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The way of paradoxes is the way of truth. To test Reality we must see it on the tight-rope.
Oscar Wilde
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Interpretation

What this quote means

This quote emphasizes that truth often lies in contradictions and complexities, which must be explored carefully.

Oscar Wilde suggests that understanding reality requires a delicate balance between opposing viewpoints, much like walking a tightrope. The 'way of paradoxes' indicates that truth is not always straightforward and might involve embracing contradictions to fully grasp the complexities of life and existence.

Themes

TruthParadoxRealityComplexityBalance

In practice

Example use cases

This quote can be used in a philosophy class discussion about the nature of truth.

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Everything is dangerous, my dear fellow. If it wasn't so, life wouldn't be worth living.
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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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