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Oscar Wilde

Oscar Wilde Quotes

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Famous Oscar Wilde Quotes

“I did not think I should be ever loved: do you indeed Love me so much as now you say you do? Ask of the sea-bird if it loves the sea, Ask of the roses if they love the rain, Ask of the little lark, that will not sing Till day break, if it loves to see the day: And yet, these are but empty images, Mere shadows of my love, which is a fire So great that all the waters of the main Can not avail to quench it.”

IfsThinkingShouldLittlesAsksWaterBreakFireSeaBirdShadowRainEmptyRoseMereCan NotQuenchLarksLove RainSea Birds
Book:The Duchess of Padua: Easyread Large Bold Edition
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“How you can sit there, calmly eating muffins when we are in this horrible trouble, I can’t make out. You seem to me to be perfectly heartless." "Well, I can’t eat muffins in an agitated manner. The butter would probably get on my cuffs. One should always eat muffins quite calmly. It is the only way to eat them." "I say it’s perfectly heartless your eating muffins at all, under the circumstances.”

WayShouldWellsI CanSeemsTroubleCircumstancesEatingCalmHorribleCalmnessHeartlessMake OutMuffinsCuffsHeartlessness
Book:The Importance of Being Earnest
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“The ugly and stupid have the best of it in this world. They can sit at their ease and gape at the play. If they know nothing of victory, they are at least spared the knowledge of defeat. They live as we all should live-- undisturbed, indifferent, and without disquiet. They never bring ruin upon others, nor ever receive it from alien hands. Your rank and wealth, Henry; my brains, such as they are-- my art, whatever it may be worth; Dorian Gray's good looks-- we shall all suffer for what the gods have given us, suffer terribly.”

IfsKnowsWorldShouldLooksMayArtPlayHandsSufferingGivenWealthBrainStupidThis WorldVictoryDefeatUglyRuinsAliensEaseGrayIndifferentLooking GoodStupid People
Book:Oscar Wilde Collection
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“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)
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“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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“There is no good talking to him," said a Dragon-fly, who was sitting on the top of a large brown bulrush; "no good at all, for he has gone away." "Well, that is his loss, not mine," answered the Rocket. "I am not going to stop talking to him merely because he pays no attention. I like hearing myself talk. It is one of my greatest pleasures. I often have long conversations all by myself, and I am so clever that sometimes I don't understand a single word of what I am saying." "Then you should definitely lecture on Philosophy," said the Dragon-fly.”

ShouldWellsLongSaidSometimesPhilosophyLossPleasurePayAttentionTalkingGoneMinesConversationSittingHearingCleverBrownDragonsLecturesRocketsSingle WordGreatest PleasuresGone AwayHis LossTalking To HimLong Conversations
Book:Complete Shorter Fiction
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“It is a pity to make a mystery out of what should most easily be understood. There is nothing occult about the thought that all things maybe made well or made ill. A work of art is a well-made thing - that is all. It may be a well-made statue of a well-made chair or a well-made book. Art is not a special sauce applied to ordinary cooking; it is the cooking itself that is good. Most simply and generally, Art may be thought of as "The Well Doing of What Needs Doing."”

NeedsShouldWellsMayArtMadeBookMysterySpecialOrdinaryUnderstoodArt IsAll ThingsCookingIllPityChairsWorks Of ArtStatuesCarpe DiemSauceOccultCarpe
Author: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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“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.”

MenLoveGivingShouldUseActionFunnyNamesLostHe ManFitHumorousLovelyFacultyCompelledQuarrelsSpadesSad TruthNaming Things
Book:The Picture of Dorian Gray (Diversion Classics)
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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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“While one should always study the method of a great artist, one should never imitate his manner. The manner of an artist is essentially individual, the method of an artist is absolutely universal. The first personality, which no one should copy.”

ShouldFirstsArtistIndividualStudyPersonalityUniversalMethodCopiesGreat ArtGreat Artist
Book:The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde: Novel, Short Stories, Poetry, Essays and Plays
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“If a friend of mine gave a feast, and did not invite me to it, I should not mind a bit. but if a friend of mine had a sorrow and refused to allow me to share it, I should feel it most bitterly. If he shut the doors of the house of mourning against me, I would move back again and again and beg to be admitted so that I might share in what I was entitled to share. If he thought me unworthy, unfit to weep with him, I should feel it as the most poignant humiliation.”

IfsFeelsShouldMindMightMovingHouseBitsFriendshipDoorsShareMinesSorrowMourningBitternessInvitesAgain And AgainEntitledHumiliationUnworthyBack AgainPoignant
Author:Oscar Wilde
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