Everything is dangerous, my dear fellow. If it wasn't so, life wouldn't be worth living.
Oscar WildeRead
There is something tragic about the enormous number of young men there are in England at the present moment who start life with perfect profiles, and end by adopting some useful profession.
Interpretation
The quote reflects on the loss of potential in young men who start with great promise but settle for practicality in their careers.
Oscar Wilde's quote highlights the tragedy of wasted potential, particularly among young men in England, who begin their lives with the advantage of idealism and ambition but often feel compelled to conform to societal expectations by choosing practical professions. It suggests a critique of how society can stifle individuality and creativity, pressing individuals to abandon their dreams for stability and usefulness in their careers.
In practice
This quote can be used in a graduation speech to encourage students to pursue their passions.
Everything is dangerous, my dear fellow. If it wasn't so, life wouldn't be worth living.
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.
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.
Men always want to be a woman's first love - women like to be a man's last romance.
A truth ceases to be true when more than one person believes in it.
His morality is all sympathy, just what morality should be
Conscience is the perfect interpreter of life.
The judge is found guilty when a criminal is acquitted.
A democrat need not believe that the majority will always reach a wise decision. He should however believe in the necessity of accepting the decision of the majority, be it wise or unwise, until such a time that the majority reaches another decision.
Charm is the great English blight. It does not exist outside these damp islands. It spots and kills anything it touches. It kills love; it kills art; I greatly fear, my dear Charles, it has killed you.
Clay is fashioned into vessels; it is on their empty hollowness that their use depends. Doors and windows are cut out to make a dwelling, and on the empty space within, its use depends. Thus, while the existence of things may be good, it is the non-existence in them that makes them serviceable.
How is the United States at once the most conservative and commercial AND the most revolutionary society on Earth?
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