Oscar Wilde Quotes

The joy of life is in new creations, new adventures, and new feelings. ~ Debasish Mridha

Algernon. Good heavens! Is marriage so demoralising as that? Lane. I believe it is a very pleasant state, sir. I have had very little experience of it myself up to the present. I have only been married once. That was in consequence of a misunderstanding between myself and a young person. Algernon. ~ Oscar Wilde

Magical morning lights, dreamy sky,
Smiling flowers letting us know summer is opening her eyes ~ Debasish Mridha

There is always something infinitely mean about other people's tragedies. ~ Oscar Wilde

Every experience is of value. ~ Oscar Wilde

We have quite the same ideas. No; I think our ideas are quite different. But he has been most pleasant. ~ Oscar Wilde

There are few things easier than to live badly and die well. ~ Oscar Wilde

A community is infinitely more brutalised by the habitual employment of punishment than it is by the occasional occurence of crime. ~ Oscar Wilde

When one is in town one amuses oneself. When one is in the country one amuses other people. It is excessively boring. ~ Oscar Wilde

I hate people who are not serious about meals. It is so shallow of them. ~ Oscar Wilde

Ever since I met you I have admired you more than any girl ... I have ever met since ... I met you. ~ Oscar Wilde

I had a strange feeling that Fate had in store for me exquisite joys and exquisite sorrows. ~ Oscar Wilde

Nor is it merely that we can discern in Christ that close union of personality with perfection which forms the real distinction between the classical and romantic movement in life, but the very basis of his nature was the same as that of the nature of the artist - an intense and flamelike imagination. He realised in the entire sphere of human relations that imaginative sympathy which in the sphere of Art is the sole secret of creation. He understood the leprosy of the leper, the darkness of the blind, the fierce misery of those who live for pleasure, the strange poverty of the rich. Someone wrote to me in trouble, 'When you are not on your pedestal you are not interesting.' How remote was the writer from what Matthew Arnold calls 'the Secret of Jesus.' Either would have taught him that whatever happens to another happens to oneself, and if you want an inscription to read at dawn and at night-time, and for pleasure or for pain, write up on the walls of your house in letters for the sun to gild and the moon to silver, 'Whatever happens to oneself happens to another. ~ Oscar Wilde

A new life! That was what he wanted. That was what he was waiting for. Surely he ~ Oscar Wilde

I'll see if I can't make the bitter waters sweet by the intensity of love I bear you ~ Oscar Wilde

A virtuous abstinence from the joys of pederasty comes most easily to those who have no taste for it. ~ Oscar Wilde

When one has never heard a man's name in the course of one's life, it speaks volumes for him; he must be quite respectable. ~ Oscar Wilde

I rely on you to misrepresent me. ~ Oscar Wilde

If you wish to understand others you must intensify your own individualism. Why ~ Oscar Wilde

Really, this horrid House of Commons quite ruins our husbands for us. I think the Lower House by far the greatest blow to a happy married life that there has been since that terrible thing called the Higher Education of Women was invented. ~ Oscar Wilde

You can have your secret as long as I have your heart[.] ~ Oscar Wilde

Oscar Wilde was born in Dublin, on the 15th October, 1856, so that he is now about twenty-six years of age, but brief as has been his career, it has been full of promise for the future. The son of highly intellectual parents, he has had an exceptional education, has travelled much in wild and remote, through classic lands, and in the course of these journeys has learnt to appreciate the beauties of the old authors, in whose works whilst at college he attained exceptional proficiency. But his naturally enthusiastic temperament teaches him to hope for better in the future than has been achieved in the past, and to see how vast will be the influence of Art and Literature on the coming democracy of Intellect, when education and culture shall have taught men to pride themselves on what they have done, and not alone on the deeds of their ancestors. ~ Walter Hamilton

The only sin is stupidity. ~ Oscar Wilde

I have a dining room done in different shades of white, with white cushions embroidered in yellow silk: the effect is absolutely delightful and the room beautiful. ~ Oscar Wilde

As he passed out, he used to look with wonder at the black confessionals and long to sit in the dim shadow of one of them and listen to men and women whispering through the worn grating the true story of their lives. ~ Oscar Wilde

