Everything is dangerous, my dear fellow. If it wasn't so, life wouldn't be worth living.
Oscar WildeRead
There is a luxury in self-reproach. When we blame ourselves we feel no one else has a right to blame us.
Interpretation
Self-reproach can offer a sense of control over blame.
In this quote, Oscar Wilde suggests that indulging in self-reproach provides a peculiar form of luxury because it allows individuals to absolve themselves from external judgment. By blaming ourselves, we shield ourselves from the blame of others, creating an illusion of control and superiority over our own faults compared to how others might perceive us.
In practice
A motivational speaker could use this quote to discuss the benefits of personal accountability.
Everything is dangerous, my dear fellow. If it wasn't so, life wouldn't be worth living.
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.
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.
Men always want to be a woman's first love - women like to be a man's last romance.
A truth ceases to be true when more than one person believes in it.
His morality is all sympathy, just what morality should be
Don't be concerned about others not appreciating you. Be concerned about your not appreciating others.
My best advice for writers is: Have your adventures, make your mistakes, and choose your friends poorly - all these make for great stories.
I'm used to people with very high IQs knowing how to recognize reality, but there's a huge human tendency where it may be instructive to think that whatever you're doing to succeed is all right.
I'm not patient - and I'm getting more impatient as I get older - but I am disciplined about writing, and I want that on my tombstone: 'He wasn't patient, but he was disciplined.'
A teacher of fear can't bring peace on earth. We have been trying to do it that way for thousands of years. The person who turns inner violence around, the person who finds peace inside and lives it, is the one who teaches what true peace is. We are waiting for just one teacher. You're the one.
There's something about taking the path of least resistance that makes a lot of sense. But at the same time, we have to figure out which things in life are worth struggling through.
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