Oscar Wilde Quotes A cynic is a man who knows the price of everything but the value of nothing. Oscar Wilde A gentleman is one who never hurts anyone's feelings unintentionally. Oscar Wilde A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal. Oscar Wilde A man can't be too careful in the choice of his enemies. Oscar Wilde A man's face is his autobiography. A woman's face is her work of fiction. Oscar Wilde A poet can survive everything but a misprint. Oscar Wilde A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it. Oscar Wilde A true friend stabs you in the front. Oscar Wilde A work of art is the unique result of a unique temperament. Oscar Wilde Ah, well, then I suppose I shall have to die beyond my means. Oscar Wilde Alas, I am dying beyond my means. Oscar Wilde All art is quite useless. Oscar Wilde All bad poetry springs from genuine feeling. Oscar Wilde All that I desire to point out is the general principle that life imitates art far more than art imitates life. Oscar Wilde All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. No man does. That's his. Oscar Wilde Always forgive your enemies - nothing annoys them so much. Oscar Wilde Ambition is the germ from which all growth of nobleness proceeds. Oscar Wilde Ambition is the last refuge of the failure. Oscar Wilde America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between. Oscar Wilde An idea that is not dangerous is unworthy of being called an idea at all. Oscar Wilde Arguments are extremely vulgar, for everyone in good society holds exactly the same opinion. Oscar Wilde Arguments are to be avoided: they are always vulgar and often convincing. Oscar Wilde Art is the most intense mode of individualism that the world has known. Oscar Wilde As long as a woman can look ten years younger than her own daughter, she is perfectly satisfied. Oscar Wilde As long as war is regarded as wicked, it will always have its fascination. When it is looked upon as vulgar, it will cease to be popular. Oscar Wilde As yet, Bernard Shaw hasn't become prominent enough to have any enemies, but none of his friends like him. Oscar Wilde At 46 one must be a miser; only have time for essentials. Oscar Wilde Beauty is a form of genius - is higher, indeed, than genius, as it needs no explanation. It is of the great facts in the world like sunlight, or springtime, or the reflection in dark water of that silver shell we call the moon. Oscar Wilde Between men and women there is no friendship possible. There is passion, enmity, worship, love, but no friendship. Oscar Wilde Between the optimist and the pessimist, the difference is droll. The optimist sees the doughnut; the pessimist the hole! Oscar Wilde Bigamy is having one wife too many. Monogamy is the same. Oscar Wilde Biography lends to death a new terror. Oscar Wilde By giving us the opinions of the uneducated, journalism keeps us in touch with the ignorance of the community. Oscar Wilde Charity creates a multitude of sins. Oscar Wilde Children begin by loving their parents; after a time they judge them; rarely, if ever, do they forgive them. Oscar Wilde Children have a natural antipathy to books - handicraft should be the basis of education. Boys and girls should be taught to use their hands to make something, and they would be less apt to destroy and be mischievous. Oscar Wilde Conscience and cowardice are really the same things. Conscience is the trade-name of the firm. That is all. Oscar Wilde Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative. Oscar Wilde Consistency is the last resort of the unimaginative. Oscar Wilde Conversation about the weather is the last refuge of the unimaginative Oscar Wilde Deceiving others. That is what the world calls a romance. Oscar Wilde Democracy means simply the bludgeoning of the people by the people for the people. Oscar Wilde Do you really think it is weakness that yields to temptation? I tell you that there are terrible temptations which it requires strength, strength and courage to yield to. Oscar Wilde Each class preaches the importance of those virtues it need not exercise. The rich harp on the value of thrift, the idle grow eloquent over the dignity of labor. Oscar Wilde Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught. Oscar Wilde Every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of the sitter. Oscar Wilde Every saint has a past and every sinner has a future. Oscar Wilde Everything popular is wrong. Oscar Wilde Experience is one thing you can't get for nothing. Oscar Wilde Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes. Oscar Wilde Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months. Oscar Wilde Fathers should be neither seen nor heard. That is the only proper basis for family life. Oscar Wilde Hatred is blind, as well as love. Oscar Wilde He hadn't a single redeeming vice. Oscar Wilde He has no enemies, but is intensely disliked by his friends. Oscar Wilde He lives the poetry that he cannot write. The others write the poetry that they dare not realise. Oscar Wilde He must have a truly romantic nature, for he weeps when there is nothing at all to weep about. Oscar Wilde He was always late on principle, his principle being that punctuality is the thief of time. Oscar Wilde How can a woman be expected to be happy with a man who insists on treating