Everything is dangerous, my dear fellow. If it wasn't so, life wouldn't be worth living.
Oscar WildeRead
I do not approve of anything that tampers with natural ignorance. Ignorance is like a delicate exotic fruit; touch it and the bloom is gone. The whole theory of modern education is radically unsound. Fortunately in England, at any rate, education produces no effect whatsoever. If it did, it would prove a serious danger to the upper classes, and probably lead to acts of violence in Grosvenor Square.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Wilde critiques the impact of education on societal ignorance and the potential danger it poses to the elite.
In this quote, Oscar Wilde expresses his skepticism about the value of education, suggesting that it disrupts the natural state of ignorance which he likens to an exquisite fruit. He argues that education, instead of enlightening individuals, might actually challenge the status quo and lead to unrest among the privileged classes, emphasizing his belief that a lack of awareness can be safer for societal harmony.
Themes
EducationIgnoranceSocietyOscar WildeUpper Classes
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a speech on the flaws of the educational system.
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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