Oscar Wilde

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

— Oscar Wilde

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.

— Oscar Wilde

Wickedness is a myth invented by good people to account for the curious attraction of others.

— Oscar Wilde

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.

— Oscar Wilde

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

— Oscar Wilde

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

— Oscar Wilde

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.

— Oscar Wilde

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

— Oscar Wilde

Work is the curse of the drinking class.

— Oscar Wilde

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

— Oscar Wilde

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

— Oscar Wilde

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.

— Oscar Wilde

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

— Oscar Wilde

Those whom the gods love grow young.

— Oscar Wilde

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

— Oscar Wilde

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.

— Oscar Wilde

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

— Oscar Wilde

Ambition is the last refuge of the failure.

— Oscar Wilde

There can be nothing more frequent than an occasional drink.

— Oscar Wilde

Only the shallow know themselves.

— Oscar Wilde

Talent borrows, genius steals

— Oscar Wilde

Talent borrows, genius steals.

— Oscar Wilde

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

— Oscar Wilde

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

— Oscar Wilde

Een dichter kan alles overleven, behalve een misdruk.

— Oscar Wilde

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

— Oscar Wilde

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.

— Oscar Wilde

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

— Oscar Wilde

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

— Oscar Wilde

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

— Oscar Wilde

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

— Oscar Wilde

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

— Oscar Wilde

Experienceis only the name we give to our mistakes

— Oscar Wilde

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

— Oscar Wilde

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

— Oscar Wilde

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

— Oscar Wilde

I can resist anything but temptation.

— Oscar Wilde

To get back my youth I would do anything in the world, except take exercise, get up early, or be respectable.

— Oscar Wilde

I have a theory that it is always the women who propose to us, and not we who propose to women. Except, of course, in middle-class life. But then the middle classes are not modern.

— Oscar Wilde

I don't see anything romantic in proposing. It is very romantic to be in love. But there is nothing romantic about a definite proposal. Why, one may be accepted. One usually is, I believe. Then the excitement is all over. The very essence of romance is uncertainty.

— Oscar Wilde

Children begin by loving their parents; as they grow older they judge them; sometimes they forgive them.

— Oscar Wilde

When people are tied together for life they too often regard manners as a mere superfluity, and courtesy as a thing of no moment; but where the bond can be easily broken, its very fragility makes its strength, and reminds the husband that he should always try to please, and the wife that she should never cease to be charming.

— Oscar Wilde

Divorces are made in Heaven.

— Oscar Wilde

Life is terribly deficient in form. Its catastrophes happen in the wrong way and to the wrong people.

— Oscar Wilde

There is a luxury in self-reproach. When we blame ourselves we feel that no one else has a right to blame us. It is the confession, not the priest, that gives us absolution.

— Oscar Wilde

How fascinating all failures are!

— Oscar Wilde

For the development of the race depends on the development of the individual, and where self-culture has ceased to be the ideal, the intellectual standard is instantly lowered, and, often, ultimately lost. If you meet at dinner a man who has spent his life in educating himself--a rare type in our time, I admit, but still one occasionally to be met with--you rise from table richer, and conscious that a high ideal has for a moment touched and sanctified your days.

— Oscar Wilde

The one charm of marriage is that it makes a life of deception absolutely necessary for both parties.

— Oscar Wilde

I have never admitted that I am more than twenty-nine, or thirty at the most. Twenty-nine when there are pink shades, thirty when there are not.

— Oscar Wilde

The muddle of old age is not that one is old, but that one is young.

— Oscar Wilde

No, Ernest, don’t talk about action … It is the last resource of those who know not how to dream.

— Oscar Wilde

After a good dinner one can forgive anybody, even one’s own relations.

— Oscar Wilde

Ultimately, the bond of all companionship, whether in marriage or friendship, is conversation.

— Oscar Wilde

I love talking about nothing, father. It is the only thing I know anything about.

— Oscar Wilde

Agitators are a set of interfering, meddling people, who come down to some perfectly contented class of the community and sow the seeds of discontent amongst them. That is the reason why agitators are so absolutely necessary. Without them, in our incomplete state, there would be no advance towards civilisation.

— Oscar Wilde

Circumstances should never alter principles.

— Oscar Wilde