Everything is dangerous, my dear fellow. If it wasn't so, life wouldn't be worth living.
Oscar WildeRead
Nothing looks so like innocence as an indiscretion.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Innocence can often be mistaken for a lack of awareness about the implications of one's actions.
This quote suggests that what may appear to be innocent behavior can sometimes stem from carelessness or indiscretion. Oscar Wilde plays with the idea that naivety can disguise the underlying motivations or repercussions of our actions, implying that one's disposition may not be as straightforward as it seems, and that innocence may merely be a façade over less innocent intentions or occurrences.
Themes
InnocenceIndiscretionNaivetyConsequencesActions
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be used in a discussion about the complexities of youthful behavior and the misunderstandings that arise from it.
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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