Oscar Wilde Quotes
Yes, there is a terrible moral in 'Dorian Gray' - a moral which the prurient will not be able to find in it, but it will be revealed to all whose minds are healthy. Is this an artistic error? I fear it is. It is the only error in the book.
Quotes to Explore
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Beauty is the only thing that time cannot harm. Philosophies fall away like sand, creeds follow one another, but what is beautiful is a joy for all seasons, a possession for all eternity.
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The one duty we owe to history is to rewrite it.
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I think that God, in creating man, somewhat overestimated his ability.
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The truth is rarely pure and never simple.
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Unless one is wealthy there is no use in being a charming fellow. Romance is the privilege of the rich, not the profession of the unemployed. The poor should be practical and prosaic. It is better to have a permanent income than to be fascinating.
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Fathers should be neither seen nor heard. That is the only proper basis for family life.
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A man who marries his mistress leaves a vacancy in that position.
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An acquaintance that begins with a compliment is sure to develop into a real friendship.
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I see when men love women. They give them but a little of their lives. But women when they love give everything.
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I knew nothing but shadows and I thought them to be real.
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It was not intended as a compliment. It was a confession. Now that I have made it, something seems to have gone out of me. Perhaps one should never put one's worship into words.
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What is a cynic? A man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.
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There is only one thing in life worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.
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Children begin by loving their parents; as they grow older they judge them; sometimes, they forgive them.
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Between men and women there is no friendship possible. There is passion, enmity, worship, love, but no friendship.
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Death and vulgarity are the only two facts in the nineteenth century that one cannot explain away.
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The only excuse for making a useless thing is that one admires it intensely. All art is quite useless.
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The one charm about marriage is that it makes a life of deception absolutely necessary for both parties.
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Love is a misunderstanding between two fools.
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Keep love in your heart. A life without it is like a sunless garden when the flowers are dead. The consciousness of loving and being loved brings a warmth and a richness to life that nothing else can bring.
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Love is like a war; easy to start but hard to end and you never know where it might take you.
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The well bred contradict other people. The wise contradict themselves.
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Crying is for plain women. Pretty women go shopping.
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The ugly can be beautiful. The pretty, never.