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Oscar Wilde Quotes

Writer

Oscar Wilde, renowned for his sharp wit and literary brilliance, captivated the world with his plays, essays, and epigrams. His quotes reflect his keen observations on society, human behavior, and the ironies of life, often delivered with humor and elegance. Together, they offer timeless insights that entertain, provoke thought, and inspire reflection on the human experience.

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I always pass on good advice. It is the only thing to do with it. It is never of any use to oneself.
From An Ideal Husband
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The world has become sad because a puppet was once melancholy. The nihilist, that strange martyr who has no faith, who goes to the stake without enthusiasm, and dies for what he does not believe in, is a purely literary product. He was invented by Turgenev, and completed by Dostoevsky. Robespierre came out of the pages of Rousseau as surely as the People's Palace rose out debris of a novel. Literature always anticipates life. It does not copy it, but moulds it to its purpose.
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I believe that if one man were to live out his life fully and completely, were to give form to every feeling, expression to every thought, reality to every dream - I believe that the world would gain such a fresh impulse of joy that we would forget all the maladies of medievalism, and return to the Hellenic ideal - to something finer, richer, than the Hellenic ideal, it may be. But the bravest man amongst us is afraid of himself. The mutilation of the savage has its tragic survival in the self-denial that mars our lives. We are punished for our refusals.
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But we never get back our youth… The pulse of joy that beats in us at twenty becomes sluggish. Our limbs fail, our senses rot. We degenerate into hideous puppets, haunted by the memory of the passions of which we were too much afraid, and the exquisite temptations that we had not the courage to yield to.
From The Picture of Dorian Gray
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The ugly and stupid have the best of it in this world. They can sit at their ease and gape at the play. If they know nothing of victory, they are at least spared the knowledge of defeat. They live as we all should live-- undisturbed, indifferent, and without disquiet. They never bring ruin upon others, nor ever receive it from alien hands. Your rank and wealth, Henry; my brains, such as they are-- my art, whatever it may be worth; Dorian Gray's good looks-- we shall all suffer for what the gods have given us, suffer terribly.
From The Picture of Dorian Gray
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Truth, in matters of religion, is simply the opinion that has survived.
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There are only two kinds of people who are really fascinating: people who know absolutely everything, and people who know absolutely nothing.
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One should always be in love. That's the reason one should never marry.
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The only way to behave to a woman is to make love to her if she is pretty, and to someone else if she is plain.
From The Importance of Being Earnest
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Anyone who lives within their means suffers from a lack of imagination.
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I can resist everything except temptation.
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Ultimately the bond of all companionship, whether in marriage or in friendship, is conversation, and conversation must have a common basis, and between two people of widely different culture the only common basis possible is the lowest level.
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It is perfectly monstrous,' he said, at last, 'the way people go about nowadays saying things against one behind one's back that are absolutely and entirely true.
From The Picture of Dorian Gray
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If you don't get everything you want, think of the things you don't get that you don't want.
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What a silly thing love is!' said the student as he walked away. 'It is not half as useful as logic, for it does not prove anything, and it is always telling one of things that are not going to happen, and making one believe things that are not true. In fact, it is quite unpractical, and, as in this age to be practical is everything, I shall go back to philosophy and study metaphysics.'
So he returned to his room and pulled out a great dusty book, and began to read.
From The Happy Prince and Other Tales
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If you want to be a grocer, or a general, or a politician, or a judge, you will invariably become it; that is your punishment. If you never know what you want to be, if you live what some might call the dynamic life but what I will call the artistic life, if each day you are unsure of who you are and what you know you will never become anything, and that is your reward.
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It is what you read when you don’t have to that determines what you will be when you can’t help it.
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The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame.
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Christ did not die to save people, but to teach people how to save each other. This is, I have no doubt, a grave heresy, but it is also a fact.
From The Complete Letters of Oscar Wilde
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There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.
From The Picture of Dorian Gray
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I have nothing to declare except my genius.
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Humanity takes itself too seriously. It is the world's original sin. If the cave-man had known how to laugh, History would have been different.
From The Picture of Dorian Gray
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Young people, nowadays, imagine that money is everything.

