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.
You can never be overdressed or overeducated.
We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.
From Lady Windermere's Fan
Every single human being should be the fulfilment of a prophecy: for every human being should be the realisation of some ideal, either in the mind of God or in the mind of man.
From De Profundis
I made art a philosophy, and philosophy an art: I altered the minds of men, and the colour of things: I awoke the imagination of my century so that it created myth and legend around me: I summed up all things in a phrase, all existence in an epigram: whatever I touched I made beautiful
From De Profundis and Other Writings
Pleasure is the only thing one should live for, nothing ages like happiness.
The only horrible thing in the world is ennui.
From The Picture of Dorian Gray
I have no doubt we shall win, but the road is long, and red with monstrous martyrdoms.
Keep love in your heart. A life without it is like a sunless garden when the flowers are dead. The consciousness of loving and being loved brings a warmth and a richness to life that nothing else can bring.
The only artists I have ever known who are personally delightful are bad artists. Good artists exist simply in what they make, and consequently are perfectly uninteresting in what they are. A great poet, a really great poet, is the most unpoetical of all creatures. But inferior poets are absolutely fascinating. The worse their rhymes are, the more picturesque they look. The mere fact of having published a book of second-rate sonnets makes a man quite irresistible. He lives the poetry that he cannot write. The others write the poetry that they dare not realize.
From The Picture of Dorian Gray
Either this wallpaper goes, or I do.
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.
From The Picture of Dorian Gray
Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much.
This suspense is terrible. I hope it will last.
Never marry at all, Dorian. Men marry because they are tired, women, because they are curious: both are disappointed.
From The Picture of Dorian Gray
LADY BRACKNELL
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.
From The Importance of Being Earnest
Religions die when they are proved to be true. Science is the record of dead religions.
For he who lives more lives than one more deaths than one must die.
From The Ballad of Reading Gaol and Other Poems
What fire does not destroy, it hardens
From The Picture of Dorian Gray
The only way a woman can ever reform a man is by boring him so completely that he loses all possible interest in life.
Morality is simply the attitude we adopt towards people we personally dislike.
From An Ideal Husband
A kiss may ruin a human life
A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it.
The nuisance of the intellectual sphere is the man who is so occupied in trying to educate others, that he has never had any time to educate himself
From The Critic As Artist: With Some Remarks on the Importance of Doing Nothing and Discussing Everything
A man who does not think for himself does not think at all.
You can never be overdressed or overeducated.
We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.
From Lady Windermere's Fan
Every single human being should be the fulfilment of a prophecy: for every human being should be the realisation of some ideal, either in the mind of God or in the mind of man.
From De Profundis
I made art a philosophy, and philosophy an art: I altered the minds of men, and the colour of things: I awoke the imagination of my century so that it created myth and legend around me: I summed up all things in a phrase, all existence in an epigram: whatever I touched I made beautiful
From De Profundis and Other Writings
Pleasure is the only thing one should live for, nothing ages like happiness.
The only horrible thing in the world is ennui.
From The Picture of Dorian Gray
I have no doubt we shall win, but the road is long, and red with monstrous martyrdoms.
Keep love in your heart. A life without it is like a sunless garden when the flowers are dead. The consciousness of loving and being loved brings a warmth and a richness to life that nothing else can bring.
The only artists I have ever known who are personally delightful are bad artists. Good artists exist simply in what they make, and consequently are perfectly uninteresting in what they are. A great poet, a really great poet, is the most unpoetical of all creatures. But inferior poets are absolutely fascinating. The worse their rhymes are, the more picturesque they look. The mere fact of having published a book of second-rate sonnets makes a man quite irresistible. He lives the poetry that he cannot write. The others write the poetry that they dare not realize.
From The Picture of Dorian Gray
Either this wallpaper goes, or I do.
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.
From The Picture of Dorian Gray
Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much.
This suspense is terrible. I hope it will last.
Never marry at all, Dorian. Men marry because they are tired, women, because they are curious: both are disappointed.
From The Picture of Dorian Gray
LADY BRACKNELL
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.
From The Importance of Being Earnest
Religions die when they are proved to be true. Science is the record of dead religions.
For he who lives more lives than one more deaths than one must die.
From The Ballad of Reading Gaol and Other Poems
What fire does not destroy, it hardens
From The Picture of Dorian Gray
The only way a woman can ever reform a man is by boring him so completely that he loses all possible interest in life.
Morality is simply the attitude we adopt towards people we personally dislike.
From An Ideal Husband
A kiss may ruin a human life
A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it.
The nuisance of the intellectual sphere is the man who is so occupied in trying to educate others, that he has never had any time to educate himself
From The Critic As Artist: With Some Remarks on the Importance of Doing Nothing and Discussing Everything
A man who does not think for himself does not think at all.
You can never be overdressed or overeducated.
We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.
From Lady Windermere's Fan
Every single human being should be the fulfilment of a prophecy: for every human being should be the realisation of some ideal, either in the mind of God or in the mind of man.
From De Profundis
I made art a philosophy, and philosophy an art: I altered the minds of men, and the colour of things: I awoke the imagination of my century so that it created myth and legend around me: I summed up all things in a phrase, all existence in an epigram: whatever I touched I made beautiful
From De Profundis and Other Writings
Pleasure is the only thing one should live for, nothing ages like happiness.
The only horrible thing in the world is ennui.
From The Picture of Dorian Gray
I have no doubt we shall win, but the road is long, and red with monstrous martyrdoms.
Keep love in your heart. A life without it is like a sunless garden when the flowers are dead. The consciousness of loving and being loved brings a warmth and a richness to life that nothing else can bring.
The only artists I have ever known who are personally delightful are bad artists. Good artists exist simply in what they make, and consequently are perfectly uninteresting in what they are. A great poet, a really great poet, is the most unpoetical of all creatures. But inferior poets are absolutely fascinating. The worse their rhymes are, the more picturesque they look. The mere fact of having published a book of second-rate sonnets makes a man quite irresistible. He lives the poetry that he cannot write. The others write the poetry that they dare not realize.
From The Picture of Dorian Gray
Either this wallpaper goes, or I do.
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.
From The Picture of Dorian Gray
Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much.
This suspense is terrible. I hope it will last.
Never marry at all, Dorian. Men marry because they are tired, women, because they are curious: both are disappointed.
From The Picture of Dorian Gray
LADY BRACKNELL
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.
From The Importance of Being Earnest
Religions die when they are proved to be true. Science is the record of dead religions.
For he who lives more lives than one more deaths than one must die.
From The Ballad of Reading Gaol and Other Poems
What fire does not destroy, it hardens
From The Picture of Dorian Gray
The only way a woman can ever reform a man is by boring him so completely that he loses all possible interest in life.
Morality is simply the attitude we adopt towards people we personally dislike.
From An Ideal Husband
A kiss may ruin a human life
A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it.
The nuisance of the intellectual sphere is the man who is so occupied in trying to educate others, that he has never had any time to educate himself
From The Critic As Artist: With Some Remarks on the Importance of Doing Nothing and Discussing Everything
A man who does not think for himself does not think at all.
