Oscar Wilde Quotes

You are more to me than any of them has any idea; you are the atmosphere of beauty through which I see life; you are the incarnation of all lovely things...I think of you day and night. ~ Letter to Lord Alfred 'Bosie' Douglas

Cleverness becomes a public nuisance.

Nothing spoils romance so much as a sense of humor in the woman

It was not intended as a compliment. It was a confession. Now that I have made it, something seems to have gone out of me. Perhaps one should never put one's worship into words.

American girls are as clever at concealing their parents as English women are at concealing their past.

Everyone should keep someone else's diary.

In love, it is better to know and be disappointed, than to not know and always wonder.

It is so easy to convince others; it is so difficult to convince oneself.

I hope you have not been leading a double life, pretending to be wicked and being good all the time. That would be hypocrisy.

Salomé, Salomé, dance for me. I pray thee dance for me. I am sad to-night. Yes, I am passing sad to-night. When I came hither I slipped in blood, which is an evil omen; and I heard, I am sure I heard in the air a beating of wings, a beating of giant wings. I cannot tell what they mean .... I am sad to-night. Therefore dance for me. Dance for me, Salomé, I beseech you. If you dance for me you may ask of me what you will, and I will give it you, even unto the half of my kingdom.

Women have a much better time than men in this world; there are far more things forbidden to them.

Miss Prism: And you do not seem to realize, dear Doctor, that by persistently remaining single, a man converts himself into a permanent public temptation. Men should be more careful; this very celibacy leads weaker vessels astray. Chasuble: But is a man not equally attractive when married? Miss Prism: No married man is ever attractive except to his wife. Chasuble: And often, I've been told, not even to her.

To believe is very dull. To doubt is intensely engrossing. To be on the alert is to live, to be lulled into security is to die.

Oh, no doubt the cod is a splendid swimmer - admirable for swimming purposes but not for eating.

I like my food dry. Not sick, not even dying, dead.

All thought is immoral. Its very essence is destruction. If you think of anything, you kill it. Nothing survives being thought of.

Wisdom is to have dreams big enough not to lose sight when we pursue them.

There is no feeling more comforting and consoling than knowing you are right next to the one you love.

If I hadn't believed it, then I wouldn't have seen it

Dullness is the coming of age of seriousness.

There were moments when he looked on evil simply as a mode through which he could realize his conception of the beautiful.

The Ideal Man should talk to us as if we were goddesses, and treat us as if we were children. He should refuse all our serious requests, and gratify every one of our whims. He should encourage us to have caprices, and forbid us to have missions. He should always say much more than he means, and always mean much more than he says.

Man is made for something better than disturbing dirt.

Political life at Washington is like political life in a suburban vestry.

I have grown tired of the articulate utterances of men and things. The Mystical in Art, the Mystical in Life, the Mystical in Nature this is what I am looking for. It is absolutely necessary for me to find it somewhere.

Any place that we love becomes our world.

All charming people, I fancy, are spoiled. It is the secret of their attraction.

I worshipped you too much. I am punished for it. You worshipped yourself too much. We are both punished.

Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes.

Everything popular is wrong.

Every woman is wrong until she cries.

Medievalism, with its saints and martyrs, its love of self-torture, its wild passion for wounding itself, its gashing with knives, and its whipping with rods - Medievalism is real Christianity, and the medieval Christ is the real Christ.

Artists, like the Greek gods, are only revealed to one another.

All love is true, but not all truth ... is love?

Those who find ugly meanings in beautiful things are corrupt without being charming. This is a fault. Those who find beautiful meanings in beautiful things are the cultivated. For these there is hope. They are the elect to whom beautiful things mean only Beauty. There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written. That is all.

I don't want to earn my living, I want to live.

The truth about the life of a man is not what he does, but the legend which he creates around himself.

You love the beauty that you can see and touch and handle, the beauty that you can destroy, and do destroy, but of the unseen beauty of life, of the unseen beauty of a higher life, you know nothing.

Ambition is the germ from which all growth of nobleness proceeds.

He was a hero to his valet, who bullied him, and a terror to most of his relations, whom he bullied in turn. Only England could have produced him, and he always said that the country was going to the dogs. His principles were out of date, but there was a good deal to be said for his prejudices.

I love to talk about nothing. It's the only thing I know anything about.

I won't belong to a club that accepts me as a member

Things are because we see them, and what we see, and how we see it, depends on the Arts that influenced us. To look at a thing is very different from seeing a thing. One does not see anything until one sees its beauty. Then, and then only, does it comes into existence.

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

The great events of the world take place in the brain.

Requiescat Tread lightly, she is near Under the snow, Speak gently, she can hear The daisies grow. All her bright golden hair Tarnished with rust, She that was young and fair Fallen to dust. Lily-like, white as snow, She hardly knew She was a woman, so Sweetly she grew. Coffin-board, heavy stone, Lie on her breast, I vex my heart alone She is at rest. Peace, Peace, she cannot hear Lyre or sonnet, All my life’s buried here, Heap earth upon it.

Wherever there is a man who exercises authority, there is a man who resists authority.

Art is rarely intelligible to the criminal classes.