Quotes by Wilde, Oscar

"Self-denial is the shining sore on the leprous body of Christianity."

Wilde, Oscar on abstinence
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"Art is not to be taught in Academies. It is what one looks at, not what one listens to, that makes the artist. The real schools should be the streets."

Wilde, Oscar on academia
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"The only thing to do with good advice is to pass it on. It is never of any use to oneself."

Wilde, Oscar on advice
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"One can survive everything nowadays, except death, and live down anything except a good reputation."

Wilde, Oscar on death
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"Alas, I am dying beyond my means."

Wilde, Oscar on death
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"For he who lives more lives than one: More deaths than one must die."

Wilde, Oscar on death
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"I am dying beyond my means."

Wilde, Oscar on death
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"Democracy means simply the bludgeoning of the people by the people for the people."

Wilde, Oscar on democracy
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"Through our sunless lanes creeps Poverty with her hungry eyes, and Sin with his sodden face follows close behind her. Misery wakes us in the morning and Shame sits with us at night."

Wilde, Oscar on despair
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"She wore far too much rouge last night and not quite enough clothes. That is always a sign of despair in a woman."

Wilde, Oscar on desperation
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"There are three kinds of despots. There is the despot who tyrannizes over the body. There is the despot who tyrannizes over the soul. There is the despot who tyrannizes over the soul and body alike. The first is called the Prince. The second is called the Pope. The third is called the People."

Wilde, Oscar on despotism
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"Despotism is unjust to everybody, including the despot, who was probably made for better things."

Wilde, Oscar on despotism
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"Better the rule of One, whom all obey, than to let clamorous demagogues betray our freedom with the kiss of anarchy."

Wilde, Oscar on dictators and dictatorship
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"Every great man nowadays has his disciples, and it is usually Judas who writes the biography."

Wilde, Oscar on disciples
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"Discontent is the first step in the progress of a man or a nation."

Wilde, Oscar on discontent
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"She is absolutely inadmissible into society. Many a woman has a past, but I am told that she has at least a dozen, and that they all fit."

Wilde, Oscar on grace
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"It is he who has broken the bond of marriage -- not I. I only break its bondage."

Wilde, Oscar on divorce
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"Society often forgives the criminal; it never forgives the dreamer."

Wilde, Oscar on dream
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"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."

Wilde, Oscar on dream
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"One should either be a work of art, or wear a work of art."

Wilde, Oscar on dress
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"Dullness is the coming of age of seriousness."

Wilde, Oscar on dullness
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"Oh, duty is what one expects from others, it is not what one does oneself."

Wilde, Oscar on duty
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"The first duty of life is to be as artificial as possible. What the second duty is no one as yet discovered."

Wilde, Oscar on duty
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"The whole theory of modern education is radically unsound. Fortunately in England, at any rate, education produces no effect whatsoever. If it did, it would prove a serious danger to the upper classes, and probably lead to acts of violence."

Wilde, Oscar on education
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"Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught."

Wilde, Oscar on education
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"The advantage of the emotions is that they lead us astray."

Wilde, Oscar on emotions
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"A man cannot be too careful in the choice of his enemies."

Wilde, Oscar on enemies
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"Pardon me, you are not engaged to any one. When you do become engaged to some one, I, or your father, should his health permit him, will inform you of the fact. An engagement should come on a young girl as a surprise, pleasant or unpleasant, as the case may be. It is hardly a matter that she could be allowed to arrange for herself."

Wilde, Oscar on engagement
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"No artist has ethical sympathies. An ethical sympathy in an artist is an unpardonable mannerism of style."

Wilde, Oscar on ethics
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"Nothing makes one so vain as being told that one is a sinner."

Wilde, Oscar on evangelism
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"The great events of life often leave one unmoved; they pass out of consciousness, and, when one thinks of them, become unreal. Even the scarlet flowers of passion seem to grow in the same meadow as the poppies of oblivion."

Wilde, Oscar on events
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"Examinations, sir, are pure humbug from beginning to end. If a man is a gentleman, he knows quite enough, and if he is not a gentleman, whatever he knows is bad for him."

Wilde, Oscar on nations
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"I have the simplest tastes. I am always satisfied with the best."

Wilde, Oscar on excellence
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"Experience is one thing you can't get for nothing."

Wilde, Oscar on experience
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"We can have in life but one great experience at best, and the secret of life is to reproduce that experience as often as possible."

Wilde, Oscar on experience
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"An ordinary man away from home giving advice."

Wilde, Oscar on experts
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"Where there is no extravagance there is no love, and where there is no love there is no understanding."

Wilde, Oscar on extravagance
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"A man's face is his autobiography. A woman's face is her work of fiction."

Wilde, Oscar on faces
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"Misfortunes one can endure -- they come from outside, they are accidents. But to suffer for one's own faults -- Ah! there is the sting of life."

Wilde, Oscar on failure
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"I can believe anything provided it is incredible."

Wilde, Oscar on faith
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