Everything is dangerous, my dear fellow. If it wasn't so, life wouldn't be worth living.
Oscar WildeRead
It's tragic how few people ever 'possess their souls' before they die. 'Nothing is more rare in any man', says Emerson, 'than an act of his own.' It is quite true. Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their life is a mimicry, their passions a quotation.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes the rarity of individuals truly living authentically and making their own choices.
Oscar Wilde's quote reflects on the tragedy of people not fully realizing or owning their true selves before they pass away. He highlights that most individuals live their lives by imitating others and adopting external thoughts and feelings rather than expressing their genuine identities, suggesting that this lack of authenticity leads to a life unfulfilled and lacking in true meaning.
Themes
AuthenticitySelf-DiscoveryIndividualityLifePhilosophy
In practice
Example use cases
During a graduation speech to inspire students to pursue their passions and be true to themselves.
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.
Oscar WildeRead
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.
Oscar WildeRead
Men always want to be a woman's first love - women like to be a man's last romance.
Oscar WildeRead
A truth ceases to be true when more than one person believes in it.
Oscar WildeRead
His morality is all sympathy, just what morality should be
Oscar WildeRead
Similar quotes
It is time for me to be dead for a little while - and then live again.
Kurt VonnegutRead
War is sweet to those who haven't tasted it. Dulce bellum inexpertis.
Desiderius ErasmusRead
I got a statistic for you right now. Grab your pencil, Doug. There are five billion trees in the world. I looked it up. Under every tree is a shadow, right? So, then, what makes night? I'll tell you: shadows crawling out from under five billion trees! Think of it! Shadows running around in the air, muddying the waters you might say. If only we could figure a way to keep those darn five billion shadows under those trees, we could stay up half the night, Doug, because there'd be no night!
Ray BradburyRead
Scandal sells books; fidelity does not.
Coretta Scott KingRead
I should like to know if, taking this old Declaration of Independence, which declares that all men are equal upon principle, you begin making exceptions to it, where will you stop? If one man says it does not mean a Negro, why not another say it does not mean some other man?
Abraham LincolnRead
The knife of historical relativism... which has cut to pieces all metaphysics and religion must also bring about healing.
Wilhelm DiltheyRead