Wednesday, January 03, 2007

Quotes by Oscar Wilde

“A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal.”
-Oscar Wilde

“A man can be happy with any woman as long as he does not love her.”
-Oscar Wilde

“Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much.”
-Oscar Wilde

“America had often been discovered before Columbus, but it had always been hushed up.” -Oscar Wilde

“America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between.”
-Oscar Wilde

“Anyone who lives within their means suffers from a lack of imagination.”
-Oscar Wilde

“Arguments are to be avoided; they are always vulgar and often convincing.”
-Oscar Wilde

“At twilight, nature is not without loveliness, though perhaps its chief use is to illustrate quotations from the poets.”
-Oscar Wilde

“Biography lends to death a new terror.”
-Oscar Wilde

“Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative.”
-Oscar Wilde

“Every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of the sitter.”
-Oscar Wilde

“Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months.”
-Oscar Wilde

“Genius is born--not paid.”
-Oscar Wilde

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

“I am not young enough to know everything.”
-Oscar Wilde

“I think that God in creating Man somewhat overestimated his ability.”
-Oscar Wilde

“I was working on the proof of one of my poems all the morning, and took out a comma. In the afternoon I put it back again.”
-Oscar Wilde

“If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh, otherwise they'll kill you.”
-Oscar Wilde

“Illusion is the first of all pleasures.”
-Oscar Wilde

“It is a very sad thing that nowadays there is so little useless information.”
-Oscar Wilde

“It is always a silly thing to give advice, but to give good advice is fatal.”
-Oscar Wilde

“Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.”
-Oscar Wilde

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

“Most modern calendars mar the sweet simplicity of our lives by reminding us that each day that passes is the anniversary of some perfectly uninteresting event."
-Oscar Wilde

"Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone elses opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation.”
-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

“One can survive everything, nowadays, except death, and live down everything except a good reputation.”
-Oscar Wilde

“One should always play fairly when one has the winning cards.”
-Oscar Wilde

“Patriotism is the virtue of the vicious.”
-Oscar Wilde

“Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live.” -Oscar Wilde

“Seriousness is the only refuge of the shallow.”
-Oscar Wilde

“The aim of life is self-development. To realize one's nature perfectly - that is what each of us is here for.”
-Oscar Wilde

“The only thing to do with good advice is pass it on. It is never any use to oneself.”
-Oscar Wilde

“The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about.”
-Oscar Wilde

“The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible.”
-Oscar Wilde

“There are only two kinds of people who are really fascinating: people who know absolutely everything, and people who know absolutely nothing.”
-Oscar Wilde

“To disagree with three-fourths of the British public is one of the first requisites of sanity.” -Oscar Wilde

“We live in an age when unnecessary things are our only necessities.”
-Oscar Wilde

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

“Whenever people agree with me I always feel I must be wrong.”
-Oscar Wilde

“Why was I born with such contemporaries?”
-Oscar Wilde

“Wisdom comes with winters.”
-Oscar Wilde

“One should absorb the colour of life, but one should never remember its details. Details are always vulgar.”
-Oscar Wilde, "The Picture of Dorian Gray"

“The only thing that sustains one through life is the consciousness of the immense inferiority of everybody else, and this is a feeling that I have always cultivated.”
-Oscar Wilde, "The Remarkable Rocket"

“The secret of life is to appreciate the pleasure of being terribly, terribly deceived.”
-Oscar Wilde, A Woman of No Importance, Act 3

“I don't play accurately-any one can play accurately- but I play with wonderful expression. As far as the piano is concerned, sentiment is my forte. I keep science for Life.”
-Oscar Wilde, Algernon from The Importance of Being Earnest

“When the gods wish to punish us, they answer our prayers.”
-Oscar Wilde, An Ideal husband, 1893

“Only dull people are brilliant at breakfast.”
-Oscar Wilde, An Ideal Husband, 1893, Act I

“Suffering is one very long moment. We cannot divide it by seasons.”
-Oscar Wilde, De Profundis

“Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation.”
-Oscar Wilde, De Profundis, 1905

“Work is the curse of the drinking classes.”
-Oscar Wilde, In Life of Oscar Wilde, H. Pearson

“One's real life is often the life that one does not lead.”
-Oscar Wilde, L'Envoi, 1882

“My own business always bores me to death; I prefer other people's.”
-Oscar Wilde, Lady Windermere's Fan, 1892

“I can resist anything but temptation.”
-Oscar Wilde, Lady Windermere's Fan, 1892, Act I

“It is absurd to divide people into good and bad. People are either charming or tedious.”
-Oscar Wilde, Lady Windermere's Fan, 1892, Act I

“Life is far too important a thing ever to talk seriously about.”
-Oscar Wilde, Lady Windermere's Fan, 1892, Act I

“Experience is the name everyone gives to their mistakes.”
-Oscar Wilde, Lady Windermere's Fan, 1892, Act III

“Scandal is gossip made tedious by morality.”
-Oscar Wilde, Lady Windermere's Fan, 1892, Act III

“We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.”
-Oscar Wilde, Lady Windermere's Fan, 1892, Act III

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