Quotes By Author
Quotations By Oscar Wilde
Age
One should never trust a woman who tells one her real age. A woman who would tell one that, would tell one anything.
Age
Show respect for age. Drink good scotch for a change. The old believe everything: the middle-aged suspect everything: the young know everything.
Age
Thirty-five is a very attractive age, London society is full of women of the very highest birth who have, of their own free choice, remained thirty-five for years.
Ambition
Ambition is the last refuge of the failure.
American
America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between.
Art
It is only an auctioneer who can equally and impartially admire all schools of art.
Art
A work of art is the unique result of a unique temperament.
Beauty
Beauty is a form of genius - is higher, indeed, than genius, as it needs no explanation. It is of the great facts in the world like sunlight, or springtime, or the reflection in dark water of that silver shell we call the moon.
Beauty
No object is so beautiful that, under certain conditions, it will not look ugly.
Beliefs
Man can believe the impossible, but can never believe the improbable.
Beliefs
To believe is very dull. To doubt is intensely engrossing. To be on the alert is to live, to be lulled into security is to die.
Beliefs
A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it.
Books
There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written, That is all.
Books
The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame.
Change
I don't desire to change anything in England except the weather.
Change
Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative.
Cynicism
A Cynic is one who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.
Cynicism
What is a cynic? A man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.
Desire
The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it.
Education
Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught.
Enemy
A man cannot be too careful in the choice of his enemies.
Experience
Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes.
Failure
Ambition is the last refuge of the failure. -- Oscar Wilde
Idleness
To do nothing at all is the most difficult thing in the world, the most difficult and the most intellectual.
Life
The old believe everything; the middle-aged suspect everything; the young know everything.
Love
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.
Love
Yet each man kills the thing he loves, By each let this be heard, Some do it with a bitter look, Some with a flattering word. The coward does it with a kiss, The brave man with a sword!
Love
When a man has once loved a woman he will do anything for her except continue to love her.
Marriage
Men marry because they are tired; women because they are curious. Both are disappointed.
Marriage
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.
Marriage
How marriage ruins a man! It is as demoralizing as cigarettes, and far more expensive.
Moderation
Moderation is a fatal thing. Nothing succeeds like excess. -- Oscar Wilde
Patriotism
Patriotism is the virtue of the vicious.
People
Only the shallow know themselves. -- Oscar Wilde
Pleasure
Simple pleasures are the last refuge of the complex. -- Oscar Wilde
Prayer
When the gods wish to punish us they answer our prayers.
Quotations
Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation.
Society
I suppose society is wonderfully delightful. To be in it is merely a bore. But to be out of it is simply a tragedy.
Success
Ambition is the last refuge of failure.
Success
Experience is the name that everyone gives to his mistakes.
Success
Moderation is a fatal thing nothing succeeds like excess.
Wife
There is nothing in the world like the devotion of a married woman. It is a thing no married man knows anything about.
Women
Women are made to be loved, not understood. -- Oscar Wilde