“The imagination imitates. It is the critical spirit that creates.”
Oscar Wilde · Intentions, 1891
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A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal.
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About this quote
Meaning
Wilde is playing with the social value of honesty. A small amount of sincerity is dangerous because it gives people false reassurance: they believe they are getting the truth, and act on that belief, when in fact they are only getting a partial and potentially misleading version of it. Total sincerity, meanwhile, destroys the social fictions and polite agreements that hold relationships and society together. The line suggests that the comfortable middle ground people imagine between lying and total honesty is the most treacherous place of all.
Context
This line appears in Intentions, the 1891 collection of critical essays in which Wilde examined art, criticism, and the nature of truth through a series of witty dialogues. Much of the book is concerned with the relationship between sincerity, performance, and genuine expression, themes Wilde returned to throughout his work. He was consistently skeptical of Victorian moral earnestness and its emphasis on plain speaking and transparent feeling, which he saw as naive and often more dishonest than acknowledged artifice.
About the author
Oscar Wilde was born in Dublin in 1854 and became one of the defining literary figures of the late nineteenth century. His work is known for its wit, its paradoxes, and its willingness to challenge received ideas about morality, sincerity, and the purpose of art. He wrote plays, fiction, poetry, fairy tales, and criticism, and brought the same intelligence and style to all of them. He died in Paris in 1900 after a period of imprisonment and exile.
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Oscar Wilde · attributed, widely documented
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Oscar Wilde · A Woman of No Importance, 1893
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Oscar Wilde · The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1890