Yes, murmured Lord Henry, settling his button-hole in his coat; and when they grow older they know it.
From The Picture of Dorian Gray and Other Writings
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LORD ILLINGWORTH: The soul is born old but grows young. That is the comedy of life.
MRS ALLONBY: And the body is born young and grows old. That is life's tragedy.
From A Woman of No Importance
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I always pass on good advice. It is the only thing to do with it. It is never of any use to oneself.
From An Ideal Husband
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
The world has become sad because a puppet was once melancholy. The nihilist, that strange martyr who has no faith, who goes to the stake without enthusiasm, and dies for what he does not believe in, is a purely literary product. He was invented by Turgenev, and completed by Dostoevsky. Robespierre came out of the pages of Rousseau as surely as the People's Palace rose out debris of a novel. Literature always anticipates life. It does not copy it, but moulds it to its purpose.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
I believe that if one man were to live out his life fully and completely, were to give form to every feeling, expression to every thought, reality to every dream - I believe that the world would gain such a fresh impulse of joy that we would forget all the maladies of medievalism, and return to the Hellenic ideal - to something finer, richer, than the Hellenic ideal, it may be. But the bravest man amongst us is afraid of himself. The mutilation of the savage has its tragic survival in the self-denial that mars our lives. We are punished for our refusals.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
But we never get back our youth… The pulse of joy that beats in us at twenty becomes sluggish. Our limbs fail, our senses rot. We degenerate into hideous puppets, haunted by the memory of the passions of which we were too much afraid, and the exquisite temptations that we had not the courage to yield to.
From The Picture of Dorian Gray
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
The ugly and stupid have the best of it in this world. They can sit at their ease and gape at the play. If they know nothing of victory, they are at least spared the knowledge of defeat. They live as we all should live-- undisturbed, indifferent, and without disquiet. They never bring ruin upon others, nor ever receive it from alien hands. Your rank and wealth, Henry; my brains, such as they are-- my art, whatever it may be worth; Dorian Gray's good looks-- we shall all suffer for what the gods have given us, suffer terribly.
From The Picture of Dorian Gray
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Truth, in matters of religion, is simply the opinion that has survived.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
There are only two kinds of people who are really fascinating: people who know absolutely everything, and people who know absolutely nothing.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
One should always be in love. That's the reason one should never marry.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
The only way to behave to a woman is to make love to her if she is pretty, and to someone else if she is plain.
From The Importance of Being Earnest
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Anyone who lives within their means suffers from a lack of imagination.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
I can resist everything except temptation.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Ultimately the bond of all companionship, whether in marriage or in friendship, is conversation, and conversation must have a common basis, and between two people of widely different culture the only common basis possible is the lowest level.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
It is perfectly monstrous,' he said, at last, 'the way people go about nowadays saying things against one behind one's back that are absolutely and entirely true.
From The Picture of Dorian Gray
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
If you don't get everything you want, think of the things you don't get that you don't want.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
What a silly thing love is!' said the student as he walked away. 'It is not half as useful as logic, for it does not prove anything, and it is always telling one of things that are not going to happen, and making one believe things that are not true. In fact, it is quite unpractical, and, as in this age to be practical is everything, I shall go back to philosophy and study metaphysics.'
So he returned to his room and pulled out a great dusty book, and began to read.
From The Happy Prince and Other Tales
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
If you want to be a grocer, or a general, or a politician, or a judge, you will invariably become it; that is your punishment. If you never know what you want to be, if you live what some might call the dynamic life but what I will call the artistic life, if each day you are unsure of who you are and what you know you will never become anything, and that is your reward.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
It is what you read when you don’t have to that determines what you will be when you can’t help it.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Christ did not die to save people, but to teach people how to save each other. This is, I have no doubt, a grave heresy, but it is also a fact.
From The Complete Letters of Oscar Wilde
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.
From The Picture of Dorian Gray
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
I have nothing to declare except my genius.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Humanity takes itself too seriously. It is the world's original sin. If the cave-man had known how to laugh, History would have been different.
From The Picture of Dorian Gray
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Young people, nowadays, imagine that money is everything.

