Quotessence
Home / Authors / Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde

Oscar Wilde Quotes

Writer

Filter quotes by topic

AllMenArtPeopleFunnyIfsWorldShouldLifeKnowsLoveArtistSarcasticGivingDoeOscar WildeImportance Of Being EarnestWittyInspirationalThinkingEarnest

Famous Oscar Wilde Quotes

“Newspapers. . . give us the bald, sordid, disgusting facts of life. They chronicle, with degrading avidity, the sins of the second-rate, and with the conscientiousness of the illiterate give us accurate and prosaic details. . .”

GivingFactsSinRateDetailsNewspapersAccurateDisgustingFacts Of LifeIlliterateDegradingChroniclesSecond RateConscientiousness
Book:The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde: Novel, Short Stories, Poetry, Essays and Plays
Create image

“Good resolutions are useless attempts to interfere with scientific laws. Their origin is pure vanity. Their result is absolutely nil. They give us, now and then, some of those luxurious sterile emotions that have a certain charm for the weak.... They are simply cheques that men draw on a bank where they have no account.”

MenGivingLawCertainResultsEmotionPureDrawsWeakAccountsVanityUselessCharmResolutionNow And ThenInterfereRespectabilityLuxuriousCheques
Book:The Picture of Dorian Gray and Three Stories
Create image

“It is chiefly, I regret to say, through journalism that such people find expression. I regret it because there is much to be said in favour of modern journalism. By giving us the opinions of the uneducated, it keeps us in touch with the ignorance of the community.”

PeopleGivingSaidCommunityOpinionModernIgnoranceExpressionRegretJournalismFavourI RegretUneducatedModern Journalism
Book:The Collected Works of Oscar Wilde
Create image

“Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes.”

InspirationalGivingMotivationalAgeFunnyNamesDecisionBusinessMistakeFailureExperiencePhilosophicalWittyMaking MistakesAutismLearning From MistakesMy MistakesGreat MistakesI Make MistakesI Have Made MistakesWe Make MistakesMistakes And LearningMaking Mistakes And Learning From ThemLearning From Our MistakesLearned From MistakesExperience And LearningExperience In Business
Book:Epigrams and Aphorisms
Create image

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

MenGivingPersonsTruthFunnyDarkTalkingHuman NatureHonestyWise WordsHeroTruth IsComfortableOneselfWittySelf DiscoveryNovelistsBeing YourselfTelling The TruthMaskFinding YourselfAbout YourselfBe YouDiscoveringTrue SelfKnow YourselfLiedDiscomfortDishonestyPlaywrightCriminal MindBeing SingleHonest ManKnow ThyselfAnonymityAbsolute TruthTruth And LiesEssayistsHonest TruthTruth And HonestyTruth HonestyJust Being YouSelf KnowingLying MenTruth Be ToldSpiritual TruthDiscovering YourselfLies TruthTelling LiesBeing LiedDiscovering SelfSaying The TruthBusiness PlanningDiscovery In LifeTrue To OneselfDiscovering Your True SelfAlready TakenWearing A MaskBeing Your True SelfHiding The TruthDishonesty And LyingLying To YourselfUnderstanding YourselfDiscovering The TruthBe Your Own PersonTruth To YourselfTruth Revealed
Author:Oscar Wilde
Create image

“Words! Mere words! How terrible they were! How clear, and vivid, and cruel! One could not escape from them. And yet what a subtle magic there was in them! They seemed to be able to give a plastic form to formless things, and to have a music of their own as sweet as that of viol or of lute. Mere words! Was there anything so real as words?”

GivingWritingRealAbleFormCreativityClearMagicSweetTerribleMereSubtlePlasticVivid
Book:The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde: The picture of Dorian Gray : the 1890 and 1891 texts
Create image

“I am but too conscious of the fact that we are born in an age when only the dull are treated seriously, and I live in terror of not being misunderstood. Don't degrade me into the position of giving you useful information. Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught.”

GivingWellsFactsAgeRememberBornKnowingInformationPositionTaughtConsciousTerrorTreatedDullMisunderstoodAdmirableDegradeBeing MisunderstoodUseful Information
Book:The Collected Works of Oscar Wilde
Create image

“Do you really keep a diary? I'd give anything to look at it. May I? Oh, no. You see, it is simply a very young girl's record of her own thoughts and impressions, and consequently meant for publication. When it appears in volume form I hope you will order a copy.”

GivingLooksMayFormYoungOrderGirlRecordsImpressionCopiesVolumeDiariesPublication
Book:The Importance of Being Earnest and Other Plays: Lady Windermere's Fan; Salome; A Woman of No Importance; An Ideal Husband; The Importance of Being Earnest
Create image

“Salomé, Salomé, dance for me. I pray thee dance for me. I am sad to-night. Yes, I am passing sad to-night. When I came hither I slipped in blood, which is an evil omen; and I heard, I am sure I heard in the air a beating of wings, a beating of giant wings. I cannot tell what they mean .... I am sad to-night. Therefore dance for me. Dance for me, Salomé, I beseech you. If you dance for me you may ask of me what you will, and I will give it you, even unto the half of my kingdom.”

IfsGivingMayMeanNightEvilAsksHalfHeardAirBloodPrayingWingsLustPassingKingdomsPassingsTheeGiantsI PrayOmen
Book:The Plays of Oscar Wilde
Create image

“There are moments, psychologists tell us, when the passion for sin, or what the world calls sin, so dominates a nature, that every fibre of the body, as every cell of the brain, seems to be instinct with fearful impulses. Men and women at such moments lose the freedom of their will. They move to their terrible end as automatons move. Choice is taken from them, and conscience is either killed, or, if it lives at all, lives but to give rebellion its fascination, and disobedience its charm.”

