Oscar Wilde Quotes
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There are as many perfections as there are imperfect men. And while to the claims of charity a man may yield and yet be free, to the claims of conformity no man may yield and remain free at all.
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I can resist anything but the temptation to make a clever witticism.
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Loveless marriages are horrible. But there is one thing worse than an absolutely loveless marriage. A marriage in which there is love, but on one side only; faith, but on one side only; devotion, but on one side only, and in which of the two hearts one is sure to be broken.
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It is a curious fact that people are never so trivial as when they take themselves seriously.
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In its primary aspect, a painting has no more spiritual message than an exquisite fragment of Venetian glass. The channels by which all noble and imaginative work in painting should touch the soul are not those of the truths of lives.
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Alas! it is a fearful thing To feel another's guilt!
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The more one analyses people, the more all reasons for analysis disappear. Sooner or later one comes to that dreadful universal thing called human nature.
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It is only the unimaginative who ever invents. The true artist is known by the use he makes of what he annexes.
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And the wild regrets, and the bloody sweats,None knew so well as I:For he who lives more lives than oneMore deaths than one must die.
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Life is not governed by will or intention. Life is a question of nerves, and fibres, and slowly built-up cells in which thought hides itself and passion has its dreams.
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'Know thyself' was written over the portal of the antique world. Over the portal of the new world, 'Be thyself' shall be written.
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We are specially designed to appeal to the sense of humour.
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Extravagance is the luxury of the poor; penury is the luxury of the rich.
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London is too full of fogs and serious people. Whether the fogs produce the serious people, or whether the serious people produce the fogs, I don't know.
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All art is at once surface and symbol. Those who go beneath the surface do so at their peril. Those who read the symbol do so at their peril. It is the spectator, and not life, that art really mirrors. Diversity of opinion about a work of art shows that the work is new, complex and vital.
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We can forgive a man for making a useful thing as long as he does not admire it.
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I like men who have a future and women who have a past.
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One can survive everything, nowadays, except death, and live down everything except a good reputation.
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We should treat all the trivial things of life seriously, and all the serious things of life with sincere and studied triviality.
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One has a right to judge a man by the effect he has over his friends.
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Sins of the flesh are nothing. They are maladies for physicians to cure, if they should be cured. Sins of the soul alone are shameful.
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An optimist will tell you the glass is half-full; the pessimist, half-empty; and the engineer will tell you the glass is twice the size it needs to be.
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You can fake intelligence, but you can't fake wit.
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Life is not complex. We are complex. Life is simple, and the simple thing is the right thing.