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Oscar Wilde Quotes - Page 13

All Quotes Achievement Acting Affection Age Aging Ambition Anger Appearance Appreciation Arguing Art Atheism Atmosphere Attitude Authority Beauty Beer Being Happy Being Real Being Single Being Yourself Belief Betrayal Blame Break Up Business Censorship Change Chaos Character Charity Children Christ Church College Common Sense Community Conformity Conscience Consciousness Cooking Country Courage Creativity Crime Criticism Critics Culture Curiosity Death Deception Defeat Desire Destiny Dignity Disappointment Doubt Drama Drinking Drunkenness Duty Dying Earth Eating Education Environment Ethics Evil Exercise Failing Failure Faith Falling In Love Family Fashion Fear Feelings Fidelity Fighting Flirting Food Forgiveness Friends Friendship Funny Future Genius Giving Gold Goodness Gossip Graduation Gratitude Greatness Greek Grief Growing Old Growth Happiness Hard Work Harmony Hate Hatred Heart Heartbreak Heaven Hell Hilarious History Home Honesty Hope Horror House Human Nature Humanity Hurt Husband Hypocrisy Ignorance Imagination Imitation Impulse Individualism Individuality Innocence Inspiration Inspirational Inspiring Integrity Intelligence Irony Journalism Joy Judgement Judging Kissing Knowledge Language Laughter Leadership Learning Liars Liberty Life Life And Love Listening Literature Live Life Logic Loss Lost Love Love Love Life Luck Lust Lying Madness Mankind Manners Marriage Mask Maturity Mediocrity Memories Moderation Money Moon Morality Morning Motivational Mourning Music Nature Oblivion Opportunity Optimism Pain Passion Past Peace Perception Perfection Personality Perspective Pessimism Philosophy Pleasure Poetry Positive Poverty Prayer Prejudice Progress Purpose Quality Rage Reading Reality Rebellion Regret Rejection Religion Reputation Respect Risk Romance Romantic Love Romanticism Running Sacrifice Sad Sadness Sarcasm School Science Selfishness Silence Simplicity Sin Sincerity Sleep Society Solitude Sorrow Soul Spring Struggle Study Stupidity Style Success Suffering Summer Survival Sympathy Talent Tea Teaching Temptation Terror Theatre Time Tragedy Train Travel Truth Ugliness Understanding Utopia Values Virtue Vision Waiting Wall War Water Weakness Wife Wine Winning Winter Wisdom Wit Work Worship Writing Yoga Youth

Women have a wonderful instinct about things. They can discover everything except the obvious.

Women have a wonderful instinct about things. They can discover everything except the obvious.

Funny, Sarcastic, Wonderful

Oscar Wilde (2004). “The Best of Oscar Wilde: Selected Plays and Writings”, p.194, Penguin

To do nothing at all is the most difficult thing in the world, the most difficult and the most intellectual.

Happiness, Simplicity, Lazy

Oscar Wilde (2007). “The Collected Works of Oscar Wilde”, p.996, Wordsworth Editions

Behind joy and laughter there may be a temperament, coarse, hard and callous. But behind sorrow there is always sorrow. Pain, unlike pleasure, wears no mask. ... For this reason there is no truth comparable to sorrow. There are times when sorrow seems to me to be the only truth. Other things may be illusions of the eye or the appetite, made to blind the one and cloy the other, but out of sorrow have the worlds been built, and at the birth of a child or a star there is pain.

Sad, Stars, Pain

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

Family, Thanksgiving, Food

1893 Lady Caroline. A Woman of No Importance, act 2.

For one moment our lives met, our souls touched.

Soul, Moments, Mets

Oscar Wilde (2000). “The Plays of Oscar Wilde”, p.188, Wordsworth Editions

It is awfully hard work doing nothing.

Hard Work, Doing Nothing, Importance Of Being Earnest

Oscar Wilde (1899). “The Importance of Being Earnest”, p.46

Every little action of the common day makes or unmakes character.

Character, Littles, Action

Oscar Wilde, Russell Jackson, Ian Small (2000). “The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde: De profundis, "Epistola : in carcere et vinculis"”, p.95, Oxford University Press on Demand

Yet each man kills the thing he loves, By each let this be heard, Some do it with a bitter look, Some with a flattering word, The coward does it with a kiss, The brave man with a sword! Some kill their love when they are young, And some when they are old; Some strangle with the hands of Lust, Some with the hands of Gold: The kindest use a knife, because The dead so soon grow cold. Some love too little, some too long, Some sell, and others buy; Some do the deed with many tears, And some without a sigh: For each man kills the thing he loves, Yet each man does not die.

