Oscar Wilde famous quotes

Women are made to be loved, not understood.
-- Oscar Wilde

#Love #Funny #Sarcastic

Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes.
-- Oscar Wilde

#Inspirational #Funny #Motivational

Success is a science; if you have the conditions, you get the result.
-- Oscar Wilde

#Success #Congratulations #Successful

Wherever there is a man who exercises authority, there is a man who resists authority.
-- Oscar Wilde

#Leadership #Exercise #Men

Every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future.
-- Oscar Wilde

#Inspirational #Funny #Witty

Selfishness is not living your life as you wish to live it. Selfishness is wanting others to live their lives as you wish them to.
-- Oscar Wilde

#Live Your Life #Selfishness #Wish

The only difference between the saint and the sinner is that every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future.
-- Oscar Wilde

#Inspirational #Dream #Future

I am so clever that sometimes I don't understand a single word of what I am saying.
-- Oscar Wilde

#Funny #Clever #Hipster

How can a woman be expected to be happy with a man who insists on treating her as if she were a perfectly normal human being.
-- Oscar Wilde

#Funny #Marriage #Valentines Day

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

#Family #Food #Forgiving

You don't love someone for their looks, or their clothes, or for their fancy car, but because they sing a song only you can hear.
-- Oscar Wilde

#Love #Music #Song

If you pretend to be good, the world takes you very seriously. If you pretend to be bad, it doesn't. Such is the astounding stupidity of optimism.
-- Oscar Wilde

#Funny #Sarcastic #Optimism

Life cheats us with shadows. We ask it for pleasure. It gives it to us with bitterness and disappointment in its train.
-- Oscar Wilde

#Disappointment #Giving #Shadow

Fashion is what one wears oneself. What is unfashionable is what other people wear.
-- Oscar Wilde

#Fashion #People #Oneself

My own business always bores me to death; I prefer other people's.
-- Oscar Wilde

#Book #Beer #Insperational

Morality, like art, means drawing a line someplace.
-- Oscar Wilde

#Inspirational #Art #Mean

Now art should never try to be popular. The public should try to make itself artistic.
-- Oscar Wilde

#Inspirational #Art #Trying

In the old days men had the rack. Now they have the Press.
-- Oscar Wilde

#Men #Racks

We can have in life but one great experience at best, and the secret of life is to reproduce that experience as often as possible.
-- Oscar Wilde

#Secret #Life Is #Secret Life

The tragedy of the poor is that they can afford nothing but self denial.
-- Oscar Wilde

#Self #Tragedy #Denial

It's an odd thing, but anyone who disappears is said to be seen in San Francisco. It must be a delightful city and possess all the attractions of the next world
-- Oscar Wilde

#Travel #Cities #San Francisco

Those who are faithful know only the trivial side of love: it is the faithless who know love's tragedies.
-- Oscar Wilde

#Love #Life #Heartbreak

Would you be in any way offended if I said that you seem to me to be in every way the visible personification of absolute perfection?
-- Oscar Wilde

#Perfection #Way #Said

Even now I cannot help feeling that it is a mistake to think that the passion one feels in creation is ever really shown in the work one creates.
-- Oscar Wilde

#Mistake #Passion #Thinking

When critics disagree the artist is in accord with himself.
-- Oscar Wilde

#Artist #Criticism #Critics

We teach people how to remember, we never teach them how to grow.
-- Oscar Wilde

#People #Remember #Teach

I have grown to love secrecy. It seems to be the one thing that can make modern life mysterious or marvelous to us. The commonest thing is delightful if only one hides it.
-- Oscar Wilde

#Modern Life #Mysterious #Secrecy

One can always be kind to people about whom one cares nothing.
-- Oscar Wilde

#Caring #People #Be Kind

I always like to know everything about my new friends, and nothing about my old ones.
-- Oscar Wilde

#Funny #Sarcastic #New Relationship

After the first glass, you see things as you wish they were. After the second, you see things as they are not. Finally, you see things as they really are, and that is the most horrible thing in the world.
-- Oscar Wilde

#Drinking #Glasses #Wish

We can forgive a man for making a useful thing as long as he does not admire it
-- Oscar Wilde

#Men #Long #Forgiving

Ordinary people waited till life disclosed to them its secrets, but to the few, to the elect, the mysteries of life were revealed before the veil was drawn away. Sometimes this was the effect of art, and chiefly of the art of literature, which dealt immediately with the passions and the intellect.
-- Oscar Wilde

#Art #Passion #People

You like every one; that is to say, you are indifferent to every one.
-- Oscar Wilde

#Relationship #Indifferent

It is a sad thing to think of, but there is no doubt that genius lasts longer than beauty. That accounts for the fact that we all take such pains to over-educate ourselves. In the wild struggle for existence, we want to have something that endures, and so we fill our minds with rubbish and facts, in the silly hope of keeping our place. The thoroughly well-informed man--that is the modern ideal. And the mind of the thoroughly well-informed man is a dreadful thing. It is like a bric-a-brac shop, all monsters and dust, with everything priced above its proper value.
-- Oscar Wilde

