Everything is dangerous, my dear fellow. If it wasn't so, life wouldn't be worth living.
Oscar WildeRead
To get back my youth I would do anything in the world, except take exercise, get up early, or be respectable.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote humorously expresses a desire to regain youth while rejecting the conventional efforts required to achieve it.
In this quote, Oscar Wilde uses wit to convey the irony of longing for youth while simultaneously refusing to engage in the behaviors typically associated with maintaining health and vitality, such as exercising or adhering to societal norms. It reflects a playful acknowledgment that the things we often assume are necessary for youthfulness are not always appealing or desirable.
Themes
YouthExerciseRespectableHumorLife
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be shared on social media to spark a conversation about aging.
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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