Kissing, Men, Hands

The Ballad of Reading Gaol pt. 1, st. 7 (1898) See Roberts 1

To be natural is such a very difficult pose to keep up.

Being Yourself, Being Single, Being Real

Oscar Wilde (2012). “The Wit and Humor of Oscar Wilde”, p.110, Courier Corporation

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

Sarcastic, Sex, Women

Oscar Wilde (2007). “Epigrams of Oscar Wilde”, p.22, Wordsworth Editions

The great events of the world take place in the brain.

Brain, Events, World

Oscar Wilde (2007). “The Collected Works of Oscar Wilde”, p.16, Wordsworth Editions

I am but too conscious of the fact that we are born in an age when only the dull are treated seriously, and I live in terror of not being misunderstood. Don't degrade me into the position of giving you useful information. Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught.

Knowing, Giving, Misunderstood

Oscar Wilde (2007). “The Collected Works of Oscar Wilde”, p.971, Wordsworth Editions

In war," answered the weaver, "the strong make slaves of the weak, and in peace the rich make slaves of the poor. We must work to live, and they give us such mean wages that we die. We toil for them all day long, and they heap up gold in their coffers, and our children fade away before their time, and the faces of those we love become hard and evil. We tread out the grapes, another drinks the wine. We sow the corn, and our own board is empty. We have chains, though no eye beholds them; and are slaves, though men call us free.

Love, Strong, Children

Oscar Wilde (2007). “The Collected Works of Oscar Wilde”, p.250, Wordsworth Editions

If God wished to punish us, all he would need to do would be to answer our prayers.

Prayer, Would Be, Needs

Hearts Live By Being Wounded

Best Friend, Broken Heart, Losing Friends

Oscar Wilde, Peter Raby (2008). “The Importance of Being Earnest and Other Plays: Lady Windermere's Fan; Salome; A Woman of No Importance; An Ideal Husband; The Importance of Being Earnest”, p.151, Oxford Paperbacks

The sick do not ask if the hand that smoothes their pillow is pure, nor the dying care if the lips that touch their brow have known the kiss of sin.

Kissing, Hands, Sick

Oscar Wilde (2008). “The Importance of Being Earnest and Other Plays: Lady Windermere's Fan; Salome; A Woman of No Importance; An Ideal Husband; The Importance of Being Earnest”, p.150, OUP Oxford

I am one of those who are made for exceptions, not for laws.

Law, Made, Exception

Oscar Wilde, General Press (2016). “The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde: Novel, Short Stories, Poetry, Essays and Plays”, p.712, GENERAL PRESS

The public is wonderfully tolerant. It forgives everything except genius.

Forgiveness, Letting Go, Book

Intentions "The Critic as Artist" pt. 1 (1891)

We live in an age that reads too much to be wise, and that thinks too much to be beautiful.

Beautiful, Wise, Thinking

Oscar Wilde, Russell Jackson, Joseph Bristow, Ian Small (2000). “The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde: The picture of Dorian Gray : the 1890 and 1891 texts”, p.256, Oxford University Press on Demand

I adore simple pleasures. They are the last refuge of the complex.

Success, Simple, Simplicity

The Picture of Dorian Gray ch. 2 (1891)

I did not think I should be ever loved: do you indeed Love me so much as now you say you do? Ask of the sea-bird if it loves the sea, Ask of the roses if they love the rain, Ask of the little lark, that will not sing Till day break, if it loves to see the day: And yet, these are but empty images, Mere shadows of my love, which is a fire So great that all the waters of the main Can not avail to quench it.

Rain, Thinking, Fire

Oscar Wilde (2008). “The Duchess of Padua: Easyread Large Bold Edition”, p.39, ReadHowYouWant.com

Something was dead in each of us, and what was dead was hope

Hope

'The Ballad of Reading Gaol' (1898) pt. 3, st. 31

Bad artists always admire each others work.

Art, Artist, Admiration

Oscar Wilde, General Press (2016). “The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde: Novel, Short Stories, Poetry, Essays and Plays”, p.702, GENERAL PRESS

Do not forget that small daily actions do or undo character.

Character, Action, Forget

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

Art, Business, Acting

Oscar Wilde, General Press (2016). “The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde: Novel, Short Stories, Poetry, Essays and Plays”, p.755, GENERAL PRESS

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