Quotes by Wilde, Oscar

"For his mourners will be outcast men, and outcasts always mourn."

Wilde, Oscar on outcasts   

"Every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of the sitter."

Wilde, Oscar on painters and painting   

"The way of paradoxes is the way of truth. To test Reality we must see it on the tight-rope. When the Verities become acrobats we can judge them."

Wilde, Oscar on paradox
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"To lose one parent may be regarded as a misfortune... to lose both seems like carelessness."

Wilde, Oscar on parents and parenting
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"One's past is what one is. It is the only way by which people should be judged."

Wilde, Oscar on past   

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"It is absurd to divide people into good and bad. People are either charming or tedious."

Wilde, Oscar on people
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"The condition of perfection is idleness: the aim of perfection is youth."

Wilde, Oscar on perfection
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"The true perfection of man lies not in what man has, but in what man is."

Wilde, Oscar on perfection
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"A pessimist is one who, when he has the choice of two evils, chooses both."

Wilde, Oscar on pessimism
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"Philanthropic people lose all sense of humanity. It is their distinguishing characteristic."

Wilde, Oscar on philanthropists   

"In modern life nothing produces such an effect as a good platitude. It makes the whole world kin."

Wilde, Oscar on platitudes   

"The play was a great success, but the audience was a disaster."

Wilde, Oscar on plays   

"The world is a stage, but the play is badly cast."

Wilde, Oscar on plays   

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"Pleasure is Nature's test, her sign of approval. When man is happy, he is in harmony with himself and his environment."

Wilde, Oscar on pleasure   

"A poet can survive anything but a misprint."

Wilde, Oscar on poetry and poets   

"In a very ugly and sensible age, the arts borrow, not from life, but from each other."

Wilde, Oscar on art   

"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"

Wilde, Oscar on art   

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

Wilde, Oscar on art
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"Bad artists always admire each other's work. They call it being large-minded and free from prejudice. But a truly great artist cannot conceive of life being shown, or beauty fashioned, under any conditions other than those he has selected."

Wilde, Oscar on art   

"Bad art is a great deal worse than no art at all."

Wilde, Oscar on art   

"All art is quite useless."

Wilde, Oscar on art   

"Art, like Nature, has her monsters, things of bestial shape and with hideous voices."

Wilde, Oscar on art   

"Seriousness is the only refuge of the shallow."

Wilde, Oscar on attitude
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"The basis of optimism is sheer terror."

Wilde, Oscar on attitude
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"I dislike modern memoirs. They are generally written by people who have either entirely lost their memories, or have never done anything worth remembering."

Wilde, Oscar on autobiography   

"Nowadays, all the married men live like bachelors, and all the bachelors like married men."

Wilde, Oscar on bachelor   

"By persistently remaining single, a man converts himself into a permanent public temptation. Men should be more careful."

Wilde, Oscar on bachelor
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"Only people who look dull ever get into the House of Commons, and only people who are dull ever succeed there."

Wilde, Oscar on politics   

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"I adore political parties. They are the only place left to us where people don't talk politics."

Wilde, Oscar on politics   

"He thinks like a Tory, and talks like a Radical, and that's so important nowadays."

Wilde, Oscar on politics   

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"Popularity is the only insult that has not yet been offered to Mr. Whistler."

Wilde, Oscar on popularity   

"Popularity is the crown of laurel which the world puts on bad art. Whatever is popular is wrong."

Wilde, Oscar on popularity
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"Most of our modern portrait painters are doomed to absolute oblivion. They never paint what they see. They paint what the public sees, and the public never sees anything."

Wilde, Oscar on portraits   

"Who, being loved, is poor?"

Wilde, Oscar on poverty and the poor   

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"As for the virtuous poor, one can pity them, of course, but one cannot possibly admire them. They have made private terms with the enemy, and sold their birthright for very bad pottage. They must also be extraordinarily stupid."

Wilde, Oscar on poverty and the poor   

"In going to America one learns that poverty is not a necessary accompaniment to civilization."

Wilde, Oscar on poverty and the poor   

"When the gods wish to punish us they answer our prayers."

Wilde, Oscar on prayer
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"One can only give an unbiased opinion about things that do not interest one, which is no doubt the reason an unbiased opinion is always valueless. The man who sees both sides of a question is a man who sees absolutely nothing."

Wilde, Oscar on prejudice
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"He to whom the present is the only thing that is present, knows nothing of the age in which he lives."

Wilde, Oscar on present   

"In America, the President reigns for four years, and journalism governs for ever and ever."

Wilde, Oscar on president   

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