Everything is dangerous, my dear fellow. If it wasn't so, life wouldn't be worth living.
Oscar WildeRead
It is only by not paying one's bills that one can hope to live in the memory of the commercial classes.
Interpretation
Not paying bills can create a lasting impression in commercial society, satirically suggesting that there's a twisted form of legacy in debt.
Oscar Wilde's quote humorously critiques the commercial mindset by suggesting that failing to fulfill financial obligations is a way to stand out and be remembered by businesses and society. It reflects Wilde's wit and his commentary on societal values, as he highlights the absurdity of being valued based on financial irresponsibility rather than character or contributions.
In practice
This quote can be used in a speech about the absurdities of consumer culture.
Everything is dangerous, my dear fellow. If it wasn't so, life wouldn't be worth living.
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.
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.
Men always want to be a woman's first love - women like to be a man's last romance.
A truth ceases to be true when more than one person believes in it.
His morality is all sympathy, just what morality should be
It would take more than long-stemmed roses to change my view that you're a despicable cowardy custard and a disgrace to a proud family. Your ancestors fought in the Crusades and were often mentioned in despatches, and you cringe like a salted snail at the thought of appearing as Santa Claus before an audience of charming children who wouldn't hurt a fly. It's enough to make an aunt turn her face to the wall and give up the struggle.
Commuter - one who spends his life In riding to and from his wife; A man who shaves and takes a train And then rides back to shave again.
I hate editors, for they make me abandon a lot of perfectly good English words.
When I have one martini, I feel bigger, wiser, taller. When I have a second, I feel superlative. When I have more, there's no holding me.
My dream in life is to write the one gag that makes everyone in the world laugh.
No man goes before his time - unless the boss leaves early.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.