Oscar Wilde Quotes (991 Quotes)

Civilisation is not by any means an easy thing to attain to. There are only two ways by which man can reach it. One is by being cultured, the other by being corrupt.

Only people who look dull ever get into the House of Commons, and only people who are dull ever succeed there.

Who, being loved, is poor?

We can forgive a man for making a useful thing as long as he does not admire it. The only excuse for making a useless thing is that one admires it intensely.

One can survive anything these days, except death, and live down anything except a good reputation.

I was disappointed in Niagara --most people must be disappointed in Niagara. Every American bride is taken there, and the sight of the stupendous waterfall must be one of the earliest, if not the keenest, disappointments in American married life.

Those who see any difference between soul and body have neither.

As a wicked man I am a complete failure. Why, there are lots of people who say I have never really done anything wrong in the whole course of my life. Of course they only say it behind my back.

Every effort that one produces gives one an enemy. To be popular one must be a mediocrity.

In this world there are two tragedies. One is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it. The last is much the worst.

This morning I took out a comma and this afternoon I put it back in again.

It was a fatal day when the public discovered that the pen is mightier than the paving-stone, and can be made as offensive as the brickbat.

The only beautiful things are the things that do not concern us.

The evil that machinery is doing is not merely in the consequence of its work but in the fact that it makes men themselves machines also

Experience is the name every one gives to their mistakes.

And now, I am dying beyond my means.

I can resist everything except temptation.

Death and vulgarity are the only two facts in the nineteenth century that one cannot explain away.

Must we really see Chicago in order to be educated.

All art is quite useless. So is a flower.

To many, no doubt, he will seem to be somewhat blatant and bumptious, but we prefer to regard him as being simply British.

While one should always study the method of a great artist, one should never imitate his manner. The manner of an artist is essentially individual, the method of an artist is absolutely universal.

There is no such thing as a moral book or an immoral book. Books are well written or badly written. That is all.

Bad manners make a journalist.

Deceiving others. That is what the world calls a romance.

A man's very highest moment is, I have no doubt at all, when he kneels in the dust, and beats his breast, and tells all the sins of his life.

I can believe anything provided it is incredible.

Rich bachelors should be heavily taxed. It is not fair that some men should be happier than others.

A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it.

I have made an important discovery... that alcohol, taken in sufficient quantities, produces all the effect of intoxication.

The advantage of the emotions is that they lead us astray.

A damsel is a genius in the daytime and a beauty at night.

Only mediocrities progress. An artist revolves in a cycle of masterpieces, the first of which is no less perfect than the last.

People who love only once in their lives are. . . shallow people. What they call their loyalty, and their fidelity, I call either the lethargy of custom or their lack of imagination.

With an evening coat and a white tie, anybody, even a stockbroker, can gain a reputation for being civilized.

I know not whether Laws be right Or whether Laws be wrong All that we know who live in gaol Is that the wall is strong And that each day is like a year, A year whose days are long.

A woman will flirt with anybody in the world as long as other people are looking on

Art, like Nature, has her monsters, things of bestial shape and with hideous voices.

Once can survive everything nowadays, except death.

The moment you think you understand a great work of art, it's dead for you.

The mere existence of conscience, that faculty of which people prate so much nowadays, and are so ignorantly proud, is a sign of our imperfect development. It must be merged in instinct before we become fine.

Morality is simply the attitude we adopt towards people whom we personally dislike.

Grief has turned her fair.

The secret of life is in art.

Here is the first passionate love-letter I have ever written in my life. Strange, that my first passionate love-letter should have been addressed to a dead girl. Can they feel, I wonder, those white silent people we call the dead

There is no such thing as morality or immorality in thought. There is immoral emotion.

The tragedy of old age is not that one is old, but that one is young.

Everything popular is wrong.

A man who moralises is usually a hypocrite, and a woman who moralises is invariably plain.

The exquisite art of idleness, one of the most important things that any University can teach.