The aim of the liar is simply to charm, to delight, to give pleasure. ~ Oscar Wilde

Love is fed by the imagination, by which we become wiser than we know, better than we feel, nobler than we are: by which we can see life as a whole, by which and by which alone we can understand others in their real and their ideal relation. Only what is fine, and finely conceived can feed love. But anything will feed hate. ~ Oscar Wilde

had come face to face with some one whose mere personality was so fascinating that, if I allowed it to do so, it would absorb my whole nature, my whole soul, my very art itself. I did not want any external influence in my life. You ~ Oscar Wilde

All the quips in the world couldn't prevent Oscar Wilde from becoming a lovesick fool. ~ David Levithan

It will, of course, be said that such a scheme as is set forth here is quite unpractical, and goes against human nature. This is perfectly true. It is unpractical, and it goes against human nature. This is why it is worth carrying out, and that is why one proposes it. For what is a practical scheme? A practical scheme is either a scheme that is already in existence, or a scheme that could be carried out under existing conditions. But it is exactly the existing conditions that one objects to; and any scheme that could accept these conditions is wrong and foolish. ~ Oscar Wilde

Let us kill each other with love and kindness - not with hatred and guns. ~ Debasish Mridha

Its a beautiful woman's fate to be the subject of conversation where ever she goes ~ Oscar Wilde

Love is the best treatment for depression. To get better, you have to give it away as much as you can, as fast as you can, and as often as you can. ~ Debasish Mridha

Deceiving others. That is what the world calls a romance. ~ Oscar Wilde

The English are always degrading truths into facts. When a truth becomes a fact it loses all its intellectual value. ~ Oscar Wilde

The Odyssey was written by Homer, or another Greek of the same name. ~ Oscar Wilde

You are young. No hungry generations tread you down. The past does not mock you with the ruins of a beauty the secret of whose creation you have lost ~ Oscar Wilde

I walk the world in wonder. ~ Oscar Wilde

The best way of life, is the way of love. ~ Debasish Mridha

past. But women never know when the curtain has fallen. They always want a sixth act, and as soon as the interest of the play is entirely over, they propose to continue it. ~ Oscar Wilde

Be happy, cried the Nightingale, be happy; you shall have your red rose. I will build it out of music by moonlight, and stain it with my own heart's-blood. All that I ask of you in return is that you will be a true lover, for Love is wiser than Philosophy, though she is wise, and mightier than Power, though he is mighty. Flame-coloured are his wings, and coloured like flame is his body. His lips are sweet as honey, and his breath is like frankincense. ~ Oscar Wilde

The growing influence of women is the one reassuring thing in our political life. ~ Oscar Wilde

I'm so clever, I don't understand half of the things I'm saying. ~ Oscar Wilde

Don't change, Dorian; at any rate, don't change to me. We must always be friends." "Yet you poisoned me with a book once. I should not forgive that. Harry, promise me that you will never lend that book to anyone. It does harm." "My dear boy, you are really beginning to moralise. You will soon be going about warning people against all the sins of which you have grown tired. You are much too delightful to do that. Besides, it is no use. You and I are what we are, and will be what we will be. ~ Oscar Wilde

Talk to a woman as if you loved her, and to a man as if he bored you. ~ Oscar Wilde

Secret to remain young is to have an inordinate passion for pleasure. ~ Oscar Wilde

Death is a great price to pay for a red rose", cried the Nightingale, "and Life is very dear to all. " It is pleasant to sit in the green wood, and watch the Sun in his chariot of gold, and the Moon in her chariot of pearl. Sweet is the scent oft he hawthorn, and sweet are the bluebells that hide in the valley, and the heather that blows on the hill. Yet Love is better than Life, and what is the heart of a bird compared to the heart of a man? ~ Oscar Wilde

One's past is what one is. It is the only way by which people should be judged. ~ Oscar Wilde

The American father is never seen in London. He passes his life entirely in Wall Street and communicates with his family once a month by means of a telegram in cipher. ~ Oscar Wilde

I wrote when I did not know life. Now that I know life, I have no more to write. ~ Oscar Wilde

Art only begins where Imitation ends. ~ Oscar Wilde

In the slanting beams that streamed through the open doorway the dust danced and was golden. The heavy scent of the roses seemed to brood over everything. ~ Oscar Wilde