#Pain #Struggle #Silly

Man is many things, but he is not rational.
-- Oscar Wilde

#Men #Psychology #Rational

There was so much in you that charmed me that I felt I must tell you something about yourself. I thought how tragic it would be if you were wasted.
-- Oscar Wilde

#Would Be #Tragic #About Yourself

When one is in love, one always begins by deceiving one's self, and one always ends by deceiving others. That is what the world calls a romance.
-- Oscar Wilde

#Love #Life #Breakup

Those who see any difference between soul and body have neither
-- Oscar Wilde

#Differences #Soul #Body

The reason we all like to think so well of others is that we are all afraid for ourselves. The basis of optimism is sheer terror.
-- Oscar Wilde

#Relationship #Thinking #Optimism

The secret of remaining young is never to have an emotion that is unbecoming.
-- Oscar Wilde

#Secret #Youth #Emotion

The one charm of the past is that it is the past.
-- Oscar Wilde

#Past #Charm

The past could always be annihilated. Regret, denial, or forgetfulness could do that. But the future was inevitable.
-- Oscar Wilde

#Regret #Past #Anxiety

When a woman marries again, it is because she detested her first husband. When a man marries again, it is because he adored his first wife. Women try their luck; men risk theirs.
-- Oscar Wilde

#Funny #Husband #Women

The bureaucracy is expanding to meet the needs of the expanding bureaucracy.
-- Oscar Wilde

#Needs #Expanding #Bureaucracy

Actual life was chaos, but there was something terribly logical in the imagination. It was the imagination that set remorse to dog the feet of sin. It was the imagination that made each crime bear its misshapen brood. In the common world of fact the wicked were not punished, nor the good rewarded. Success was given to the strong, failure thrust upon the weak. That was all.
-- Oscar Wilde

#Dog #Strong #Feet

They get up early, because they have so much to do, and go to bed early, because they have so little to think about.
-- Oscar Wilde

#Thinking #Littles #Bed

He wanted to be where no one would know who he was. He wanted to escape from himself.
-- Oscar Wilde

#Wanted

Every effect that one produces gives one an enemy. To be popular one must be a mediocrity.
-- Oscar Wilde

#Giving #Enemy #Mediocrity

Men always want to be a woman’s first love. That is their clumsy vanity. We women have a more subtle instinct about these things. What (women) like is to be a man’s last romance.
-- Oscar Wilde

#Love #Inspirational #Men

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.
-- Oscar Wilde

#Mean #Night #Air

I have learned this: it is not what one does that is wrong, but what one becomes as a consequence of it.
-- Oscar Wilde

#Doe #I Have Learned #Consequence

A map of the world that does not include Utopia is not worth even glancing at, for it leaves out the one country at which Humanity is always landing. And when Humanity lands there, it looks out, and, seeing a better country, sets sail. Progress is the realisation of Utopias.
-- Oscar Wilde

#Country #Land #Humanity

A really well-made buttonhole is the only link between Art and Nature.
-- Oscar Wilde

#Art #Nature #Links

Time is a waste of money.
-- Oscar Wilde

#Time #Money #Waste

To be really mediæval one should have no body. To be really modern one should have no soul. To be really Greek one should have no clothes.
-- Oscar Wilde

#Clothes #Greek #Soul

A truth ceases to be true when more than one person believes in it.
-- Oscar Wilde

#Truth #Believe #Being True

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

#Funny #Truth #Inspiration

I knew nothing but shadows and I thought them to be real.
-- Oscar Wilde

#Real #Being Real #Shadow

I am sick of women who love one. Women who hate one are much more interesting.
-- Oscar Wilde

#Love #Hate #Sick

Truth, in matters of religion, is simply the opinion that has survived.
-- Oscar Wilde

#Faith #Atheist #Matter

Pleasure is the only thing one should live for, nothing ages like happiness.
-- Oscar Wilde

#Happiness #Age #Consciousness

The more one analyses people, the more all reasons for analysis disappear. Sooner or later one comes to that dreadful universal thing called human nature.
-- Oscar Wilde

#Nature #People #Analysis

They spoil every romance by trying to make it last forever.
-- Oscar Wilde

#Love #Life #Sex

Experience is a question of instinct about life.
-- Oscar Wilde

#Instinct

When bankers get together they talk about art. When artists get together, they talk about money.
-- Oscar Wilde

#Art #Artist #Together

Live! Live the wonderful life that is in you! Let nothing be lost upon you. Be always searching for new sensations. Be afraid of nothing.
-- Oscar Wilde

#Life #Wonderful #Lost

I never take any notice to what common people say, and I never interfere with what charming people do.
-- Oscar Wilde

#People #Common #Charming

Friendship is far more tragic than love. It lasts longer.
-- Oscar Wilde

#Funny #Friendship #Sarcastic

Never regret thy fall, O Icarus of the fearless flight For the greatest tragedy of them all Is never to feel the burning light.
-- Oscar Wilde

