Everything is dangerous, my dear fellow. If it wasn't so, life wouldn't be worth living.
Oscar WildeRead
A map of the world that does not include Utopia is not worth even glancing at, for it leaves out the one country at which Humanity is always landing. And when Humanity lands there, it looks out, and, seeing a better country, sets sail. Progress is the realisation of Utopias.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes the importance of aspiring towards an ideal vision of society, or Utopia, which drives human progress.
Oscar Wilde suggests that a worldview lacking the concept of Utopia is incomplete, as it disregards humanity's inherent desire to aspire for something better. By presenting Utopia as a destination that inspires progress, Wilde implies that the pursuit of idealism propels society forward, motivating individuals to envision and strive for advancements in their lives and communities.
Themes
UtopiaProgressAspirationIdealismHumanity
In practice
Example use cases
A motivational speech about innovation could include this quote to inspire a vision for the future.
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.
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
Do we open ourselves to the Holy Spirit, so as to be an active part of our communities, or do we close in on ourselves, saying 'I have so many things to do, that's not my job'?
Pope FrancisRead
If it’s going to be a world with no time for sentiment, it’s not a world that I want to live in.
Christopher IsherwoodRead
One of the earliest resurrection scenes in the Bible is that of Thomas demanding evidence - he wanted to see, to touch, to prove. Those who question and probe and debate are heirs of the apostles just as much as the most fervent of believers.
Jon MeachamRead
We have to get out of this mindset that the rich will do the business and the poor will have the charity.
Muhammad YunusRead
I have said that the soul is not more than the body, And I have said that the body is not more than the soul, And nothing, not God, is greater to one than one's-self is.
Walt WhitmanRead
And over your unconsecrated head you'll hear the howling wolves lament their fate and yours the livelong year.
Charles BaudelaireRead