IfsMenWorldGivingEndsMomentsBodySeemsMovingChoicesPassionLosesSinBrainTakenTerribleConscienceMen And WomenInstinctCellsImpulseCharmRebellionFearfulFascinationDisobediencePsychologist
Book:The Picture of Dorian Gray: The Story of a Fashionable Young Man Who Sells His Soul for Eternal Youth and Beauty (Beloved Books Edition)
Create image

“It is quite true that I have worshipped you with far more romance of feeling than a man usually gives to a friend. Somehow, I had never loved a woman. I suppose I never had time. Perhaps, as Harry says, a really grande passion is the privilege of those who have nothing to do, and that is the use of the idle classes in a country”

MenGivingCountryUseFeelingsRomancePassionClassPrivilegeIdlePicture Of Dorian Gray
Book:The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde: The picture of Dorian Gray : the 1890 and 1891 texts
Create image

“There is no such thing as a good influence. Because to influence a person is to give him one's own soul. He does not think his natural thoughts, or burn with his natural passions. His virtures are not real to him. His sins, if there are such thing as sins, are borrowed. He becomes an echo of someone else's music, an actor of a part that has not been written for him.”

IfsThinkingGivingPersonsDoeRealSoulPassionActorsNaturalSinWrittenInfluenceEchoesBorrowedGood Influences
Book:The Essential Oscar Wilde
Create image

“In war," answered the weaver, "the strong make slaves of the weak, and in peace the rich make slaves of the poor. We must work to live, and they give us such mean wages that we die. We toil for them all day long, and they heap up gold in their coffers, and our children fade away before their time, and the faces of those we love become hard and evil. We tread out the grapes, another drinks the wine. We sow the corn, and our own board is empty. We have chains, though no eye beholds them; and are slaves, though men call us free.”

MenLoveGivingMeanChildrenLongWarHardEyeAgeFacesDiesEvilStrongPoorRichDrinkEmptyWeakGoldOur ChildrenWineSlaveChainsBoardsFadesWagesToilCornGrapesFade AwayThose We LoveWeavers
Book:The Collected Works of Oscar Wilde
Create image

“Ah! realize your youth while you have it. Don’t squander the gold of your days, listening to the tedious, trying to improve the hopeless failure, or giving away your life to the ignorant, the common, and the vulgar. These are the sickly aims, the false ideals, of our age. Live! Live the wonderful life that is in you! Let nothing be lost upon you. Be always searching for new sensations. Be afraid of nothing.”

GivingTryingAgeLostRealizingCommonWonderfulYouthListeningIdealsGoldAimIgnorantHopelessSensationsVulgarTediousWonderful Life
Book:Picture of Dorian Gray
Create image

“Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.”

MenGivingTruthHonestyDiscoveryOneselfSelf DiscoveryBeing YourselfTelling The TruthMaskFinding YourselfAbout YourselfBe YouDiscoveringTrue SelfKnow YourselfLiedDishonestyCriminal MindHonest ManKnow ThyselfAnonymityTruth And LiesHonest TruthTruth And HonestyTruth HonestyJust Being YouSelf KnowingLying MenTruth Be ToldSpiritual TruthDiscovering YourselfLies TruthTelling LiesBeing LiedDiscovering SelfSaying The TruthBusiness PlanningDiscovery In LifeTrue To OneselfDiscovering Your True SelfAlready TakenWearing A MaskHiding The TruthDishonesty And LyingLying To YourselfUnderstanding YourselfDiscovering The TruthTruth To YourselfTruth Revealed
Author:Oscar Wilde
Create image

“How sad it is!" murmured Dorian Gray with his eyes still fixed upon his own portrait. "How sad it is! I shall grow old, and horrible, and dreadful. But this picture will remain always young. It will never be older than this particular day of June… . If it were only the other way! If it were I who was to be always young, and the picture that was to grow old! For that—for that—I would give everything! Yes, there is nothing in the whole world I would not give! I would give my soul for that!”

IfsWorldWayGivingStillsSoulWholeEyeYoungGrowsParticularWhole WorldHorribleMy SoulFixedHis EyesGrayPortraitsJuneDorian GreyPortrait Of Dorian Gray
Author:Oscar Wilde
Create image

“I am jealous of everything whose beauty does not die. I am jealous of the portrait you have painted of me. Why should it keep what I must lose? Every moment that passes takes something from me and gives something to it. Oh, if it were only the other way! If the picture could change, and I could be always what I am now! Why did you paint it? It will mock me some day—mock me horribly!”

IfsWayGivingShouldDoeMomentsDiesLosesPaintJealousPortraitsMockI Am Jealous
Book:The Picture of Dorian Gray (English French Edition illustrated): Le Portrait de Dorian Gray (Anglais Français édition illustré)
Create image

“The gods have been good to you. But what the gods give they quickly take away. You have only a few years in which to live really, perfectly, and fully. When your youth goes, your beauty will go with it, and then you will suddenly discover that there are no triumphs left for you, or have to content yourself with those mean triumphs that the memory of your past will make more bitter than defeats. Every month as it wanes bring you nearer to something dreadful. Time is jealous of you, and wars against your lilies and your roses.”

GivingYearsMeanHas BeensWarPastLeftMemoriesYouthMonthsRoseDefeatBitterTriumphJealousYour PastLilies
Book:The Essential Oscar Wilde
Create image