Oscar Wilde Quotes

I never saw anybody take so long to dress, and with such little result.

Ones real life is often the life that one does not lead.

Well I won't argue about the matter. You always want to argue about things. That is exactly what things were originally made for.

When I am in trouble, eating is the only thing that consoles me. Indeed, as any one who knows me intimately will tell you, I refuse everything except food and drink. At the present moment I am eating muffins because I am unhappy. Besides, I am particularly fond of muffins.

Agitators are a set of interfering, meddling people, who come down to some perfectly contented class of the community and sow the seeds of discontent amongst them. That is the reason why agitators are so absolutely necessary. Without them, in our incomplete state, there would be no advance towards civilization.

Love does not traffic in a marketplace, nor use a huckster's scales. Its joy, like the joy of the intellect, is to feel itself alive. The aim of Love is to love: no more, and no less. You were my enemy: such an enemy as no man ever had. I had given you all my life, and to gratify the lowest and most contemptible of all human passions, hatred and vanity and greed, you had thrown it away. In less than three years you had entirely ruined me in every point of view. For my own sake there was nothing for me to do but to love you.

I dislike modern memoirs. They are generally written by people who have either entirely lost their memories, or have never done anything worth remembering.

If one doesn't talk about a thing, it has never happened. It is simply expression that gives reality to things.

Lots of people act well, but few people talk well. This shows that talking is the more difficult of the two.

Full frontal nudity is reserved for Adam and Eve!

We in the House of Lords are never in touch with public opinion. That makes us a civilised body.

Actual life was chaos, but there was something terribly logical in the imagination. It was the imagination that set remorse to dog the feet of sin. It was the imagination that made each crime bear its misshapen brood. In the common world of fact the wicked were not punished, nor the good rewarded. Success was given to the strong, failure thrust upon the weak. That was all.

Life, Lady Stutfield, is simply a mauvais quart d'heure made up of exquisite moments.

To be popular one must be a mediocrity." "Not with Women," said the duchess, shaking her head; "and women rule the world. I assure you we can't bear mediocrities. We women, as someone says, love with our ears, just as you men love with your eyes, if you ever love at all." "It seems to me that we never do anything else," murmered Dorian.

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

I find I have, and a heart doesn’t suit me, Windermere. Somehow it doesn’t go with modern dress. It makes one look old.

And her sweet red lips on these lips of mine Burned like the ruby fire set In the swinging lamp of a crimson shrine, Or the bleeding wounds of the pomegranate, Or the heart of the lotus drenched and wet With the spilt-out blood of the rose-red wine.

But what of life whose bitter hungry sea Flows at our heels, and gloom of sunless night Covers the days which never more return? Ambition, love and all the thoughts that burn We lose too soon, and only find delight In withered husks of some dead memory.

A red rose is not selfish because it wants to be a red rose. It would be horribly selfish if it wanted all the other flowers in the garden to be both red and roses.

In matters of grave importance, style, not sincerity, is the vital thing.

Quotation is a serviceable substitute for wit.

No man is rich enough to buy back his past.

Would you be in any way offended if I said that you seem to me to be in every way the visible personification of absolute perfection?

It is a sad truth, but we have lost the faculty of giving lovely names to things. Names are everything. I never quarrel with actions. My one quarrel is with words. The man who could call a spade a spade should be compelled to use one. It is the only thing he is fit for.

Religion is the fashionable substitute for belief.

But whether I become a believer or remain an agnostic, my belief or disbelief must derive its source from within, not from without. I, myself, must create its symbols. The transcendental is that which produces its own form. I will never discover its secret if I do not find it in my own heart; if I do not possess it already I shall never be able to acquire it.

Im Krieg machen die Starken die Schwachen zu Sklaven, im Frieden machen die Reichen die Armen zu Sklaven.

The first duty in life is to be as artificial as possible. What the second duty is no one has as yet discovered.

You can't possibly ask me to go without having some dinner. It's absurd. I never go without my dinner. No one ever does, except vegetarians and people like that.

The public have an insatiable curiosity to know everything, except what is worth knowing.

There is one thing worse than an absolutely loveless marriage: a marriage in which there is love, but on one side only.

Immanuel isn't a pun; he Kant be!

What a pity that in life we only get our lessons when they are of no use to us.

To expect the unexpected shows a thoroughly modern intellect.

I live in terror of not being misunderstood.

A man whose desire is to be something separate from himself, to be a member of Parliament, or a successful grocer, or a prominent solicitor, or a judge, or something equally tedious, invariably succeeds in being what he wants to be. That is his punishment. Those who want a mask have to wear it.

Women represent the triumph of matter over mind, just as men represent the triumph of mind over morals.

The fact is, that civilization requires slaves. Human slavery is wrong, insecure, and demoralizing. On mechanical slavery, on the slavery of the machine, the future of the world depends.

Oh, I don’t care about Jack. I don’t care for anybody in the whole world but you. I love you, Cecily. You will marry me, won’t you? You silly boy! Of course. Why, we have been engaged for the last three months. For the last three months?

Always! That is a dreadful word. It makes me shudder when I hear it. Women are so fond of using it. They spoil every romance by trying to make it last forever. It is a meaningless word, too. The only difference between a caprice and a life-long passion is that the caprice lasts a little longer.

My own business always bores me to death; I prefer other people's.

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

Anyone can sympathize with the sufferings of a friend, but it requires a very fine nature to sympathize with a friend's success.

I had buried my romance in a bed of asphodel.

Crying is for plain women. Pretty women go shopping.

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

True contentment is not having everything, but in being satisfied with everything you have.

Most people are other people.