Yet, after some time, he wearied of them, and would sit in his box at the opera, either alone or with Lord Henry, listening in rapt pleasure to "Tannhauser" and seeing in the prelude to that great work of art a presentation of the tragedy of his own soul. ~ Oscar Wilde

The well bred contradict other people. The wise contradict themselves. ~ Oscar Wilde

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

The only words worth repeating are from the Old Testament or Oscar Wilde. ~ Barry Gifford

When in doubt, I read Oscar Wilde. ~ Camille Paglia

Look at the moon. How strange the moon seems! She is like a woman rising from a tomb. She is like a dead woman. One might fancy she was looking for dead things. ~ Oscar Wilde

When I am in nature, my heart dances with butterflies and sings along with flowers. ~ Debasish Mridha

Give me a red rose,' she cried, 'and I will sing you my sweetest song. ~ Oscar Wilde

A really well-made buttonhole is the only link between Art and Nature. ~ Oscar Wilde

My one quarrel is with words. ~ Oscar Wilde

She had a passion for secrecy, but she herself was merely a Sphinx without a secret. ~ Oscar Wilde

Love is not fashionable anymore; the poets have killed it. ~ Oscar Wilde

Musical people always want one to be perfectly dumb at the very moment when one is longing to be perfectly deaf. ~ Oscar Wilde

As for modern journalism, it is not my business to defend it. It justifies its own existence by the great Darwinian principle of the survival of the vulgarest. ~ Oscar Wilde

The things people say of a man do not alter a man. He is what he is. Public opinion is of no value whatsoever. Even if people employ actual violence, they are not to be violent in turn. That would be to fall to the same low level. After all, even in prison, a man can be quite free. His soul can be free. His personality can be untroubled. He can be at peace. And, above all things, they are not to interfere with other people or judge them in any way. Personality is a very mysterious thing. A man cannot always be estimated by what he does. He may keep the law, and yet be worthless. He may break the law, and yet be fine. He may be bad, without ever doing anything bad. He may commit a sin against society, and yet realize through that sin his true perfection. ~ Oscar Wilde

LORD ILLINGWORTH. I never intend to grow old. The soul is born old but grows young. That is the comedy of life. MRS. ALLONBY. And the body is born young and grows old. That is life's tragedy. LORD ~ Oscar Wilde

Modern pictures are, no doubt, delightful to look at. At least, some of them are. But they are quite impossible to live with; they are too clever, too assertive, too intellectual. Their meaning is too obvious and their method too clearly defined. One exhausts what they have to say in a very short time, and then they become as tedious as one's relations. ~ Oscar Wilde

Inteligence lives longer than beauty. ~ Oscar Wilde

I see the moon like a clipped piece of silver. Like gilded bees the stars cluster round her. ~ Oscar Wilde

Why should I not love her? Harry, I do love her. She is everything to me in life. Night after night I go to see her play. One evening she is Rosalind, and the next evening she is Imogen. I have seen her die in the gloom of an Italian Tomb, sucking the poison from her lover's lips. I have watched her wandering through the forest of Arden, disguised as a pretty boy in hose and doublet and dainty cap. She has been mad, and has come into the presence of a guilty king, and given him rue to wear, and bitter herbs to taste of. She has been innocent, and the black hands of jealousy have crushed her reed-like throat. I have seen her in every age and in every costume. Ordinary women never appeal to one's imagination. They are limited to their century. No glamour ever transfigures them. One knows their minds as easily as one knows their bonnets. One can always find them. There is no mystery in one of them. ~ Oscar Wilde

To express your love for the universe, be like a cloud to dwell in the high altitudes, and never forget to transform yourself into the water of humility. ~ Debasish Mridha

My friend is not allowed to go out today. I sit by his side and read him passages from his own life. They fill him with surprise. Everyone should keep someone else's diary; I sometimes suspect you of keeping mine. ~ Oscar Wilde

I hope to-morrow will be a fine day, Lane.
It never is, sir.
Lane, you're a perfect pessimist.
I do my best to give satisfaction, sir. ~ Oscar Wilde

Rugged and straightforward as he was, there was something in his nature that was purely feminine in its tenderness ~ Oscar Wilde

