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Arguments are to be avoided: they are always vulgar and often convincing.
Oscar Wilde
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Interpretation

What this quote means

Arguments can be unrefined and persuasive, leading to conflict and misunderstandings.

Oscar Wilde's quote suggests that arguments are not only crude in nature but can also be deceptive in their ability to appear convincing. By labeling arguments as 'vulgar,' he implies that they detract from rational discourse and human connection, advocating instead for more refined and civil discussions that foster understanding rather than discord.

Themes

ArgumentsDiscourseUnderstandingCivilCommunication

In practice

Example use cases

This quote can be used in a debate to remind participants to focus on constructive dialogue over heated arguments.

More from Oscar Wilde

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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