Men: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W Z
Women: A B C D E G H J K L M N O P R S T V Z

Oscar Wilde Quotes

Playwright
Born On
1854-10-16
Died On
1900-11-30
Birth Place
Dublin, Republic of Ireland
Death Place
French Third Republic
Birth Sign
libra
Father
Sir William Wilde
Mother
Lady Jane Francesca Elgee Wilde
Spouse
Constance Lloyd
Nationality
Irish
Education
Portora Royal School, Enniskillen, Trinity College Dublin, BA, Magadalen College, Oxford University (1874-78)
Writers, Poets, Playwrights

Lovers of literature are baffled by the works of this eminent English writer, but there’s more to Wilde apart from his phenomenal literary accomplishments. An interesting episode from the life of this writer is a boat ride which gave many a vague idea about his personality, very little about which is otherwise known to most people. It is believed that a group of reporters once had the privilege of sharing the boat with Wilde. Instead of bombarding the writer with questions pertaining to literature, but these reporters asked him about everything but that. They were interested in exploring his personal life, such as whether he prefers getting his nails clipped and his liking towards eggs, rather than talk about Oscar’s path-breaking works. Wilde, who expected these individuals to ask him something regarding his literary prowess, was put off by the questions of these reporters, which seemed rather silly. Oscar also found the boat journey to be a tad too boring and opined that a storm would have perhaps made the trip an exciting one. Another interesting observation of his fellow travellers was that Oscar’s dressing sense was apparently nothing close to that of a writer. They added that people who didn't know of his greatness would be deceived by Oscar’s external appearance. The boat finally reached the shore and the passengers were welcomed by the officials from the Customs department. One of the officers interrogated Oscar by asking him ‘Do you have anything to declare?’ The intelligent Wilde responded ‘Nothing. Except my genius’.

There is only one thing in life worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.

Oscar Wilde

Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation.

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

To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance.

Oscar Wilde

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

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

The only difference between the saint and the sinner is that every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future.

Oscar Wilde

A dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world.

Oscar Wilde

I have the simplest tastes. I am always satisfied with the best.

Oscar Wilde

Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go.

Oscar Wilde

Whenever people agree with me I always feel I must be wrong.

Oscar Wilde

Always forgive your enemies - nothing annoys them so much.

Oscar Wilde

Children begin by loving their parents; after a time they judge them; rarely, if ever, do they forgive them.

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

I can resist everything except temptation.

Oscar Wilde

Life imitates art far more than art imitates Life.

Oscar Wilde

There are only two tragedies in life: one is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it.

Oscar Wilde

To lose one parent may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness.

Oscar Wilde

Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes.

Oscar Wilde

Experience is one thing you can't get for nothing.

Oscar Wilde

No great artist ever sees things as they really are. If he did, he would cease to be an artist.

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

True friends stab you in the front.

Oscar Wilde

Keep love in your heart. A life without it is like a sunless garden when the flowers are dead.

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

It is better to be beautiful than to be good. But... it is better to be good than to be ugly.

Oscar Wilde

Laughter is not at all a bad beginning for a friendship, and it is far the best ending for one.

Oscar Wilde

Patriotism is the virtue of the vicious.

Oscar Wilde

The only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it... I can resist everything but temptation.

Oscar Wilde

America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between.

Oscar Wilde

Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative.

Oscar Wilde

Between men and women there is no friendship possible. There is passion, enmity, worship, love, but no friendship.

Oscar Wilde

Memory... is the diary that we all carry about with us.

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

If you are not too long, I will wait here for you all my life.

Oscar Wilde

Men always want to be a woman's first love - women like to be a man's last romance.

Oscar Wilde

What is a cynic? A man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.

Oscar Wilde

Art is the most intense mode of individualism that the world has known.

Oscar Wilde

Women are made to be loved, not understood.

Oscar Wilde

The truth is rarely pure and never simple.