#Regret #Fall #Light

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. And that makes me quite nervous.
-- Oscar Wilde

#Mean #Weather #People

I never approve, or disapprove, of anything now. It is an absurd attitude to take towards life. We are not sent into the world to air our moral prejudices. I never take any notice of what common people say, and I never interfere with what charming people do. If a personality fascinates me, whatever mode of expression that personality selects is absolutely delightful to me.
-- Oscar Wilde

#Attitude #Air #Expression

Lying, the telling of beautiful untrue things, is the proper aim of Art.
-- Oscar Wilde

#Beautiful #Art #Lying

I like talking to a brick wall- it's the only thing in the world that never contradicts me!
-- Oscar Wilde

#Wall #Talking #World

I beg your pardon I didn't recognise you - I've changed a lot.
-- Oscar Wilde

#Pardon #Changed

Mere color, unspoiled by meaning, and unallied with definite form, can speak to the soul in a thousand different ways.
-- Oscar Wilde

#Color #Soul #Way

He had that curious love of green, which in individuals is always the sign of a subtle artistic temperament, and in nations is said to denote a laxity, if not a decadence of morals.
-- Oscar Wilde

#Love #Color #Green

She is all the great heroines of the world in one. She is more than an individual. I love her, and I must make her love me. I want to make Romeo jealous. I want the dead lovers of the world to hear our laughter, and grow sad. I want a breath of our passion to stir dust into consciousness, to wake their ashes into pain.
-- Oscar Wilde

#Pain #Laughter #Jealous

Books are well written, or badly written. That is all.
-- Oscar Wilde

#Book #Literature #Wells

My wallpaper and I are fighting a duel to the death. One or the other of us has to go.
-- Oscar Wilde

#Life #Death #Fighting

There were moments when he looked on evil simply as a mode through which he could realize his conception of the beautiful.
-- Oscar Wilde

#Beautiful #Evil #Realizing

When a man is old enough to do wrong he should be old enough to do right also.
-- Oscar Wilde

#Men #Enough #Should

If you want to be a doormat you have to lay yourself down first.
-- Oscar Wilde

#Firsts #Want #Doormat

The studio was filled with the rich odour of roses, and when the light summer wind stirred amidst the trees of the garden, there came through the open door the heavy scent of the lilac, or the more delicate perfume of the pink-flowering thorn.
-- Oscar Wilde

#Summer #Garden #Doors

I really 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. If ever I get married, I'll certainly try to forget the fact.
-- Oscar Wilde

#Believe #Essence #Romance

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.
-- Oscar Wilde

#Kissing #Hands #Sick

The first duty in life is to be as artificial as possible.  What the second duty is no one has as yet discovered.
-- Oscar Wilde

#Life #Firsts #Life Is

For one moment our lives met, our souls touched.
-- Oscar Wilde

#Soul #Moments #Mets

Most people live for love and admiration. But it is by love and admiration that we should live.
-- Oscar Wilde

#People #Admiration #Should

One should either be a work of art, or wear a work of art.
-- Oscar Wilde

#Life #Happiness #Success

I don’t write this letter to put bitterness into your heart, but to pluck it out of mine. For my own sake I must forgive you.
-- Oscar Wilde

#Heart #Writing #Forgiving

Irony is wasted on the stupid
-- Oscar Wilde

#Stupid #Irony

Sarcasm is the lowest form of wit.
-- Oscar Wilde

#Sarcasm #Form #Wit

I wanted to eat of the fruit of all the trees in the garden of the world… And so, indeed, I went out, and so I lived. My only mistake was that I confined myself so exclusively to the trees of what seemed to me the sun-lit side of the garden, and shunned the other side for its shadow and its gloom.
-- Oscar Wilde

#Mistake #Garden #Tree

If I am occasionally a little over-dressed, I make up for it by being always immensely over-educated.
-- Oscar Wilde

#Funny #Littles #Educated

I hope you hair curls naturally, does it? Yes, darling, with a little help from others.
-- Oscar Wilde

#Hair #Doe #Littles

The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. Resist it, and your soul grows sick with longing for the things it has forbidden to itself, with desire for what its monstrous laws have made monstrous and unlawful.
-- Oscar Wilde

#Law #Yield #Sick

Beauty is a form of Genius--is higher, indeed, than Genius, as it needs no explanation. It is one of the great facts of the world, like sunlight, or springtime, or the reflection in the dark waters of that silver shell we call the moon. It cannot be questioned. It has divine right of sovereignty. It makes princes of those who have it.
-- Oscar Wilde

#Dark #Reflection #Moon

When we are happy, we are always good, but when we are good, we are not always happy.
-- Oscar Wilde

#Happiness #Cheer #Laughter

It is because Humanity has never known where it was going that it has been able to find its way.
-- Oscar Wilde

#Humanity #Way #Able

I drink to separate my body from my soul.
-- Oscar Wilde

#Soul #Body #Drink