Everything is dangerous, my dear fellow. If it wasn't so, life wouldn't be worth living.
Oscar WildeRead
Any preoccupation with ideas of what is right or wrong in conduct shows an arrested intellectual development.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Fixating on right and wrong can hinder one's intellectual growth.
Oscar Wilde suggests that being overly concerned with moral absolutes—what is right or wrong—limits one's capacity for intellectual growth and development. This fixation reflects an unwillingness to engage with complex ideas and nuances in ethics, stunting the evolution of one's thought processes and understanding of the world.
Themes
Intellectual GrowthMoralityPhilosophyDevelopmentThinking
In practice
Example use cases
In a debate about ethics, this quote can highlight the importance of open-mindedness.
More from Oscar Wilde
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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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