Everything is dangerous, my dear fellow. If it wasn't so, life wouldn't be worth living.
Oscar WildeRead
I am sick to death of cleverness. Everybody is clever nowadays. You can't go anywhere without meeting clever people. The thing has become an absolute public nuisance. I wish to goodness we had a few fools left. ALGERNON: We have. JACK: I should extremely like to meet them. What do they talk about? ALGERNON: The fools? Oh! about the clever people of course. JACK: What fools.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote critiques the prevalence of cleverness in society, suggesting that it has become tiresome and overwhelming.
In this quote, Oscar Wilde expresses his frustration with the abundance of cleverness in the world, implying that while being clever is often celebrated, it has led to a lack of authenticity and depth in conversation. He longs for the simplicity and genuine nature of foolishness, pointing out that conversations about cleverness have become redundant and trivial, leaving little room for meaningful dialogue.
Themes
ClevernessFoolishnessSocietyAuthenticityConversation
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about the value of simplicity in life, this quote could be used to highlight the negative impacts of constant cleverness.
More from Oscar Wilde
All quotes →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.
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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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