her as if she were a perfectly normal human being. Oscar Wilde How marriage ruins a man! It is as demoralizing as cigarettes, and far more expensive. Oscar Wilde How strange a thing this is! The Priest telleth me that the Soul is worth all the gold in the world, and the merchants say that it is not worth a clipped piece of silver. Oscar Wilde I always pass on good advice. It is the only thing to do with it. It is never of any use to oneself. Oscar Wilde I am not young enough to know everything. Oscar Wilde I can resist everything except temptation. Oscar Wilde I choose my friends for their good looks, my acquaintances for their good characters, and my enemies for their intellects. A man cannot be too careful in the choice of his enemies. Oscar Wilde I dislike arguments of any kind. They are always vulgar, and often convincing. Oscar Wilde I have nothing to declare except my genuis. Oscar Wilde I have the simplest tastes. I am always satisfied with the best. Oscar Wilde I hope you have not been leading a double life, pretending to be wicked and being really good all the time. That would be hypocrisy. Oscar Wilde I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read in the train. Oscar Wilde I put all my genius into my life; I put only my talent into my works. Oscar Wilde I regard the theatre as the greatest of all art forms, the most immediate way in which a human being can share with another the sense of what it is to be a human being. Oscar Wilde I see when men love women. They give them but a little of their lives. But women when they love give everything. Oscar Wilde I sometimes think that God in creating man somewhat overestimated his ability. Oscar Wilde I suppose society is wonderfully delightful. To be in it is merely a bore. But to be out of it is simply a tragedy. Oscar Wilde I think that God, in creating man, somewhat overestimated his ability. Oscar Wilde I want my food dead. Not sick, not dying, dead. Oscar Wilde If one cannot enjoy reading a book over and over again, there is no use in reading it at all. Oscar Wilde If one could only teach the English how to talk, and the Irish how to listen, society here would be quite civilized. Oscar Wilde If one plays good music, people don't listen and if one plays bad music people don't talk. Oscar Wilde If there was less sympathy in the world, there would be less trouble in the world. Oscar Wilde If you are not too long, I will wait here for you all my life. Oscar Wilde If you meet at dinner a man who has spent his life in educating himself you rise from the table richer, and conscious that a high ideal has for a moment touched and sanctified your days. Oscar Wilde If you pretend to be good, the world takes you very seriously. If you pretend to be bad, it doesn't. Such is the astounding stupidity of optimism. Oscar Wilde Illusion is the first of all pleasures. Oscar Wilde In all matters of opinion, our adversaries are insane. Oscar Wilde In America the President reigns for four years, and Journalism governs forever and ever. Oscar Wilde In America the young are always ready to give to those who are older than themselves the full benefits of their inexperience. Oscar Wilde In England people actually try to be brilliant at breakfast. That is so dreadful of them! Only dull people are brilliant at breakfast. Oscar Wilde In every first novel the hero is the author as Christ or Faust. Oscar Wilde In married life three is company and two none. Oscar Wilde It is a very sad thing that nowadays there is so little useless information. Oscar Wilde It is absurd to divide people into good and bad. People are either charming or tedious. Oscar Wilde It is an odd thing, but every one who disappears is said to be seen at San Francisco. It must be a delightful city, and possess all the attractions of the next world. Oscar Wilde It is better to be beautiful than to be good. But... it is better to be good than to be ugly. Oscar Wilde It is better to have a permanent income than to be fascinating. Oscar Wilde It is only an auctioneer who can equally and impartially admire all schools of art. Oscar Wilde It is perfectly monstrous the way people go about, nowadays, saying things against one behind one's back that are absolutely and entirely true. Oscar Wilde It is through art, and through art only, that we can realise our perfection. Oscar Wilde It is what you read when you don't have to that determines what you will be when you can't help it. Oscar Wilde Its failings notwithstanding, there is much to be said in favor of journalism in that by giving us the opinion of the uneducated, it keeps us in touch with the ignorance of the community. Oscar Wilde Keep love in your heart. A life without it is like a sunless garden when the flowers are dead. Oscar Wilde Laughter is not at all a bad beginning for a friendship, and it is far the best ending for one. Oscar Wilde Life imitates art far more than art imitates Life. Oscar Wilde Life is a pilgrimage. The wise man does not rest by the roadside inns. He marches direct to the illimitable domain of eternal bliss, his ultimate destination. Oscar Wilde Life is far too important a thing ever to talk seriously about. Oscar Wilde Life is never fair, and perhaps it is a good thing for most of us that it is not. Oscar Wilde Life is too important to be