Everything is dangerous, my dear fellow. If it wasn't so, life wouldn't be worth living.
Oscar WildeRead
Intellectual generalities are always interesting, but generalities in morals mean absolutely nothing.
Interpretation
What this quote means
General statements about morality lack significance without context and specifics.
In this quote, Oscar Wilde highlights the futility of speaking in broad terms when it comes to moral issues. While abstract ideas can be engaging, they fail to provide the nuanced understanding necessary to apply morals meaningfully in real life, suggesting that moral discussions require specificity and personal relevance to have any true impact.
Themes
MoralsGeneralitiesIntellectualPhilosophyMeaning
In practice
Example use cases
During a debate about ethics, one might invoke this quote to emphasize the need for concrete examples in moral discussions.
More from Oscar Wilde
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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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