Everything is dangerous, my dear fellow. If it wasn't so, life wouldn't be worth living.
Oscar WildeRead
LADY STUTFIELD I adore silent men. MRS ALLONBY Oh, Ernest isn't silent. He talks the whole time. But he has got no conversation. What he talks about I don't know. I haven't listened to him for years.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote highlights the difference between talking and meaningful conversation, emphasizing the idea that mere words don't equate to genuine communication.
In this quote, Oscar Wilde captures the ironic observation about individuals who speak constantly yet fail to engage in meaningful dialogue. It humorously suggests that the amount one talks does not necessarily reflect their conversational depth or ability to connect with others, ultimately mocking superficiality in social interactions.
Themes
ConversationCommunicationHumorSuperficialityIronism
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be used in a discussion about the nature of conversation during a speech at a social gathering.
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.
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
You wonder sometimes how our government puts on its pants in the morning.
Jon StewartRead
Don't believe anything you read on the net. Except this. Well, including this, I suppose.
Douglas AdamsRead
Chico: "Here's the book, it's a dollar" Groucho: "Here's a ten, and shoot the change." Chico: "I don't have change I'd have to give you nine more books.
Groucho MarxRead
Many baseball fans look upon an umpire as a sort of necessary evil to the luxury of baseball, like the odor that follows an automobile.
Christy MathewsonRead
You know why dogs have no money? No pockets. 'Cause they see change on the street all the time and it's driving them crazy. When you're walking them, he is always looking up at you. "There's a quarter...."
Jerry SeinfeldRead
Somebody once asked me how I found Peter Jackson, and I said: 'Well, I parted his hair, and there he was.'
Christopher LeeRead