Everything is dangerous, my dear fellow. If it wasn't so, life wouldn't be worth living.
Oscar WildeRead
It is a much cleverer thing to talk nonsense than to listen to it.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote suggests that engaging in witty or nonsensical conversation is more intelligent than passively absorbing meaningless talk.
In this quote, Oscar Wilde illustrates the idea that participating in playful or nonsensical dialogue can be a sign of cleverness and creativity, while simply listening to nonsense without engaging is less admirable. Wilde's sharp wit points to the value of being actively involved in conversation, suggesting that one's ability to create humor or nonsense reflects a deeper level of intelligence and engagement with the world around them.
Themes
HumorNonsenseWitIntelligenceConversation
In practice
Example use cases
During a comedy night, one could quote Wilde when humorously discussing the absurdities of daily life.
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.
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
It was a nasty look. It made me feel as if I were something the dog had brought in and intended to bury later on, when he had time.
P. G. WodehouseRead
A politician is an arse upon which everyone has sat except a man.
E. E. CummingsRead
Humor is a serious thing. I like to think of it as one of our greatest earliest natural resources, which must be preserved at all cost.
James ThurberRead
My first words, as I was being born [...] I looked up at my mother and said, 'that's the last time I'm going up one of those.
Stephen FryRead
Murray sounds like a blindfolded man riding a unicycle on the rim of the pit of doom, the men actually facing the danger are all so taciturn that you might as well try interviewing the cars themselves.
Clive JamesRead
One way to make sure crime doesn't pay would be to let the government run it.
Ronald ReaganRead