Yes, murmured Lord Henry, settling his button-hole in his coat; and when they grow older they know it.
From The Picture of Dorian Gray and Other Writings
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
LORD ILLINGWORTH: The soul is born old but grows young. That is the comedy of life.
MRS ALLONBY: And the body is born young and grows old. That is life's tragedy.
From A Woman of No Importance
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
I always pass on good advice. It is the only thing to do with it. It is never of any use to oneself.
From An Ideal Husband
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
The world has become sad because a puppet was once melancholy. The nihilist, that strange martyr who has no faith, who goes to the stake without enthusiasm, and dies for what he does not believe in, is a purely literary product. He was invented by Turgenev, and completed by Dostoevsky. Robespierre came out of the pages of Rousseau as surely as the People's Palace rose out debris of a novel. Literature always anticipates life. It does not copy it, but moulds it to its purpose.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
I believe that if one man were to live out his life fully and completely, were to give form to every feeling, expression to every thought, reality to every dream - I believe that the world would gain such a fresh impulse of joy that we would forget all the maladies of medievalism, and return to the Hellenic ideal - to something finer, richer, than the Hellenic ideal, it may be. But the bravest man amongst us is afraid of himself. The mutilation of the savage has its tragic survival in the self-denial that mars our lives. We are punished for our refusals.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
But we never get back our youth… The pulse of joy that beats in us at twenty becomes sluggish. Our limbs fail, our senses rot. We degenerate into hideous puppets, haunted by the memory of the passions of which we were too much afraid, and the exquisite temptations that we had not the courage to yield to.
From The Picture of Dorian Gray
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
The ugly and stupid have the best of it in this world. They can sit at their ease and gape at the play. If they know nothing of victory, they are at least spared the knowledge of defeat. They live as we all should live-- undisturbed, indifferent, and without disquiet. They never bring ruin upon others, nor ever receive it from alien hands. Your rank and wealth, Henry; my brains, such as they are-- my art, whatever it may be worth; Dorian Gray's good looks-- we shall all suffer for what the gods have given us, suffer terribly.
From The Picture of Dorian Gray
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Truth, in matters of religion, is simply the opinion that has survived.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
There are only two kinds of people who are really fascinating: people who know absolutely everything, and people who know absolutely nothing.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
One should always be in love. That's the reason one should never marry.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
The only way to behave to a woman is to make love to her if she is pretty, and to someone else if she is plain.
From The Importance of Being Earnest
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Anyone who lives within their means suffers from a lack of imagination.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
I can resist everything except temptation.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Ultimately the bond of all companionship, whether in marriage or in friendship, is conversation, and conversation must have a common basis, and between two people of widely different culture the only common basis possible is the lowest level.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
It is perfectly monstrous,' he said, at last, 'the way people go about nowadays saying things against one behind one's back that are absolutely and entirely true.
From The Picture of Dorian Gray
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
If you don't get everything you want, think of the things you don't get that you don't want.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
What a silly thing love is!' said the student as he walked away. 'It is not half as useful as logic, for it does not prove anything, and it is always telling one of things that are not going to happen, and making one believe things that are not true. In fact, it is quite unpractical, and, as in this age to be practical is everything, I shall go back to philosophy and study metaphysics.'
So he returned to his room and pulled out a great dusty book, and began to read.
From The Happy Prince and Other Tales
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
If you want to be a grocer, or a general, or a politician, or a judge, you will invariably become it; that is your punishment. If you never know what you want to be, if you live what some might call the dynamic life but what I will call the artistic life, if each day you are unsure of who you are and what you know you will never become anything, and that is your reward.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
It is what you read when you don’t have to that determines what you will be when you can’t help it.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Christ did not die to save people, but to teach people how to save each other. This is, I have no doubt, a grave heresy, but it is also a fact.
From The Complete Letters of Oscar Wilde
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.
From The Picture of Dorian Gray
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
I have nothing to declare except my genius.
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Humanity takes itself too seriously. It is the world's original sin. If the cave-man had known how to laugh, History would have been different.
From The Picture of Dorian Gray
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
Young people, nowadays, imagine that money is everything.

Yes, murmured Lord Henry, settling his button-hole in his coat; and when they grow older they know it.
From The Picture of Dorian Gray and Other Writings
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
LORD ILLINGWORTH: The soul is born old but grows young. That is the comedy of life.
MRS ALLONBY: And the body is born young and grows old. That is life's tragedy.
From A Woman of No Importance
Avg Rating: --Rate This Quote
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