Everything is dangerous, my dear fellow. If it wasn't so, life wouldn't be worth living.
Oscar WildeRead
Twenty years of romance makes a woman look like a ruin; but twenty years of marriage makes her something like a public building.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote humorously contrasts the toll of romantic love and marriage on a woman's appearance and societal role.
Oscar Wilde's quote reflects on the transformative nature of relationships over time, suggesting that intense romantic involvement can leave a lasting impact on a person, often leading to physical and emotional wear. In contrast, marriage may impose a more institutionalized role, where a woman is perceived less as an individual and more as a representative of domesticity, akin to a 'public building' that serves a function but may lack the allure of romance.
Themes
RomanceMarriageRelationshipsWomenSociety
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about the evolution of love over time, this quote could illustrate the changes in perception.
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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