Oscar Wilde Quotes
45 quotes
Oscar Wilde
Wit, aesthetics, and observations on society and human nature
45 Quotes
Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative
— The Critic as Artist
Hearts are made to be broken
— De Profundis, Letter from Reading Gaol
The truth is rarely pure and never simple.
— The Importance of Being Earnest
To lose one parent may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness
— The Importance of Being Earnest, Act I
To define is to limit
— The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 2
Memory... is the diary that we all carry about with us
— The Importance of Being Earnest, Act 2
The public is wonderfully tolerant. It forgives everything except genius
— The Critic As Artist, Part II
Children begin by loving their parents; as they grow older they judge them; sometimes they forgive them
— The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 5
No man is rich enough to buy back his past
— A Woman of No Importance
A man can be happy with any woman as long as he does not love her
— The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 15
Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much.
— The Critic As Artist
It is absurd to divide people into good and bad. People are either charming or tedious
— Lady Windermere’s Fan, Act I
Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught
— The Critic as Artist, Part II
Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.
— Attributed; widely quoted but no definitive printed source in Wilde's works
Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live
— The Soul of Man under Socialism
After the first glass, you see things as you wish they were. After the second, you see them as they are not. Finally, you see things as they really are, and that is the most horrible thing in the world
— The Critic As Artist, Part II
Society exists only as a mental concept; in the real world there are only individuals
— The Soul of Man under Socialism
Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth
— The Critic as Artist
What is a cynic? A man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.
— Lady Windermere's Fan, Act 3
Morality is simply the attitude we adopt towards people whom we personally dislike
— An Ideal Husband, Act 3
The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame
— The Picture of Dorian Gray, Preface
The only thing to do with good advice is to pass it on. It is never of any use to oneself
— An Ideal Husband, Act I
Illusion is the first of all pleasures
— The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 3
The only difference between the saint and the sinner is that every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future
— A Woman of No Importance, Act III
A poet can survive everything but a misprint
— The Portrait of Mr. W. H.
Experience is merely the name men gave to their mistakes.
— The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 3
We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.
— Lady Windermere’s Fan
A man who does not think for himself does not think at all
— Oscariana
When the gods wish to punish us they answer our prayers
— An Ideal Husband, Act III
Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months
— Pen, Pencil and Poison
Art is the most intense mode of individualism that the world has known
— The Soul of Man Under Socialism
To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance.
— An Ideal Husband, Act 3
I am so clever that sometimes I don't understand a single word of what I am saying
— The Remarkable Rocket
I can resist everything except temptation.
— Lady Windermere’s Fan
No artist has ethical sympathies. An ethical sympathy in an artist is an unpardonable mannerism of style
— The Picture of Dorian Gray, Preface
Bigamy is having one wife too many. Monogamy is the same
— A Woman of No Importance, Act I
The only duty we owe to history is to rewrite it
— The Critic as Artist
Nothing can cure the soul but the senses, just as nothing can cure the senses but the soul
— The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 2
One should always play fairly when one has the winning cards
— An Ideal Husband, Act I
There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.
— The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 1
Every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of the sitter
— The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 1
Ordinary riches can be stolen; real riches cannot. In your soul are infinitely precious things that cannot be taken from you
— The Soul of Man under Socialism
Men marry because they are tired; women, because they are curious; both are disappointed
— A Woman of No Importance, Act II
To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.
— The Soul of Man under Socialism
Life is far too important a thing ever to talk seriously about
— Lady Windermere's Fan, Act II