People say sometimes that Beauty is superficial. That may be so. But at least it is not so superficial as Thought is. To me, Beauty is the wonder of wonders. It is only shallow people who do not judge by appearances. The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible.
Oscar WildeWalt Whitman and Emerson are the poets who have given the world more than anyone else. Perhaps Whitman is not so widely read in England, but England never appreciates a poet until he is dead.
Oscar WildeI write because it gives me the greatest possible artistic pleasure to write. If my work pleases the few I am gratified. As for the mob, I have no desire to be a popular novelist. It is far too easy.
Oscar WildeWe live in an age that reads too much to be wise, and that thinks too much to be beautiful.
Oscar WildeI find him in the curves of certain lines, in the loveliness and subtleties of certain colours.
Oscar WildeLove is like a war; easy to start but hard to end and you never know where it might take you.
Oscar WildeA great poet, a really great poet, is the most unpoetical of all creatures. But inferior poets are absolutely fascinating.
Oscar WildeThe fact is, that civilization requires slaves. Unless there are slaves to do the ugly, horrible, uninteresting work, culture and contemplation become almost impossible.
Oscar WildeTwenty years of romance makes a woman look like a ruin; but twenty years of marriage makes her something like a public building.
Oscar WildeAnd let me touch those curving claws of yellow ivory; and grasp the tail that like a monstrous asp coils round your heavy velvet paws.
Oscar WildeWith subtle and finely-wrought temperaments it is always so. Their strong passions must either bruise or bend. They either slay the man, or themselves die. Shallow sorrows and shallow loves live on. The loves and the sorrows that are great are destroyed by their own plenitude.
Oscar WildeWhat is abnormal in Life stands in normal relations to Art. It is the only thing in Life that stands in normal relations to Art.
Oscar WildeHow you can sit there, calmly eating muffins when we are in this horrible trouble, I can’t make out. You seem to me to be perfectly heartless." "Well, I can’t eat muffins in an agitated manner. The butter would probably get on my cuffs. One should always eat muffins quite calmly. It is the only way to eat them." "I say it’s perfectly heartless your eating muffins at all, under the circumstances.
Oscar WildeAction is limited and relative. Unlimited and absolute is the vision of him who sits at ease and watches, who walks in loneliness and dreams.
Oscar WildeNever regret thy fall, O Icarus of the fearless flight For the greatest tragedy of them all Is never to feel the burning light.
Oscar WildeIt is better to be beautiful than to be good. But... it is better to be good than to be ugly.
Oscar WildeIs insincerity such a terrible thing? I think not. It is merely a method by which we can multiply our personalities.
Oscar WildeVeil after veil of thin dusky gauze is lifted, and by degrees the forms and colours of things are restored to them, and we watch the dawn remaking the world in its antique pattern.
Oscar WildeAlone, and without any reference to his neighbours, without any interference, the artist can fashion a beautiful thing; and if he does not do it solely for his own pleasure, he is not an artist at all.
Oscar WildeThere are only two kinds of people who are really fascinating - people who know absolutely everything, and people who know absolutely nothing.
Oscar WildeThe cities of America are inexpressibly tedious. The Bostonians take their learning too sadly; culture with them is an accomplishment rather than an atmosphere; their Hub, as they call it, is the paradise of prigs. Chicago is a sort of monster-shop, full of bustles and bores. Political life at Washington is like political life in a suburban vestry. Baltimore is amusing for a week, but Philadelphia is dreadfully provincial; and though one can dine in New York one could not dwell there.
Oscar WildeFor life is terribly deficient in form. Its catastrophes happen in the wrong way and to the wrong people. There is a grotesque horror about its comedies, and its tragedies seem to culminate in farce.
Oscar WildeWell, I don't like your clothes. You look perfectly ridiculous in them. Why on earth don't you go up and change? It's perfectly childish to be in mourning for a man who is actually staying a whole week with you in your house as a guest. I call it grotesque.
Oscar WildeGreat passions are for the great of soul, and great events can be seen only by those who are on a level with them
Oscar WildeWhen I had to fill in my immigration papers, I gave my age as 19, and my profession as genius; I added that I had nothing to declare except my talent.
Oscar WildeArt is individualism, and individualism is a disturbing and disintegrating force. There lies its immense value. For what it seeks is to disturb monotony of type, slavery of custom, tyranny of habit, and the reduction of man to the level of a machine. It seeks to show new perspectives and other choices. It is a way to help expand and liberate the consciousness; our experiences, understandings, imaginings, options and thereby our lives.
Oscar Wilde