Everything is dangerous, my dear fellow. If it wasn't so, life wouldn't be worth living.
Oscar WildeRead
I never came across anyone in whom the moral sense was dominant who was not heartless, cruel, vindictive, log-stupid, and entirely lacking in the smallest sense of humanity. Moral people, as they are termed, are simple beasts.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote critiques the idea of moral superiority, suggesting that those who pride themselves on morality can often lack true humanity and compassion.
Oscar Wilde's quote challenges the perception of moral individuals as virtuous beings, arguing instead that a strong adherence to moral principles can lead to a lack of genuine human empathy and kindness. He implies that such 'moral' people may exhibit negative traits such as heartlessness and cruelty, positioning morality as a potentially dangerous and dehumanizing attribute rather than a commendable one.
Themes
MoralityHumanityEmpathyCrueltyPhilosophy
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be used during a debate on ethics and morality in a classroom setting.
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.
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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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