Everything is dangerous, my dear fellow. If it wasn't so, life wouldn't be worth living.
Oscar WildeRead
Selfishness is not living your life as you wish to live it. Selfishness is wanting others to live their lives as you wish them to.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Selfishness involves imposing your desires on others instead of allowing them to live freely.
In this quote, Oscar Wilde elucidates the concept of selfishness by making a distinction between living authentically and imposing one's will on others. True selfishness is not merely living according to one's own desires, but rather the act of desiring that others conform to how one wishes them to live, thus stifling their individuality and freedom.
Themes
SelfishnessFreedomIndividualityDesirePhilosophy
In practice
Example use cases
Use this quote in a discussion about personal freedom versus social expectations.
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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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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