taken seriously. Oscar Wilde Man is a rational animal who always loses his temper when he is called upon to act in accordance with the dictates of reason. Oscar Wilde Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth. Oscar Wilde Memory... is the diary that we all carry about with us. Oscar Wilde Men always want to be a woman's first love - women like to be a man's last romance. Oscar Wilde Mere colour, unspoiled by meaning, and unallied with definite form, can speak to the soul in a thousand different ways. Oscar Wilde Moderation is a fatal thing. Nothing succeeds like excess. Oscar Wilde Morality is simply the attitude we adopt towards people whom we personally dislike. Oscar Wilde Most modern calendars mar the sweet simplicity of our lives by reminding us that each day that passes is the anniversary of some perfectly uninteresting event. Oscar Wilde Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation. Oscar Wilde Most people die of a sort of creeping common sense, and discover when it is too late that the only things one never regrets are one's mistakes. Oscar Wilde Mrs. Allonby: No man does. That is his. Oscar Wilde Music is the art which is most nigh to tears and memory. Oscar Wilde Music makes one feel so romantic - at least it always gets on one's nerves - which is the same thing nowadays. Oscar Wilde My great mistake, the fault for which I can't forgive myself, is that one day I ceased my obstinate pursuit of my own individuality. Oscar Wilde No great artist ever sees things as they really are. If he did, he would cease to be an artist. Oscar Wilde No man is rich enough to buy back his past. Oscar Wilde No object is so beautiful that, under certain conditions, it will not look ugly. Oscar Wilde No woman should ever be quite accurate about her age. It looks so calculating. Oscar Wilde Nothing can cure the soul but the senses, just as nothing can cure the senses but the soul. Oscar Wilde Nothing is so aggravating than calmness. Oscar Wilde Nothing makes one so vain as being told one is a sinner. Conscience makes egotists of us all. Oscar Wilde Now that the House of Commons is trying to become useful, it does a great deal of harm. Oscar Wilde Nowadays to be intelligible is to be found out. Oscar Wilde Of course America had often been discovered before Columbus, but it had always been hushed up. Oscar Wilde Of course I have played outdoor games. I once played dominoes in an open air cafe in Paris. Oscar Wilde One can survive everything, nowadays, except death, and live down everything except a good reputation. Oscar Wilde One of the many lessons that one learns in prison is, that things are what they are and will be what they will be. Oscar Wilde One should always be in love. That is the reason one should never marry. Oscar Wilde One should always play fairly when one has the winning cards. Oscar Wilde One's past is what one is. It is the only way by which people should be judged. Oscar Wilde Only the shallow know themselves. Oscar Wilde Ordinary riches can be stolen; real riches cannot. In your soul are infinitely precious things that cannot be taken from you. Oscar Wilde Our ambition should be to rule ourselves, the true kingdom for each one of us; and true progress is to know more, and be more, and to do more. Oscar Wilde Patriotism is the virtue of the vicious. Oscar Wilde Perhaps, after all, America never has been discovered. I myself would say that it had merely been detected. Oscar Wilde Pessimist: One who, when he has the choice of two evils, chooses both. Oscar Wilde Please do not shoot the pianist. He is doing his best. Oscar Wilde Questions are never indiscreet, answers sometimes are. Oscar Wilde Relations are simply a tedious pack of people, who haven't got the remotest knowledge of how to live, nor the smallest instinct about when to die. Oscar Wilde Self-denial is the shining sore on the leprous body of Christianity. Oscar Wilde Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live. Oscar Wilde Seriousness is the only refuge of the shallow. Oscar Wilde She wore far too much rouge last night and not quite enough clothes. That is always a sign of despair in a woman. Oscar Wilde Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go. Oscar Wilde Some of these people need ten years of therapy -ten sentences of mine do not equal ten years of therapy. Oscar Wilde Success is a science; if you have the conditions, you get the result. Oscar Wilde The basis of optimism is sheer terror. Oscar Wilde The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame. Oscar Wilde The cynic knows the price of everything and the value of nothing. Oscar Wilde The difference between literature and journalism is that journalism is unreadable and literature is not read. Oscar Wilde The English country gentleman galloping after a fox - The unspeakable in full pursuit of the uneatable. Oscar Wilde The General was essentially a man of peace, except of course in his domestic affairs. Oscar Wilde The good ended happily, and the bad unhappily. That is what fiction means. Oscar Wilde The imagination imitates. It is the critical spirit that creates. Oscar Wilde The liar at any rate recognizes that recreation, not instruction, is the aim of conversation, and is a far more civilised being than the blockhead who loudly expresses