Everything is dangerous, my dear fellow. If it wasn't so, life wouldn't be worth living.
Oscar WildeRead
Public Opinion... an attempt to organize the ignorance of the community, and to elevate it to the dignity of physical force.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote critiques how public opinion often represents collective ignorance that is then given power and importance.
Oscar Wilde's quote highlights the irony in how public opinion, frequently shaped by misinformation or superficial understanding, is given weight and authority in society. Rather than being a reflection of informed consensus, it can be a manifestation of collective ignorance that is elevated to a form of power, making it a dangerous tool in shaping policies and cultural norms.
Themes
Public OpinionIgnoranceCommunityPowerAuthority
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about democracy, one might reference Wilde's quote to illustrate the dangers of unexamined public opinion.
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.
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A truth ceases to be true when more than one person believes in it.
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His morality is all sympathy, just what morality should be
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