Everything is dangerous, my dear fellow. If it wasn't so, life wouldn't be worth living.
Oscar WildeRead
It is only the superficial qualities that last. Man's deeper nature is soon found out.
Interpretation
Superficial traits may endure, but true character reveals itself over time.
This quote by Oscar Wilde reflects on the transient nature of superficial qualities and highlights the idea that one's true self is revealed as time progresses. It suggests that while outward appearances may initially create a lasting impression, the deeper aspects of a person's character will ultimately come to light, emphasizing the importance of authenticity over mere appearances.
In practice
This quote can be used in a discussion about personal relationships to emphasize the importance of knowing someone's true character.
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
The desire to build a house is the tired wish of a man content thenceforward with a single anchorage. The desire to build a boat is the desire of youth, unwilling yet to accept the idea of a final resting place.
I don't want to prove anything; I merely want to live, to do no one harm but myself. I have the right to do that, haven't I?
Do you suppose you will look the same when you are an old woman as you do now? Most folk have three faces—the face they get when they’re children, the face they own when they’re grown, and the face they’ve earned when they’re old. But when you live as long as I have, you get many more. I look nothing like I did when I was a wee thing of thirteen. You get the face you build your whole life, with work and loving and grieving and laughing and frowning.
It is a hard thing for a man to be righteous, if the unrighteous man is to have the greater right.
Great and good are seldom the same man.
The test of democracy is freedom of criticism.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.