QuoteProject
To shut one's eyes to half of life that one may live securely is as though one blinded oneself that one might walk with more safety in a land of pit and precipice.
Oscar Wilde
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

Avoiding life's challenges for the sake of security limits our experiences and growth.

This quote by Oscar Wilde emphasizes the folly of avoiding the difficulties and complexities of life in pursuit of safety. By choosing to 'shut one's eyes' to the struggles of existence, one may feel temporarily secure, but this self-imposed blindness means forsaking the richness of life's experiences, which can often lead to a deeper understanding and appreciation of living.

Themes

LifeExperienceSecurityCourageGrowth

In practice

Example use cases

This quote can be used in a motivational speech about overcoming fear to embrace life fully.

More from Oscar Wilde

Everything is dangerous, my dear fellow. If it wasn't so, life wouldn't be worth living.
Oscar WildeRead
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

The root of almost every schism and heresy from which the Christian Church has suffered, has been because of the effort of men to earn, rather than receive their salvation; and the reason preaching is so commonly ineffective is, that it often calls on people to work for God rather than letting God work through them.
John RuskinRead
Could it think, the heart would stop beating.
Fernando PessoaRead
Comfort and luxury are usually the chief requirements of life for your ego - its top priorities tend to be accumulations, achievements, and the approval of others.
Wayne DyerRead
Man is man because he is free to operate within a framework of his destiny. He is free to deliberate, to make decisions, and to choose between alternatives. He is distinguished from animals by his freedom to do evil or to do good and to walk the high road of beauty or tread the low road of ugly degeneracy.
Martin LutherRead
The philosophy I love is very selective. It is really just the bit that is involved in a search for wisdom, and this means a short roll call of names; Socrates, Marcus Aurelius, Seneca, Epicurus, Montaigne, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche.
Alain De BottonRead
The greatest good is what we do for others.
Mother TeresaRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.