Everything is dangerous, my dear fellow. If it wasn't so, life wouldn't be worth living.
Oscar WildeRead
Other people are quite dreadful. The only possible society is oneself.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote reflects the idea that true understanding and fulfillment can only be derived from within oneself, rather than from external social interactions.
Oscar Wilde's quote emphasizes the notion of individualism and introspection, suggesting that reliance on others can often lead to disappointment. It points to the belief that the most meaningful 'society' one can have is the one cultivated within, highlighting the importance of self-awareness and personal growth in achieving true contentment.
Themes
IndividualismSelfSocietyIntrospectionContentment
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about personal growth, one might use this quote to highlight the importance of self-reflection.
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.
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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.
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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
And weren't, when you got right down to it, particularly evil. Human beings mostly aren't. They just get carried away by new ideas, like dressing up in jackboots and shooting people, or dressing up in white sheets and lynching people, or dressing up in tie-dye jeans and and playing guitar at people. Offer people a new creed with a costume and their hearts and minds will follow.
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There is no desire that anyone holds for any other reason than that they believe they will feel better in the achievement of it. Whether it is a material object, a physical state of being, a relationship, a condition, or a circumstance - at the heart of every desire is the desire to feel good. And so, the standard of success in life is not the things or the money - the standard of success is absolutely the amount of joy you feel.
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I've tried them all, I really have, and the only church that truly feeds the soul, day in, day out, is the Church of Baseball.
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The need for novelty is the characteristic of an alienated gorilla.
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I'm not a writer on a mission, and I'm very suspicious of writers on missions, but I'm also not living a false life.
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A person's worth in this world is estimated according to the value he puts on himself.
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