Quotes by Wilde, Oscar

"Women are never disarmed by compliments. Men always are. That is the difference between the two sexes."

Wilde, Oscar on compliments
8 fans of this quote   

"It is the confession, not the priest, that gives us absolution."

Wilde, Oscar on confession
4 fans of this quote   

"A man's very highest moment is, I have no doubt at all, when he kneels in the dust, and beats his breast, and tells all the sins of his life."

Wilde, Oscar on confession
4 fans of this quote   

"Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative."

Wilde, Oscar on consistency
4 fans of this quote   

"Who is that man over there? I don't know him. What is he doing? Is he a conspirator? Have you searched him? Give him till tomorrow to confess, then hang him! -- hang him!"

Wilde, Oscar on conspiracy   

"The well-bred contradict other people. The wise contradict themselves."

Wilde, Oscar on contradiction
8 fans of this quote   

"Talk to every woman as if you loved her, and to every man as if he bored you, and at the end of your first season you will have the reputation of possessing the most perfect social tact."

Wilde, Oscar on conversation
9 fans of this quote   

"Conversation should touch everything, but should concentrate itself on nothing."

Wilde, Oscar on conversation   

"To make a good salad is to be a brilliant diplomatist -- the problem is entirely the same in both cases. To know exactly how much oil one must put with one's vinegar."

Wilde, Oscar on cooking   

"Crying is the refuge of plain women but the ruin of pretty ones."

Wilde, Oscar on cries and crying   

"The true critic is he who bears within himself the dreams and ideas and feelings of myriad generations, and to whom no form of thought is alien, no emotional impulse obscure."

Wilde, Oscar on criticism   

"That is what the highest criticism really is, the record of one's own soul. It is more fascinating than history, as it is concerned simply with oneself. It is more delightful than philosophy, as its subject is concrete and not abstract, real and not vague. It is the only civilized form of autobiography."

Wilde, Oscar on criticism   

"Temperament is the primary requisite for the critic -- a temperament exquisitely susceptible to beauty, and to the various impressions that beauty gives us."

Wilde, Oscar on criticism   

"On an occasion of this kind it becomes more than a moral duty to speak one's mind. It becomes a pleasure."

Wilde, Oscar on criticism   

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

Wilde, Oscar on criticism
6 fans of this quote   

"What is a cynic? A man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing."

Wilde, Oscar on cynics and cynicism   

"As long as a woman can look ten years younger than her own daughter, she is perfectly satisfied."

Wilde, Oscar on daughters
4 fans of this quote   

"Ambition is the last refuge of the failure. "

Wilde, Oscar on uncategorised   

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

Wilde, Oscar on uncategorised   

"There can be nothing more frequent than an occasional drink."

Wilde, Oscar on frequency   

"Only the shallow know themselves."

Wilde, Oscar on   

"Talent borrows, genius steals"

Wilde, Oscar on   

"Talent borrows, genius steals."

Wilde, Oscar on   

"I always pass on good advice. It is the only thing to do with it. It is never of any use to oneself."

Wilde, Oscar on   

"It is better to have a permanent income than to be fascinating. (The Model Millionaire, 1912)"

Wilde, Oscar on the model millionaire   

"Een dichter kan alles overleven, behalve een misdruk."

Wilde, Oscar on poëzie   

"Wat is het verschil tussen journalisme en literatuur? Journalisme is onleesbaar, literatuur wordt niet gelezen..."

Wilde, Oscar on literatuur   

"There are only two types of people in the world. Those who make people happy wherever they go and those who make others happy whenever they go. "

Wilde, Oscar on
3 fans of this quote   

"Anyone who lives within their means suffers from a lack of imagination."

Wilde, Oscar on   

"If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh, otherwise they'll kill you."

Wilde, Oscar on
3 fans of this quote   

"Music makes one feel so romantic - at least it always gets on one's nerves - which is the same thing nowadays."

Wilde, Oscar on   

"If one cannot enjoy reading a book over and over again, there is no use in reading at all."

Wilde, Oscar on reading
3 fans of this quote   

"The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about."

Wilde, Oscar on mass media   

"Experienceis only the name we give to our mistakes"

Wilde, Oscar on   

"Today,man knows the price of everything,and the value of nothing."

Wilde, Oscar on   

"“We are each our own devil, and we make this world our hell.”"

Wilde, Oscar on hell   

"No great artist ever sees things as they really are. If he did, he would cease to be an artist."

Wilde, Oscar on art