A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal. A man can be happy with any woman, as long as he does not love her.
A man can't be too careful in the choice of his enemies.
A man who does not think for himself does not think at all.
A man's face is his autobiography. A woman's face is her work of fiction.
A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it.
A true friend stabs you in the front.
All that I desire to point out is the general principle that life imitates art far more than art imitates life.
All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. No man does. That's his.
Always forgive your enemies - nothing annoys them so much.
Ambition is the germ from which all growth of nobleness proceeds.
America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between.
An excellent man; he has no enemies; and none of his friends like him.
As long as a woman can look ten years younger than her own daughter, she is perfectly satisfied.
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.
Between men and women there is no friendship possible. There is passion, enmity, worship, love, but no friendship.
By giving us the opinions of the uneducated, journalism keeps us in touch with the ignorance of the community. Oscar Wilde
Deceiving others. That is what the world calls a romance.
Democracy means simply the bludgeoning of the people by the people for the people.
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.
Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught.
Every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of the sitter.
Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months.
Hatred is blind, as well as love.
I am so clever that sometimes I don't understand a single word of what I am saying.
I am the only person in the world I should like to know thoroughly.
I can resist everything except temptation.
I can stand brute force, but brute reason is quite unbearable. There is something unfair about its use. It is hitting below the intellect.
I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read in the train.
I put all my genius into my life; I put only my talent into my works.
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.
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.
If one cannot enjoy reading a book over and over again, there is no use in reading it at all.
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 there was less sympathy in the world, there would be less trouble in the world.
In America the President reigns for four years, and Journalism governs forever and ever.
In America the young are always ready to give to those who are older than themselves the full benefits of their inexperience.
It is absurd to divide people into good and bad. People are either charming or tedious.
It is what you read when you don't have to that determines what you will be when you can't help it.
Keep love in your heart. A life without it is like a sunless garden when the flowers are dead.
Laughter is not at all a bad beginning for a friendship, and it is far the best ending for one.
Life is far too important a thing ever to talk seriously about.
Life is never fair, and perhaps it is a good thing for most of us that it is not.
Man can believe the impossible, but man can never believe the improbable.
Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.
Memory... is the diary that we all carry about with us.
Men always want to be a woman's first love - women like to be a man's last romance.
Men marry because they are tired; women, because they are curious; both are disappointed.
Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation.
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.
Mr. Henry James writes fiction as if it were a painful duty.
No great artist ever sees things as they really are. If he did, he would cease to be an artist.
No man is rich enough to buy back his past.
No object is so beautiful that, under certain conditions, it will not look ugly.
No woman should ever be quite accurate about her age. It looks so calculating.
Nothing can cure the soul but the senses, just as nothing can cure the senses but the soul.
Nothing is so aggravating than calmness.
Now that the House of Commons is trying to become useful, it does a great deal of harm.
One can survive everything, nowadays, except death, and live down everything except a good reputation.
of the many lessons that one learns in prison is, that things are what they are and will be what they will be.
One should always play fairly when one has the winning cards.
One's past is what one is. It is the only way by which people should be judged.
One's real life is so often the life that one does not lead.
Only the shallow know themselves.
Ordinary riches can be stolen; real riches cannot. In your soul are infinitely precious things that cannot be taken from you.
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
Perhaps, after all, America never has been discovered. I myself would say that it had merely been detected.
Perhaps, after all, America never has been discovered. I myself would say that it had merely been detected.
Pessimist: One who, when he has the choice of two evils, chooses both.
Questions are never indiscreet, answers sometimes are.
Romance should never begin with sentiment. It should begin with science and end with a settlement.
Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live.
Seriousness is the only refuge of the shallow.
Society exists only as a mental concept; in the real world there are only individuals.
Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go.
Success is a science; if you have the conditions, you get the result.
The advantage of the emotions is that they lead us astray.
The basis of optimism is sheer terror.
The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame.
The critic has to educate the public; the artist has to educate the critic.
Oscar Wilde
The difference between literature and journalism is that journalism is unreadable and literature is not read.
The difference between literature and journalism is that journalism is unreadable and literature is not read.
The good ended happily, and the bad unhappily. That is what fiction means.
The imagination imitates. It is the critical spirit that creates.
The man who can dominate a London dinner-table can dominate the world.
The moment you think you understand a great work of art, it's dead for you.
The old believe everything, the middle-aged suspect everything, the young know everything.
The salesman knows nothing of what he is selling save that he is charging a great deal too much for it.
The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible.
Oscar Wilde
The typewriting machine, when played with expression, is no more annoying than the piano when played by a sister or near relation.
The typewriting machine, when played with expression, is no more annoying than the piano when played by a sister or near relation.
The well bred contradict other people. The wise contradict themselves.
The world has grown suspicious of anything that looks like a happily married life.
The world is a stage, but the play is badly cast.
The world is divided into two classes, those who believe the incredible, and those who do the improbable. Oscar Wilde There are many things that we would throw away if we were not afraid that others might pick them up. 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 is a luxury in self-reproach. When we blame ourselves we feel no one else has a right to blame us. Oscar Wilde There is always something infinitely mean about other people's tragedies. Oscar Wilde There is always something ridiculous about the emotions of people whom one has ceased to love. Oscar Wilde There is no necessity to separate the monarch from the mob; all authority is equally bad. 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 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 only one class in the community that thinks more about money than the rich, and that is the poor. The poor can think of nothing else. Oscar Wilde
There is something terribly morbid in the modern sympathy with pain. One should sympathise with the colour, the beauty, the joy of life. The less said about life's sores the better. Oscar Wilde
These days man knows the price of everything, but the value of nothing. Oscar Wilde
Those whom the gods love grow young. Oscar Wilde To expect the unexpected shows a thoroughly modern intellect. Oscar Wilde
To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance. 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 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
Whenever a man does a thoroughly stupid thing, it is always from the noblest motives. Oscar Wilde Whenever people agree with me I always feel I must be wrong. Oscar Wilde While we look to the dramatist to give romance to realism, we ask of the actor to give realism to romance. 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
Women love us for our defects. If we have enough of them, they will forgive us everything, even our gigantic intellects. Oscar Wilde Work is the curse of the drinking classes. Oscar Wilde
There is a luxury in self-reproach. When we blame ourselves we feel no one else has a right to blame us. Oscar Wilde There is always something infinitely mean about other people's tragedies. Oscar Wilde There is always something ridiculous about the emotions of people whom one has ceased to love. Oscar Wilde There is no necessity to separate the monarch from the mob; all authority is equally bad. 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 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 only one class in the community that thinks more about money than the rich, and that is the poor. The poor can think of nothing else. Oscar Wilde
There is something terribly morbid in the modern sympathy with pain. One should sympathise with the colour, the beauty, the joy of life. The less said about life's sores the better. Oscar Wilde
These days man knows the price of everything, but the value of nothing. Oscar Wilde
Those whom the gods love grow young. Oscar Wilde To expect the unexpected shows a thoroughly modern intellect. Oscar Wilde
To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance. 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 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
Whenever a man does a thoroughly stupid thing, it is always from the noblest motives. Oscar Wilde Whenever people agree with me I always feel I must be wrong. Oscar Wilde While we look to the dramatist to give romance to realism, we ask of the actor to give realism to romance. 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
Women love us for our defects. If we have enough of them, they will forgive us everything, even our gigantic intellects. Oscar Wilde Work is the curse of the drinking classes. Oscar Wilde