To call an artist morbid because he deals with morbidity as his subject-matter is as silly as if one called Shakespeare mad because he wrote 'King Lear. ~ Oscar Wilde

Surely you do not think that criticism is like the answer to a sum. The richer the work of art the more diverse are the true interpretations. There is not one answer only, but many answers. I pity that book on which critics are agreed. It must be a very obvious and shallow production. ~ Oscar Wilde

JACK
That is nonsense. If I marry a charming girl like Gwendolen, and she is the only girl I ever saw in my life that I would marry, I certainly won't want to know Bunbury.
ALGERNON
Then your wife will. You don't seem to realize, that in married life three is company and two is none.
JACK
That, my dear young friend, is the theory that the corrupt French Drama has been propounding for the last fifty years.
ALGERNON
Yes; and that the happy English home has proved in half the time. ~ Oscar Wilde

The best people to work for are me, myself and I. ~ Oscar Wilde

[T]he recognition of private property has really harmed Individualism, and obscured it, by confusing a man with what he possesses. It has led Individualism entirely astray. It has made gain, not growth its aim. So that man thought that the important thing is to have, and did not know that the important thing is to be. ~ Oscar Wilde

The systems that fail are those that rely on the permanency of human nature ~ Oscar Wilde

Man is made for something better than disturbing dirt. ~ Oscar Wilde

I will love you always, because you will always be worthy of love. ~ Oscar Wilde

Nobody of any real culture, for instance, ever talks nowadays about the beauty of sunset. Sunsets are quite old fashioned. To admire them is a distinct sign of provincialism of temperament. Upon the other hand they go on. ~ Oscar Wilde

Algernon. The truth is rarely pure and never simple. Modern life would be very tedious if it were either, and modern literature a complete impossibility! Jack. That wouldn't be at all a bad thing. Algernon. Literary criticism is not your forte, my dear fellow. Don't try it. You should leave that to people who haven't been at a University. They do it so well in the daily papers. ~ Oscar Wilde

Oscar Wilde said that conscience and cowardice are the same thing. What stops us from doing horrible things isn't our conscience but the fear of getting caught. ~ Louise Penny

Yes, he remembered it perfectly. He had uttered a mad wish that he himself might remain young, and the portrait grow old; that his own beauty might be untarnished, and the face on the canvas bear the burden of his passions and his sins; that the painted image might be seared with the lines of suffering and thought, and that he might keep all the delicate bloom and loveliness of his then just conscious boyhood. Surely his wish had not been fulfilled? Such things were impossible. It ~ Oscar Wilde

Robert, how could you have sold yourself for money?
I did not sell myself for money. I bought success at a great price. That is all. ~ Oscar Wilde

Ordinary women never appeal to one's imagination. They are limited to their century. No glamour ever transfigures them. One knows their minds as easily as one knows their bonnets. One can always find them. There is no mystery in any of them. They ride in the park in the morning and chatter at tea parties in the afternoon. They have their stereotyped smile and their fashionable mauve. ~ Oscar Wilde

In spite of the roaring of the young lions at the Union, and the screaming of the rabbits in the home of the vivisect, in spite of Keble College, and the tramways, and the sporting prints, Oxford still remains the most beautiful thing in England, and nowhere else are life and art so exquisitely blended, so perfectly made one. ~ Oscar Wilde

Most men and women are forced to perform parts for which they have no qualification. ~ Oscar Wilde

If a woman wants to hold a man she has merely to appeal to what is worst in him. ~ Oscar Wilde

Life has been your art. You have set yourself to music. Your days are your sonnets. ~ Oscar Wilde

The worst slave-owners were those who were kind to their slaves, ~ Oscar Wilde

In love, one always begins in deceiving oneself, and one always ends in deceiving others. ~ Oscar Wilde

Measure your life not by its longevity but by the differences you have made with your creativity and beauty. ~ Debasish Mridha

Some drink to forget, I drink to remember. I drink in order to understand what I mean and to discover what I know. Under its benign influence all the stories and dramas which properly belong to the sphere of art are announced by me in conversation. ~ Peter Ackroyd

There are many things that we would throw away if we were not afraid that others might pick them up. ~ Oscar Wilde

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