Everything is dangerous, my dear fellow. If it wasn't so, life wouldn't be worth living.
Oscar WildeRead
The difference between literature and journalism is that journalism is unreadable and literature is not read.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Literature engages and captivates readers, whereas journalism can often be inaccessible or difficult to appreciate.
In this quote, Oscar Wilde highlights the contrast between literature and journalism, suggesting that while literature has the power to resonate with and be cherished by readers, journalism often fails to captivate its audience, making it unreadable for many. Wilde's observation points to the idea that literary works are crafted with artistry and emotional depth, whereas journalism may prioritize factual reporting over literary quality, sometimes resulting in a lack of appreciation from the public.
Themes
LiteratureJournalismWritingReadingCommunication
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about the role of media in society, this quote can emphasize the artistic value of literary works.
More from Oscar Wilde
All quotes βLondon 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
The novel that an author writes is often not the novel that the reader reads, and most of the 'messages' in a novel are put there by the reader. There's nothing wrong with that, of course. That's how literature functions.
Ken LiuRead
All books are either dreams or swords, you can cut, or you can drug, with words.
Amy LowellRead
In literature the ambition of the novice is to acquire the literary language; the struggle of the adept is to get rid of it.
George Bernard ShawRead
Fiction is history, human history, or it is nothing.
Joseph ConradRead
I don't know the literary world; I was scared of being confronted with famous names, not knowing what they had written. It was occupied territory I was entering.
John Le CarreRead
He didn't want to please his readers. He wanted to stretch them until they twanged.
Martin AmisRead