“It is safer to beg than to take, but it is finer to take than to beg.”
Source: The Soul of Man under Socialism
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Famous Oscar Wilde Quotes
“Some cause happiness wherever they go; others, whenever they go.”
“Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes.”
Source: Epigrams and Aphorisms
“We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.”
“Men always want to be a woman's first love - women like to be a man's last romance.”
Source: Epigrams & Aphorisms
Source: Epigrams
“A gentleman is one who never hurts anyone's feelings unintentionally.”
Source: The Collected Works of Oscar Wilde
“A man can be happy with any woman, as long as he does not love her.”
Source: Collected Works of Oscar Wilde: The Plays, the Poems, the Stories and the Essays Including De Profundis
“I have the simplest tastes. I am always satisfied with the best.”
Source: The Wit and Humor of Oscar Wilde
“He has no enemies, but he is intensely disliked by his friends.”
“A man's face is his autobiography. A woman's face is her work of fiction.”
Source: The Wit and Wisdom of Oscar Wilde
“A man who does not think for himself does not think at all.”
Source: Aphorisms
“Morality is simply the attitude we adopt towards people whom we personally dislike.”
“A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal.”
“Laughter is not at all a bad beginning for a friendship, and it is far the best ending for one.”
Source: The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde: The picture of Dorian Gray : the 1890 and 1891 texts
“An idea that is not dangerous is unworthy of being called an idea at all.”
Source: The Collected Works of Oscar Wilde
Source: The Wit and Wisdom of Oscar Wilde
“Whenever people agree with me I always feel I must be wrong.”
“Deceiving others. That is what the world calls a romance.”
Source: The Collected Works of Oscar Wilde
“A poet can survive everything but a misprint.”
Source: Reviews
“No object is so beautiful that, under certain conditions, it will not look ugly.”
Source: Essays and Lectures: Top Essays
“As long as a woman can look ten years younger than her own daughter, she is perfectly satisfied.”
Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray (Diversion Classics)
“Everybody who is incapable of learning has taken to teaching.”
Source: The Wit and Wisdom of Oscar Wilde
“One should always play fairly when one has the winning cards.”
Source: The Best of Oscar Wilde: Selected Plays and Writings
“If one plays good music, people don't listen and if one plays bad music people don't talk.”
Source: The Best of Oscar Wilde: Selected Plays and Writings
Source: The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde (more than 150 Works)
“It is better to have a permanent income than to be fascinating.”
Source: Aphorisms
“How marriage ruins a man! It is as demoralizing as cigarettes, and far more expensive.”
Source: Lady Windermere's Fan
“No woman should ever be quite accurate about her age. It looks so calculating.”
Source: The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde: Novel, Short Stories, Poetry, Essays and Plays
“Anyone who lives within their means suffers from a lack of imagination.”
Source: The Happy Prince
“Every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future.”
Source: The Prose of Oscar Wilde
“If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh, otherwise they'll kill you.”
Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray - and more
“Other people are quite dreadful. The only possible society is oneself.”
Source: The Importance of Being Earnest and Other Plays
“One must have a heart of stone to read the death of little Nell without laughing.”
“It is a curious fact that people are never so trivial as when they take themselves seriously”
Source: A Critic in Pall Mall: Being Extracts from Reviews and Miscellanies
Source: The Picture Of Dorian Gray