Oscar Wilde Quotes about Character

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To define is to limit.

Oscar Wilde

Creativity, Character, Limits

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.336, Oxford University Press on Demand

The simplicity of your character makes you exquisitely incomprehensible to me.

Oscar Wilde

Character, Simplicity

Oscar Wilde (2000). “The Plays of Oscar Wilde”, p.380, Wordsworth Editions

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

Oscar Wilde

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

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

Oscar Wilde

Character, Action, Forget

You silly Arthur! If you knew anything about...anything, which you don't, you would know that I adore you. Everyone in London knows it except you. It is a public scandal the way I adore you. I have been going about for the last six months telling the whole of society that I adore you. I wonder you consent to have anything to say to me. I have no character left at all. At least, I feel so happy that I am quite sure I have no character left at all.

Oscar Wilde

Silly, Character, London

Experience was of no ethical value. It was merely the name men gave to their mistakes. Moralists had, as a rule, regarded it as a mode of warning, had claimed for it a certain ethical efficacy in the formation of character, had praised it as something that taught us what to follow and showed us what to avoid. But there was no motive power in experience. It was as little of an active cause as conscience itself. All that it really demonstrated was that our future would be the same as our past, and that the sin we had done once, and with loathing, we would do many times, and with joy.

Oscar Wilde

Mistake, Character, Past

Bram Stoker, Mary Shelley, Oscar Wilde (2015). “The Penny Dreadfuls: Tales of Horror: Dracula, Frankenstein, and The Picture of Dorian Gray”, p.719, Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

Misfortunes one can endure--they come from outside, they are accidents. But to suffer for one's own faults--ah!--there is the sting of life.

Oscar Wilde

Failure, Character, Suffering

Oscar Wilde (2007). “The Collected Works of Oscar Wilde”, p.496, Wordsworth Editions

I forgot that every little action of the common day makes or unmakes character, and that therefore what one has done in the secret chamber one has some day to cry aloud on the house-tops.

Oscar Wilde

Integrity, Character, House

Oscar Wilde, Isobel Murray (1999). “The Soul of Man, and Prison Writings”, p.96, Oxford University Press, USA

To speak frankly, I am not in favour of long engagements. They give people the opportunity of finding out each other's character before marriage, which I think is never advisable.

Oscar Wilde

Marriage, Character, Opportunity

"The Importance of Being Earnest: A Trivial Comedy for Serious People. The Original Four-act Version".

Even men of the noblest possible moral character are extremely susceptible to the influence of the physical charms of others. Modern, no less then Ancient History, supplies us with many most painful examples of what I refer to. If it were not so, indeed, History would be quite unreadable.

Oscar Wilde

Character, Men, Example

Oscar Wilde (1899). “The Importance of Being Earnest”, p.98

It is only the superficial qualities that last. Man's deeper nature is soon found out.

Oscar Wilde

Nature, Character, Men

Oscar Wilde (2004). “The Best of Oscar Wilde: Selected Plays and Writings”, p.14, Penguin

My writing has gone to bits - like my character. I am simply a self-conscious nerve in pain.

Oscar Wilde

Pain, Writing, Character

Oscar Wilde (2014). “The Wit and Wisdom of Oscar Wilde”, p.183, Courier Corporation

I choose my friends for their good looks, my acquaintances for their good characters, and my enemies for their intellects. A man cannot be too careful in the choice of his enemies.

Oscar Wilde

Character, Funny Relationship, Men

The Picture of Dorian Gray ch. 1 (1891)