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Oscar Wilde Quotes - Page 31

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

Travel ennobles the spirit and does away with our prejudices.

Travel ennobles the spirit and does away with our prejudices.

Doe, Prejudice, Spirit

One should not be too severe on English novels; they are the only relaxation of the intellectually unemployed.

Relaxation, Should, Unemployed

Oscar Wilde, General Press (2016). “The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde: Novel, Short Stories, Poetry, Essays and Plays”, p.1690, GENERAL PRESS

Some temptations are so great it takes great courage to yield to them.

Courage, Yield, Temptation

Actors are so fortunate. They can choose whether they will appear in tragedy or in comedy, whether they will suffer or make merry, laugh or shed tears. But in real life it is different. Most men and women are forced to perform parts for which they have no qualifications. Our Guildensterns play Hamlet for us, and our Hamlets have to jest like Prince Hal. The world is a stage, but the play is badly cast.

Real, Men, Play

Oscar Wilde, General Press (2016). “The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde: Novel, Short Stories, Poetry, Essays and Plays”, p.810, GENERAL PRESS

My wallpaper and I are fighting a duel to the death. One of us has got to go.

Life, Death, Fighting

"The Picture of Dorian Gray".

If you are going to tell people the truth, you had better make them laugh or they will kill you.

People, Laughing, Ifs

Prosperity, pleasure and success, may be rough of grain and common in fibre, but sorrow is the most sensitive of all created things. There is nothing that stirs in the whole world of thought to which sorrow does not vibrate in terrible and exquisite pulsation. The thin beaten-out leaf of tremulous gold that chronicles the direction of forces the eye cannot see is in comparison coarse. It is a wound that bleeds when any hand but that of love touches it, and even then must bleed again, though not in pain.

Sad, Pain, Eye

Oscar Wilde (1909). “De profundus”

I love the French language... it's a delightful language, especially to curse with. It's like whopping your ass with silk.

Language, Ass, Curse

He must have a truly romantic nature, for he weeps when there is nothing at all to weep about.

Romance, Romanticism

Oscar Wilde (2012). “The Complete Short Stories of Oscar Wilde”, p.31, Courier Corporation

All authority is quite degrading. It degrades those who exercise it, and it degrades those over whom it is exercised.

Exercise, Authority, Degrading

"The Soul of Man Under Socialism" (1891)

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

Funny, Truth, Inspiration

Oscar Wilde (2007). “Epigrams of Oscar Wilde”, p.197, Wordsworth Editions

Unless one is wealthy there is no use in being a charming fellow. Romance is the privilege of the rich, not the profession of the unemployed. The poor should be practical and prosaic. It is better to have a permanent income than to be fascinating.

Romance, Privilege, Income

Oscar Wilde (2007). “The Collected Works of Oscar Wilde”, p.215, Wordsworth Editions

How marriage ruins a man! It is as demoralizing as cigarettes, and far more expensive.

Funny, Marriage, Sarcastic

Oscar Wilde (2013). “Lady Windermere's Fan”, p.55, Courier Corporation

The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible.

Inspirational, Family, Happiness

Oscar Wilde (2015). “The Picture of Dorian Gray”, p.31, First Avenue Editions

Salomé, Salomé, dance for me. I pray thee dance for me. I am sad to-night. Yes, I am passing sad to-night. When I came hither I slipped in blood, which is an evil omen; and I heard, I am sure I heard in the air a beating of wings, a beating of giant wings. I cannot tell what they mean .... I am sad to-night. Therefore dance for me. Dance for me, Salomé, I beseech you. If you dance for me you may ask of me what you will, and I will give it you, even unto the half of my kingdom.

Mean, Night, Wings

Oscar Wilde (2000). “The Plays of Oscar Wilde”, p.153, Wordsworth Editions

The things one feels absolutely certain about are never true. That is the fatality of faith, and the lesson of romance.

Romance, Lessons, Certain

Oscar Wilde, General Press (2016). “The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde: Novel, Short Stories, Poetry, Essays and Plays”, p.163, GENERAL PRESS

Good resolutions are simply checks that men draw on a bank where they have no account.

Funny, New Year, Holiday

To lose one parent may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness.

Funny, Family, Sarcastic

The Importance of Being Earnest act 1 (1895)

Love is not fashionable anymore; the poets have killed it.

Love Is, Poet, Fashionable

Oscar Wilde (2007). “Epigrams of Oscar Wilde”, p.103, Wordsworth Editions

People say sometimes that Beauty is superficial. That may be so. But at least it is not so superficial as Thought is. To me, Beauty is the wonder of wonders. It is only shallow people who do not judge by appearances. The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible.

People, Judging, World

Oscar Wilde (2015). “The Picture of Dorian Gray (Diversion Classics)”, p.27, Diversion Books

It is only about things that do not interest one that one can give a really unbiased opinion, which is no doubt the reason why an unbiased opinion is always absolutely valueless.

Giving, Doubt, Unbiased

Oscar Wilde (2000). “Oscar Wilde - The Major Works”, p.284, OUP Oxford

What seems to us as bitter trials are often blessings in disguise [in the future. But only if we set out to make this true and anticipate it so we look for the blessings until we find them].

Blessing, Looks, Trials

Give children beauty, not the record of bloody slaughters and barbarous brawls, as they call history, or of the latitude and longitude of places nobody cares to visit, as they call geography.

Children, Giving, Records

Oscar Wilde (2012). “The Wit and Humor of Oscar Wilde”, p.159, Courier Corporation

The true artist is known by what he annexes, and he annexes everything.

Artist, True Artists, Known

Oscar Wilde (2012). “The Wit and Humor of Oscar Wilde”, p.59, Courier Corporation

Duty is what one expects from others.

Responsibility, Ethics, Duty

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.127, Oxford Paperbacks

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