Oscar Wilde Quotes

As for borrowing Mr. Whistler's ideas about art, the only thoroughly original ideas I have heard him express have had reference to his own superiority as a painter over painters greater than himself.

I walk the world in wonder.

Marriage is the triumph of imagination over intelligence. Second marriage is the triumph of hope over experience.

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

I can't stand people that do not take food seriously.

I have nothing to declare but my genius, and this four-kilo bag of cocaine.

By giving us the opinions of the uneducated, journalism keeps us in touch with the ignorance of the community.

All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. No man does. That's his.

People fashion their God after their own understanding. They make their God first and worship him afterwards.

Sooner or later we have all to pay for what we do.

A writer is someone who has taught his mind to misbehave.

Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months.

The aim of life is self-development. To realize one's nature perfectly - that is what each of us is here for.

The sick do not ask if the hand that smoothes their pillow is pure, nor the dying care if the lips that touch their brow have known the kiss of sin.

To look at a thing is very different from seeing it.

Many of the great achievements of the world were accomplished by tired and discouraged men who kept on working.

The public is wonderfully tolerant. It forgives everything except genius.

Beauty ...is of the great facts in the world like sunlight, or springtime, or the reflection in dark water of that silver shell we call the moon.

The critic has to educate the public; the artist has to educate the critic.

Arguments are extremely vulgar, for everybody in good society holds exactly the same opinions.

Though one can dine in New York, one could not dwell there.

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

An egg is always an adventure; the next one may be different.

I like hearing myself talk. It is one of my greatest pleasures. I often have long conversations all by myself. Sometimes I am so clever I don't understand a single word of what I am saying.

There is no sin except stupidity.

If you don't get everything you want, think of the things you don't get that you don't want.

If a man treats life artistically, his brain is his heart.

By persistently remaining single a man converts himself into a permanent public temptation.

When I was young I thought that money was the most important thing in life; now that I am old I know that it is.

Conformity is the last refuge of the unimaginitive

A mask tells us more than a face.

To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance.

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

Patriotism is the virtue of the vicious.

What fire does not destroy, it hardens

A map of the world that does not include Utopia is not worth even glancing at, for it leaves out the one country at which Humanity is always landing.

If you pretend to be good, the world takes you very seriously. If you pretend to be bad, it doesn't. Such is the astounding stupidity of optimism.

A dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight.

The optimist sees the donut, the pessimist sees the hole.

Pleasure without Champagne is purely artificial.

Moderation is a fatal thing. Nothing succeeds like excess.

I could never quite accustom myself to absinthe, but it suits my style so well

A bore is someone who deprives you of solitude without providing you with company.

It is better to be beautiful than to be good. But... it is better to be good than to be ugly.

You can never be overdressed or overeducated.

Punctuality is the thief of time

The moment that an artist takes notice of what other people want, and tries to supply the demand, he ceases to be an artist.

Looking good and dressing well is a necessity. Having a purpose in life is not.

I am not young enough to know everything.

Chrysanthemums from gilded argosy Unload their gaudy senseless merchandise.