social gathering.
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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