Oscar Wilde

The old believe everything, the middle-aged suspect everything, the young know everything.

Oscar Wilde

Everybody who is incapable of learning has taken to teaching.

Oscar Wilde

When the gods wish to punish us they answer our prayers.

Oscar Wilde

No man is rich enough to buy back his past.

Oscar Wilde

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

Oscar Wilde

Success is a science; if you have the conditions, you get the result.

Oscar Wilde

We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.

Oscar Wilde

An excellent man; he has no enemies; and none of his friends like him.

Oscar Wilde

Conversation about the weather is the last refuge of the unimaginative.

Oscar Wilde

All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. No man does. That's his.

Oscar Wilde

All art is at once surface and symbol. Those who go beneath the surface do so at their peril. Those who read the symbol do so at their peril. It is the spectator, and not life, that art really mirrors. Diversity of opinion about a work of art shows that the work is new, complex and vital.

Oscar Wilde

I am not young enough to know everything.

Oscar Wilde

Work is the curse of the drinking classes.

Oscar Wilde

He has no enemies, but is intensely disliked by his friends.

Oscar Wilde

Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live.

Oscar Wilde

Life is never fair, and perhaps it is a good thing for most of us that it is not.

Oscar Wilde

A man's face is his autobiography. A woman's face is her work of fiction.

Oscar Wilde

Life is far too important a thing ever to talk seriously about.

Oscar Wilde

It is better to have a permanent income than to be fascinating.

Oscar Wilde

Who, being loved, is poor?

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

No better way is there to learn to love Nature than to understand Art. It dignifies every flower of the field. And, the boy who sees the thing of beauty which a bird on the wing becomes when transferred to wood or canvas will probably not throw the customary stone.

Oscar Wilde

Ambition is the last refuge of the failure.

Oscar Wilde

By giving us the opinions of the uneducated, journalism keeps us in touch with the ignorance of the community.

Oscar Wilde

To expect the unexpected shows a thoroughly modern intellect.

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

Moderation is a fatal thing. Nothing succeeds like excess.

Oscar Wilde

Society exists only as a mental concept; in the real world there are only individuals.

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

If one cannot enjoy reading a book over and over again, there is no use in reading it at all.

Oscar Wilde

It is absurd to divide people into good and bad. People are either charming or tedious.

Oscar Wilde

Everything popular is wrong.

Oscar Wilde

Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months.

Oscar Wilde

You will always be fond of me. I represent to you all the sins you have never had the courage to commit.

Oscar Wilde

I sometimes think that God in creating man somewhat overestimated his ability.

Oscar Wilde

Democracy means simply the bludgeoning of the people by the people for the people.

Oscar Wilde

The world is a stage, but the play is badly cast.

Oscar Wilde

This suspense is terrible. I hope it will last.

Oscar Wilde

I am so clever that sometimes I don't understand a single word of what I am saying.

Oscar Wilde

There is nothing so difficult to marry as a large nose.

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

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

Bigamy is having one wife too many. Monogamy is the same.

Oscar Wilde

One should always be in love. That is the reason one should never marry.

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

A gentleman is one who never hurts anyone's feelings unintentionally.

Oscar Wilde

I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read in the train.

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

Beauty is the only thing that time cannot harm. Philosophies fall away like sand, creeds follow one another, but what is beautiful is a joy for all seasons, a possession for all eternity.

Oscar Wilde

The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame.

Oscar Wilde

An idea that is not dangerous is unworthy of being called an idea at all.

Oscar Wilde

Nothing can cure the soul but the senses, just as nothing can cure the senses but the soul.

Oscar Wilde

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

Oscar Wilde

It is through art, and through art only, that we can realise our perfection.

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

Every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of the sitter.

Oscar Wilde

A man who does not think for himself does not think at all.

Oscar Wilde

I have nothing to declare except my genius.

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

The basis of optimism is sheer terror.

Oscar Wilde