Everything is dangerous, my dear fellow. If it wasn't so, life wouldn't be worth living.
Oscar WildeRead
To be natural is such a very difficult pose to keep up.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Being true to oneself can be challenging and requires effort.
Oscar Wilde highlights the paradox of authenticity in this quote, suggesting that while being natural or genuine is often seen as effortless, in reality, it can be a complex and strenuous act. This statement prompts reflection on the pressures of societal expectations that may compel individuals to wear facades rather than embrace their true selves.
Themes
AuthenticityNatureSelfSocietyPressure
In practice
Example use cases
During a motivational speech about self-acceptance, one could use this quote to emphasize the importance of being oneself.
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
..children know such a lot now, they soon don't believe in fairies, and every time a child says, 'I don't believe in fairies,' there is a fairy somewhere that falls down dead.
James M. BarrieRead
There is nothing to save, now all is lost, but a tiny core of stillness in the heart like the eye of a violet.
D. H. LawrenceRead
Honesty,sincer ity,simplicity, humility, pure generosity,abse nce of vanity,readines s to serve others -qualities which are within easy reach of every soul -are the foundation of one's spiritual life.
Nelson MandelaRead
It may be true that my desk here is really 'nothing but' a transient eddy of electrons in the flux of universal process. Nevertheless, I find that it continues to support my feet, my revolver, and my cigars all day long. What happens when my back is turned I don't know. Or much care. That's no concern of mine.
Edward AbbeyRead
Great occasions rouse even the lowest of human beings to some kind of greatness, but he alone is the really great man whose character is great always, the same wherever he be.
Swami VivekanandaRead
Liberty not only means that the individual has both the opportunity and the burden of choice; it also means that he must bear the consequences of his actions. Liberty and responsibility are inseparable.
Friedrich August Von HayekRead