Everything is dangerous, my dear fellow. If it wasn't so, life wouldn't be worth living.
Oscar WildeRead
As one reads history, not in the expurgated editions written for schoolboys and passmen, but in the original authorities of each time, one is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed, but by the punishments that the good have inflicted; and a community is infinitely more brutalised by the habitual employment of punishment than it is by the occasional occurrence of crime.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects on the harshness of punishment in society compared to the occurrences of crime.
Oscar Wilde's quote critiques the nature of justice and punishment throughout history. He suggests that societies are more morally degraded by the consistent use of punishment against individuals, particularly those who are inherently good, than they are harmed by the crimes committed by the wicked. This points to a troubling aspect of human behavior where the mechanisms of justice, rather than the acts of crime themselves, can lead to greater brutality and moral decline within a community.
Themes
PunishmentCrimeSocietyMoralityJustice
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about criminal justice reform, this quote can emphasize the need to reconsider harsh punishments.
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
Earth has one angel less and heaven one more, since yesterday.
Nathaniel HawthorneRead
Say not, 'I have found the truth,' but rather, 'I have found a truth.' Say not, ' I have found the path of the soul.' Say rather, 'I have met the soul walking upon my path.' For the soul walks upon all paths. The soul walks not upon a line, neither does it grow like a reed. The soul unfolds itself, like a lotus of countless petals.
Khalil GibranRead
We don't cut up when mad men are bred by the old legitimate regular stock religions, but we can't allow wildcat religions to indulge in such disastrous experiments.
Mark TwainRead
Service to humanity is service to God. Let the love and light of the Kingdom radiate through you until all who look upon you shall be illumined by its reflection. Be as stars, brilliant and sparkling in the loftiness of their heavenly station.
Abdu'L-BahRead
I don't think we should stop emphasizing race because I think, you know, race is still very, very important, and we have to recognize that and continue to introduce programs to address racial inequities. But we have to widen our vision and also address the growing problems of economic class.
William Julius WilsonRead
Pleasure is the greatest incentive to evil.
PlatoRead