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Oscar Wilde

Oscar Wilde Quotes

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Famous Oscar Wilde Quotes

“I am sick to death of cleverness. Everybody is clever nowadays. You can't go anywhere without meeting clever people. The thing has become an absolute public nuisance. I wish to goodness we had a few fools left. ALGERNON: We have. JACK: I should extremely like to meet them. What do they talk about? ALGERNON: The fools? Oh! about the clever people of course. JACK: What fools.”

PeopleShouldCoursesLeftWishFoolGoodnessSickAbsolutesMeetingsCleverClevernessNuisance
Book:The Picture of Dorian Gray: The Importance of Being Earnest ; The Ballad of Reading Gaol and Other Works of Oscar Wilde
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“Sin is a thing that writes itself across a man's face. It cannot be concealed. People talk sometimes of secret vices, there are no such things. If a wretched man has a vice, it shows itself in the lines of his mouth, the droop of his eyelids, the moulding of his hands even.”

PeopleIfsMenWritingSometimesShowsHandsFacesLinesSinSecretMouthsVicesWretchedConcealedEyelids
Book:The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde: The picture of Dorian Gray : the 1890 and 1891 texts
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“Each of the professions means a prejudice. The necessity for a career forces every one to take sides. We live in the age of the overworked, and the under-educated; the age in which people are so industrious that they become absolutely stupid.”

PeopleMeanMotivationalAgeForceSidesCareersStupidPrejudiceProfessionEducatedIndustrious
Book:The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde: Novel, Short Stories, Poetry, Essays and Plays
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“When one pays a visit it is for the purpose of wasting other people's time, not one's own.”

PeoplePurposeTimePaySocializingIdeal Husband
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
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“I was disappointed in Niagara - most people must be disappointed in Niagara. Every American bride is taken there, and the sight of the stupendous waterfall must be one of the earliest, if not the keenest, disappointments in American married life.”

PeopleIfsTakenTravelMarriedSightDisappointmentDisappointedBridesTourismMarried LifeWaterfallsNiagaraNiagara Falls
Book:The Artist as Critic: Critical Writings of Oscar Wilde
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“Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live; it is asking others to live as one wishes to live. And unselfishness is letting other people's lives alone, not interfering with them. Selfishness always aims at uniformity of type. Unselfishness recognizes infinite variety of type as a delightful thing, accepts it, acquiesces in it, enjoys it.”

PeopleWishEnjoyAcceptingTypeInfiniteAskingAimSelfishVarietySelfishnessInterfereDelightfulUniformityUnselfishnessDelightful Things
Book:The Artist as Critic: Critical Writings of Oscar Wilde
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“Your machinery is beautiful. Your society people have apologized to me for the envious ridicule with which your newspapers have referred to me. Your newspapers are comic but never amusing. Your Water Tower is a castellated monstrosity with pepperboxes stuck all over it. I am amazed that any people could so abuse Gothic art and make a structure not like a water tower but like a tower of a medieval castle. It should be torn down. It is a shame to spend so much money on buildings with such an unsatisfactory result. Your city looks positively dreary.”

PeopleShouldLooksArtBeautifulWaterResultsCitiesBuildingAbuseShameStructureStuckNewspapersComicOver ItChicagoTowersAmazedTornRidiculeMachineryCastlesPositivelyGothicMedievalAmusingEnviousDrearyMonstrosityBeautiful City
Author:Oscar Wilde
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“The great things in life are what they seem to be. And for that reason, strange as it may sound to you, often are very difficult to interpret (understand). Great passions are for the great of souls. Great events can only be seen by people who are on a level with them. We think we can have our visions for nothing. We cannot. Even the finest and most self-sacrificing visions have to be paid for. Strangely enough, that is what makes them fine.”

PeopleThinkingMaySoulSelfReasonEnoughSeemsPassionDifficultSoundLevelsVisionSacrificeEventsStrangeFinePaidGreat ThingsThings In LifeFinestGreat PassionGreat Events
Author:Oscar Wilde
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“Do not be afraid of the past. If people tell you that it is irrevocable, do not believe them. The past, the present and the future are but one moment in the sight of God, in whose sight we should try to live. Time and space, succession and extension, are merely accidental conditions of thought. The imagination can transcend them.”

PeopleIfsShouldTryingBelieveMomentsPastImaginationSpaceConditionsSightExtensionsTime And SpaceSuccessionIrrevocable
Book:The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde: De profundis,
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“Agitators are a set of interfering, meddling people, who come down to some perfectly contented class of the community and sow the seeds of discontent amongst them. That is the reason why agitators are so absolutely necessary. Without them, in our incomplete state, there would be no advance towards civilization.”

PeopleStatesReasonWould BePoliticalPoliticsCommunityClassCivilizationSeedsReason WhyInterfereDiscontentIncompleteMeddling
Book:Collected Works of Oscar Wilde: The Plays, the Poems, the Stories and the Essays Including De Profundis
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