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Oscar Wilde

Oscar Wilde Quotes

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Famous Oscar Wilde Quotes

“It is a sad truth, but we have lost the faculty of giving lovely names to things. Names are everything. I never quarrel with actions. My one quarrel is with words. The man who could call a spade a spade should be compelled to use one. It is the only thing he is fit for.”

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Book:The Picture of Dorian Gray (Diversion Classics)
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“In England, an inventor is regarded almost as a crazy man, and in too many instances invention ends in disappointment and poverty. In America, an inventor is honoured, help is forthcoming, and the exercise of ingenuity, the application of science to the work of man, is there the shortest road to wealth.”

MenEndsHelpingAmericaWealthPovertyCrazyExerciseMadnessEnglandDisappointmentInventionResistanceInstanceApplicationInventorIngenuityForthcomingCrazy ManPoverty In America
Book:Collins complete works of Oscar Wilde
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“Art is individualism, and individualism is a disturbing and disintegrating force. There lies its immense value. For what it seeks is to disturb monotony of type, slavery of custom, tyranny of habit, and the reduction of man to the level of a machine. It seeks to show new perspectives and other choices. It is a way to help expand and liberate the consciousness; our experiences, understandings, imaginings, options and thereby our lives.”

MenWayArtHelpingShowsLyingValuesChoicesForceUnderstandingLevelsConsciousnessOur LivesPerspectiveTypeHabitArt IsMachinesSlaveryTyrannyCustomsIndividualismImmenseDisturbingReductionMonotonyNew Perspective
Author:Oscar Wilde
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“Shakespeare might have met Rosencrantz and Guildenstern in the white streets of London, or seen the serving-men of rival houses bite their thumbs at each other in the open square; but Hamlet came out of his soul, and Romeo out of his passion.”

MenSoulMightPassionHouseWhiteStreetsMetsLondonServingBitesSquaresRivalsThumbsRosencrantz And Guildenstern
Book:Delphi Complete Works of Oscar Wilde (Illustrated)
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“[T]he recognition of private property has really harmed Individualism, and obscured it, by confusing a man with what he possesses. It has led Individualism entirely astray. It has made gain, not growth its aim. So that man thought that the important thing is to have, and did not know that the important thing is to be.”

KnowsMenMadeImportantGrowthGainsAimImportant ThingsPropertyRecognitionIndividualismConfusingPrivate PropertySoul Man
Book:The Collected Works of Oscar Wilde
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“No publisher should ever express an opinion on the value of what he publishes. That is a matter entirely for the literary critic to decide. I can quite understand how any ordinary critic would be strongly prejudiced against a work that was accompanied by a premature and unnecessary panegyric from the publisher. A publisher is simply a useful middle-man. It is not for him to anticipate the verdict of criticism.”

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Author:Oscar Wilde
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“The value of an idea has nothing whatsoever to do with the sincerity of the man who expresses it. Indeed, the probabilities are that the more insincere the man is, the more purely intellectual will the idea be, as in that case it will not be coloured by either his wants, his desires, or his prejudices.”

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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)
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“The Ideal Man should talk to us as if we were goddesses, and treat us as if we were children. He should refuse all our serious requests, and gratify every one of our whims. He should encourage us to have caprices, and forbid us to have missions. He should always say much more than he means, and always mean much more than he says.”

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Book:The complete plays
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“A man who does not think for himself does not think at all. It is grossly selfish to require of one's neighbour that he should think in the same way, and hold the same opinions. Why should he? If he can think, he will probably think differently. If he cannot think, it is monstrous to require thought of any kind from him.”

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Book:The Artist as Critic: Critical Writings of Oscar Wilde
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