Everything is dangerous, my dear fellow. If it wasn't so, life wouldn't be worth living.
Oscar WildeRead
You can hardly imagine that I and Lord Bracknell would dream of allowing our only daughter - a girl brought up with the utmost care - to marry into a cloak-room, and form an alliance with a parcel?
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote expresses the disdain for social class differences in marriage, particularly regarding the speaker's daughter.
In this quote, Oscar Wilde uses irony to critique the rigid social hierarchies of his time, particularly the absurdity of valuing social status over love. The character expresses disbelief that an influential and respected family would allow their daughter to marry someone of lower social standing, highlighting the societal pressures and expectations surrounding marriage and class.
Themes
MarriageSocial ClassSocietyRelationshipsIrony
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a discussion about the impact of social class on relationships.
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
Once we make our relationship choices in an adult way, a prospective partner who is unavailable, nonreciprocal, or not open to processing feelings and issues, becomes, by those very facts, unappealing. Once we love ourselves, people no longer look good to us unless they are good for us.
David RichoRead
You're not more than one generation from poor white trash, are you, Agent Starling?
Anthony HopkinsRead
We should ever conduct ourselves towards our enemy as if he were one day to be our friend.
John Henry NewmanRead
Women are never what they seem to be. There is the woman you see and there is the woman who is hidden. Buy the gift for the woman who is hidden.
Erma BombeckRead
Human beings are natural mimickers. The more youre conscious of the other sides posture, mannerisms, and word choices - and the more you subtly reflect those back - the more accurate youll be at taking their perspective.
Daniel H. PinkRead
I believe one of the best preparations for marriage is participating in a small group. If a person has learned to be intimate and honest with a few friends before they get married, they will have less reason to fear intimacy after they are married.
Andy StanleyRead