Quotes by Wilde, Oscar

"If one tells the truth, one is sure, sooner or later, to be found out."

Wilde, Oscar on truth
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"The truth is rarely pure, and never simple"

Wilde, Oscar on truth
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"The worst form of tyranny the world has ever known the tyranny of the weak over the strong. It is the only tyranny that lasts."

Wilde, Oscar on tyranny
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"The ugly and the stupid have the best of it in this world. They can sit at their ease and gape at the play. If they know nothing of victory, they are at least spared the knowledge of defeat."

Wilde, Oscar on ugliness
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"Nowadays people know the price of everything and the value of nothing."

Wilde, Oscar on value
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"Whatever harsh criticisms may be passed on the construction of her sentences, she at least possesses that one touch of vulgarity that makes the whole world kin."

Wilde, Oscar on vulgarity   

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"Vulgarity is the conduct of other people, just as falsehoods are the truths of other people."

Wilde, Oscar on vulgarity
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"Vulgarity is simply the conduct of other people."

Wilde, Oscar on vulgarity
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"As long as war is regarded as wicked, it will always have it's fascination. When it is looked upon as vulgar, it will cease to be popular."

Wilde, Oscar on war   

"She lacks the indefinable charm of weakness."

Wilde, Oscar on weakness
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"Every man of ambition has to fight his century with its own weapons. What this century worships is wealth. The God of this century is wealth. To succeed one must have wealth. At all costs one must have wealth."

Wilde, Oscar on wealth   

"Ordinary riches can be stolen, real riches cannot. In your soul are infinitely precious things that cannot be taken from you."

Wilde, Oscar on wealth
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"Pray don't talk to me about the weather, Mr. Worthing. Whenever people talk to me about the weather, I always feel quite certain that they mean something else."

Wilde, Oscar on weather
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"Wickedness is a myth invented by good people to account for the curious attraction of others."

Wilde, Oscar on wickedness
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"As a wicked man I am a complete failure. Why, there are lots of people who say I have never really done anything wrong in the whole course of my life. Of course they only say it behind my back."

Wilde, Oscar on wickedness   

"London is full of women who trust their husbands. One can always recognize them. They look so thoroughly unhappy."

Wilde, Oscar on wives   

"Every woman is a rebel, and usually in wild revolt against herself."

Wilde, Oscar on women
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"There is only one real tragedy in a woman's life. The fact that her past is always her lover, and her future invariably her husband."

Wilde, Oscar on women
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"The strength of women comes from the fact that psychology cannot explain us. Men can be analyzed, women merely adored."

Wilde, Oscar on women
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"Work is the curse of the drinking class."

Wilde, Oscar on work   

"Work is a refuge of people who have nothing better to do."

Wilde, Oscar on work   

"This morning I took out a comma and this afternoon I put it back in again."

Wilde, Oscar on writers and writing
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"From the point of view of literature Mr. Kipling is a genius who drops his aspirates. From the point of view of life, he is a reporter who knows vulgarity better than any one has ever known it."

Wilde, Oscar on writers and writing   

"His style is chaos illumined by flashes of lightning. As a writer he has mastered everything except language."

Wilde, Oscar on writers and writing   

"Those whom the gods love grow young."

Wilde, Oscar on youth   

"In America the young are always ready to give to those who are older than themselves the full benefits of their inexperience."

Wilde, Oscar on youth   

"Youth! There is nothing like youth. The middle-aged are mortgaged to Life. The old are in Life's lumber-room. But youth is the Lord of Life. Youth has a kingdom waiting for it. Every one is born a king, and most people die in exile."

Wilde, Oscar on youth
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"Action is the last resource of those who know not how to dream."

Wilde, Oscar on action
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"No, Ernest, don't talk about action. It is the last resource of those who know not how to dream."

Wilde, Oscar on action   

"The best way to make children good is to make them happy."

Wilde, Oscar on children
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"Children begin by loving their parents. After a time they judge them. Rarely, if ever, do they forgive them."

Wilde, Oscar on children
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"Few parents nowadays pay any regard to what their children say to them. The old-fashioned respect for the young is fast dying out."

Wilde, Oscar on children   

"The 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."

Wilde, Oscar on life   

"Civilization is not by any means an easy thing to attain to. There are only two ways by which man can reach it. One is by being cultured, the other by being corrupt."

Wilde, Oscar on civilization   

"Really, if the lower orders don't set us a good example, what on earth is the use of them? They seem, as a class, to have absolutely no sense of moral responsibility."

Wilde, Oscar on class   

"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."

Wilde, Oscar on colleges and universities   

"The exquisite art of idleness, one of the most important things that any University can teach."

Wilde, Oscar on colleges and universities   

"He had that curious love of green, which in individuals is always the sign of a subtle artistic temperament, and in nations is said to denote a laxity, if not a decadence of morals."

Wilde, Oscar on color   

"Mere color, unspoiled by meaning, and unallied with definite form, can speak to the soul in a thousand different ways."

Wilde, Oscar on color   

"Nowadays most people die of a sort of creeping common sense, and discover when it is too late that the only things one never regrets are one's mistakes."

Wilde, Oscar on common sense
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