Oscar Wilde Quotes

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The quivering, ardent sunlight showed him the lines of cruelty round the mouth as clearly as if he had been looking into a mirror after he had done some dreadful thing.

Oscar Wilde
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
Behind Joy and Laughter there may be a temperament, coarse, hard and callous. But behind Sorrow there is always Sorrow. Pain, unlike Pleasure, wears no mask.

Oscar Wilde
Rich bachelors should be heavily taxed. It is not fair that some men should be happier than others.

Oscar Wilde
I know not whether Laws be right,
Or whether Laws be wrong;
All that we know who lie in gaol
Is that the wall is strong;
And that each day is like a year,
A year whose days are long.

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

Oscar Wilde
As a wicked man I am a complete failure. Why, there are lots of people who say I have never really done anything wrong in the whole course of my life. Of course they only say it behind my back.

Oscar Wilde
And with tears of blood he cleansed the hand, The hand that held the steel: For only blood can wipe out blood, And only tears can heal

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

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

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

Oscar Wilde
I would not a bit mind sleeping in the cool grass in summer, and when winter came on sheltering myself by the warm close-thatched rick, or under the penthouse of a great barn, provided I had love in my heart.

Oscar Wilde
Cheap editions of great books may be delightful, but cheap editions of great men are absolutely detestable

Oscar Wilde
He to whom the present is the only thing that is present, knows nothing of the age in which he lives.

Oscar Wilde
Even you are not rich enough, Sir Robert, to buy back your past. No man is.

Oscar Wilde
I write because it gives me the greatest possible artistic pleasure to write. If my work pleases the few I am gratified. As for the mob, I have no desire to be a popular novelist. It is far too easy.

Oscar Wilde
Shaw has not an enemy in the world; and none of his friends like him.

Oscar Wilde
I adore simple pleasures. They are the last refuge of the complex.

Oscar Wilde
Human life—that appeared to him the one thing worth investigating. Compared to it there was nothing else of any value. It was true that as one watched life in its curious crucible of pain and pleasure, one could not wear over one's face a mask of glass, nor keep the sulphurous fumes from troubling the brain and making the imagination turbid with monstrous fancies and misshapen dreams.

Oscar Wilde
All the spring may be hidden in the single bud, and the low ground nest of the lark may hold the joy that is to herald the feet of many rose-red dawns.

Oscar Wilde
Education is an admirable thing. But it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught.

Oscar Wilde
We are the zanies of sorrow. We are clowns whose hearts are broken.

Oscar Wilde
Cecily. This is no time for wearing the shallow mask of manners. When I see a spade I call it a spade. Gwendolen. [Satirically.] I am glad to say that I have never seen a spade. It is obvious that our social spheres have been widely different.

Oscar Wilde
Wilde: I shall always regard you as the best critic of my plays.
Tree: But I have never criticized your plays.
Wilde: That's why.

Oscar Wilde
By persistently remaining single a man converts himself into a permanent public temptation.

Oscar Wilde
Musical people are so absurdly unreasonable. They always want one to be perfectly dumb a the very moment when one is longing to be absolutely deaf.

Oscar Wilde
One must have a heart of stone to read the death of Little Nell without laughing.

Oscar Wilde
I think you are wrong, Basil, but I won't argue with you. It is only the intellectually lost who ever argue.

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

Oscar Wilde
I've now realized for the first time in my life the vital Importance of Being Earnest.

Oscar Wilde