Everything is dangerous, my dear fellow. If it wasn't so, life wouldn't be worth living.
Oscar WildeRead
And what sort of lives do these people, who pose as being moral, lead themselves? My dear fellow, you forget that we are in the native land of the hypocrite.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote questions the morality of individuals who appear virtuous while hiding their true nature.
Oscar Wilde critiques the nature of hypocrisy by highlighting the disparity between how people present themselves and their actual behavior. He suggests that many who claim to uphold moral values often lead lives that contrast starkly with the ideals they profess, calling attention to the prevalence of hypocrisy in society.
Themes
HypocrisyMoralitySocietyHuman Nature
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about political integrity, you could use this quote to criticize politicians who claim moral clarity while engaging in unethical behavior.
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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People are, if anything, more touchy about being thought silly than they are about being thought unjust.
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Wherever we direct our view, we discover the melancholy proofs of our depravity; whether we look to ancient or modern times, to barbarous or civilized nations, to the conduct of the world around us, or to the monitor within the breast; whether we read, or hear, or act, or think, or feel, the same humiliating lesson is forced upon us.
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