40 Quotes of Oscar

Wilde
OCTOBER 8, 2007
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JAMIE FRATER

There is no doubt that Oscar Wilde was one of the most witty men to
come from the British Isles and probably the world. It is virtually
impossible to find anything he wrote which did not show at least a
glimmer of his genius. This is a selection of 40 of his greatest
quotations.
Quotations 1 10

1. A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is

absolutely fatal.
2. A man can be happy with any woman as long as he does not love
her.
3. Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much.

4. America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence

without civilization in between.
5. Anyone who lives within their means suffers from a lack of
imagination.
6. Arguments are to be avoided; they are always vulgar and often
convincing.
7. Biography lends to death a new terror.
8. Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it
every six months.
9. I am not young enough to know everything.
10. I think that God in creating Man somewhat overestimated his
ability.
Quotations 11 20

11. I was working on the proof of one of my poems all the morning,
and took out a comma. In the afternoon I put it back again. [Note:
remember
12. Illusion is the first of all pleasures.
13. It is a very sad thing that nowadays there is so little useless
information.

14. Most modern calendars mar the sweet simplicity of our lives by
reminding us that each day that passes is the anniversary of some
perfectly uninteresting event.
15. One should always play fairly when one has the winning cards.
16. Patriotism is the virtue of the vicious.
17. Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to
live as one wishes to live.
18. The only thing to do with good advice is pass it on. It is never any
use to oneself.
19. The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked
about.
20. The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible.
Quotations 21 30

21. To disagree with three-fourths of the British public is one of the first
requisites of sanity.
22. Whenever people agree with me I always feel I must be wrong.

23. The only thing that sustains one through life is the consciousness
of the immense inferiority of everybody else, and this is a feeling that I
have always cultivated.
24. I dont play accurately-any one can play accurately- but I play with
wonderful expression. As far as the piano is concerned, sentiment is
my forte. I keep science for Life.
25. When the gods wish to punish us, they answer our prayers.
26. Work is the curse of the drinking classes.
27. My own business always bores me to death; I prefer other
peoples.
28. I can resist anything but temptation.
29. Life is far too important a thing ever to talk seriously about.
30. Experience is the name everyone gives to their mistakes.
Quotations 31 40

31. Scandal is gossip made tedious by morality.

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

33. What is a cynic? A man who knows the price of everything and the
value of nothing.
34. Vile deeds like poison weeds bloom well in prison air, it is only
what is good in man, that wastes and withers there.
35. We have really everything in common with America nowadays
except, of course, language.
36. The public is wonderfully tolerant. It forgives everything except
genius.
37. The truth is rarely pure and never simple.
38. Thirty-five is a very attractive age. London society is full of women
of the very highest birth who have, of their own free choice, remained
thirty-five for years.
39. I like persons better than principles, and I like persons with no
principles better than anything else in the world.
40. I love acting. It is so much more real than life.

70 BRILLIANT OSCAR WILDE

QUOTES
Oscar Wilde was an Irish writer and poet. After experimenting with his writing, in the 1980 s, he
became one of Londons most popular play writers. Today he is remembered for plays and beautiful words
that have been quoted below in a compilation if 70 Brilliant Oscar Wilde Quotes.

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

Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go.
- Oscar Wilde

A cynic is a man who knows the price of everything, and the value of nothing.
- Oscar Wilde

I can resist anything except temptation.

- Oscar Wilde

All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. No man does, and that is his.
- Oscar Wilde

With freedom, books, flowers, and the moon, who could not be happy?
- Oscar Wilde

Quotation is a serviceable substitute for wit.

- Oscar Wilde

If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh, otherwise theyll kill you.
- Oscar Wilde

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

The only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it.

- Oscar Wilde

To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance.

- Oscar Wilde

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

No good deed goes unpunished.

- Oscar Wilde

I dont want to be at the mercy of my emotions. I want to use them, to enjoy them, and to dominate them.
- Oscar Wilde

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

- Oscar Wilde

Only dull people are brilliant at breakfast.

- Oscar Wilde

There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.
- Oscar Wilde

A mans face is his autobiography. A womans face is her work of fiction.

- Oscar Wilde

To define is to limit.
- Oscar Wilde

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

- Oscar Wilde

Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.

- Oscar Wilde

I am so clever that sometimes I dont understand a single word of what I am saying.

- Oscar Wilde

Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much.

- Oscar Wilde

To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.
- Oscar Wilde

We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.
- 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 what you read when you dont have to that determines what you will be when you cant help it.
- Oscar Wilde

The truth is rarely pure and never simple.

- Oscar Wilde

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

You can never be overdressed or overeducated.

- Oscar Wilde

I dont want to go to heaven. None of my friends are there.

- Oscar Wilde

Women are meant to be loved, not to be understood.

- Oscar Wilde

Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone elses opinions, their lives a mimicry, their
passions a quotation.
- Oscar Wilde

A good friend will always stab you in the front.

- Oscar Wilde

Anyone who lives within their means suffers from a lack of imagination.
- Oscar Wilde

Yes: I am a dreamer. For 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 am not young enough to know everything.

- Oscar Wilde

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

Every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future.

- Oscar Wilde

The heart was made to be broken.

- Oscar Wilde

I think God, in creating man, somewhat overestimated his ability.

- Oscar Wilde

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

- Oscar Wilde

Experience is merely the name men gave to their mistakes.

- Oscar Wilde

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

You dont love someone for their looks, or their clothes, or for their fancy car, but because they sing a
song only you can hear.
- Oscar Wilde

Everything in the world is about sex except sex. Sex is about power.
- Oscar Wilde

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.
- Oscar Wilde

Never love anyone who treats you like youre ordinary.

- Oscar Wilde

The very essence of romance is uncertainty.

- Oscar Wilde

Anybody can sympathise with the sufferings of a friend, but it requires a very fine nature to sympathise
with a friends success.
- Oscar Wilde

The world is a stage and the play is badly cast.

- Oscar Wilde

I am too fond of reading books to care to write them.

- Oscar Wilde

We are each our own devil, and we make this world our hell.
- Oscar Wilde

There are only two kinds of people who are really fascinating: people who know absolutely everything,
and people who know absolutely nothing.
- 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

Nowadays people know the price of everything and the value of nothing.
- Oscar Wilde

Behind every exquisite thing that existed, there was something tragic.
- Oscar Wilde

We live in an age when unnecessary things are our only necessities.

- Oscar Wilde

Society often forgives the criminal; it never forgives the dreamer.

- Oscar Wilde

Everything in moderation, including moderation.

- Oscar Wilde

Humanity takes itself too seriously. It is the worlds original sin. If the cave-man had known how to laugh,
History would have been different.
- Oscar Wilde

One should never trust a woman who tells one her real age. A woman who would tell one that would tell
one anything.
- Oscar Wilde

The nicest feeling in the world is to do a good deed anonymously-and have somebody find out.
- Oscar Wilde

The only good thing to do with good advice is pass it on; it is never of any use to oneself.
- Oscar Wilde

Live! Live the wonderful life that is in you! Let nothing be lost upon you. Be always searching for new
sensations. Be afraid of nothing.
- Oscar Wilde
Nothing can cure the soul but the senses, just as nothing can cure the senses but the soul.
- Oscar Wilde
The mystery of love is greater than the mystery of death.
- Oscar Wilde

It takes great deal of courage to see the world in all its tainted glory, and still to love it.
- Oscar Wilde

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