his disbelief in a story which is told simply for the amusement of the company. Oscar Wilde The man who can dominate a London dinner-table can dominate the world. Oscar Wilde The moment you think you understand a great work of art, it's dead for you. Oscar Wilde The old believe everything, the middle-aged suspect everything, the young know everything. Oscar Wilde The one charm about marriage is that it makes a life of deception absolutely necessary for both parties. Oscar Wilde The only thing to do with good advice is to pass it on. It is never of any use to oneself. Oscar Wilde The only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it... I can resist everything but temptation. Oscar Wilde The past is of no importance. The present is of no importance. It is with the future that we have to deal. For the past is what man should not have been. The present is what man ought not to be. The future is what artists are. Oscar Wilde The public have an insatiable curiosity to know everything. Except what is worth knowing. Journalism, conscious of this, and having tradesman-like habits, supplies their demands. Oscar Wilde The public is wonderfully tolerant. It forgives everything except genius. Oscar Wilde The pure and simple truth is rarely pure and never simple. Oscar Wilde The salesman knows nothing of what he is selling save that he is charging a great deal too much for it. Oscar Wilde The security of Society lies in custom and unconscious instinct, and the basis of the stability of Society, as a healthy organism, is the complete absence of any intelligence amongst its members. Oscar Wilde The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible. Oscar Wilde The truth is rarely pure and never simple. Oscar Wilde The typewriting machine, when played with expression, is no more annoying than the piano when played by a sister or near relation. Oscar Wilde The world has grown suspicious of anything that looks like a happily married life. Oscar Wilde The world is divided into two classes, those who believe the incredible, and those who do the improbable. Oscar Wilde There are only two kinds of people who are really fascinating - people who know absolutely everything, and people who know absolutely nothing. Oscar Wilde There are only two tragedies in life: one is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it. Oscar Wilde There are two ways of disliking poetry; one way is to dislike it, theother is to read Pope. Oscar Wilde There is no sin except stupidity. Oscar Wilde There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written. Oscar Wilde There is no such thing as an omen. Destiny does not send us heralds. She is too wise or too cruel for that. Oscar Wilde There is nothing in the world like the devotion of a married woman. It is a thing no married man knows anything about. Oscar Wilde There is nothing so difficult to marry as a large nose. Oscar Wilde There is only one thing in life worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about. Oscar Wilde These days man knows the price of everything, but the value of nothing. Oscar Wilde They afterwards took me to a dancing saloon where I saw the only rational method of art criticism I have ever come across. Over the piano was printed a notice- 'Please do not shoot the pianist. He is doing his best.' Oscar Wilde This suspense is terrible. I hope it will last. Oscar Wilde Those whom the gods love grow young. Oscar Wilde To expect the unexpected shows a thoroughly modern intellect. Oscar Wilde To lose one parent may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness. Oscar Wilde To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance. Oscar Wilde To regret one's own experiences is to arrest one's own development. To deny one's own experiences is to put a lie into the lips of one's life. It is no less than a denial of the soul. Oscar Wilde True friends stab you in the front. Oscar Wilde We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars. Oscar Wilde What we have to do, what at any rate it is our duty to do, is to revive the old art of Lying. Oscar Wilde When a man has once loved a woman he will do anything for her except continue to love her. Oscar Wilde When a woman marries again it is because she detested her first husband. When a man marries again, it is because he adored his first wife. Women try their luck; men risk theirs. Oscar Wilde When good Americans die they go to Paris. Oscar Wilde When I was young I thought that money was the most important thing in life; now that I am old I know that it is. Oscar Wilde When the gods wish to punish us they answer our prayers. Oscar Wilde Whenever people agree with me I always feel I must be wrong. Oscar Wilde Who, being loved, is poor? Oscar Wilde Why was I born with such contemporaries? Oscar Wilde Woman begins by resisting a man's advances and ends by blocking his retreat. Oscar Wilde Women are made to be loved, not understood. Oscar Wilde Women are never disarmed by compliments. Men always are. That is the difference between the sexes. Oscar Wilde Work is the curse of the drinking classes. Oscar Wilde Yet each man kills the thing he loves, by each let this be heard, some do it with a bitter look, some with a flattering word. The coward does it with a kiss, the brave man with a sword! Oscar Wilde