Oscar Wilde Quotes
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A flower blossoms for its own joy.
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A subject that is beautiful in itself gives no suggestion to the artist. It lacks imperfection.
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Literature must rest always on a principle, and temporal considerations are no principle at all. For, to the poet, all times and places are one; the stuff he deals with is eternal and eternally the same: no theme is inept, no past or present preferable.
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The true perfection of man lies not in what man has, but in what man is.
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Set in this stormy Northern sea, Queen of these restless fields of tide, England! what shall men say of thee, Before whose feet the worlds divide?
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When a golden girl can win Prayer from out the lips of sin, When the barren almond bears, And a little child gives away its tears, Then shall all the house be still And peace come to Canterville.
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I have grown to love secrecy. It seems to be the one thing that can make modern life mysterious or marvelous to us. The commonest thing is delightful if only one hides it.
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Nowadays, all the married men live like bachelors, and all the bachelors like married men.
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A writer is someone who has taught his mind to misbehave.
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If I hadn't believed it, then I wouldn't have seen it.
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I will not bare my soul to their shallow prying eyes. My heart shall never be put under their microscope.
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The amount of women in London who flirt with their own husbands is perfectly scandalous. It looks so bad. It is simply washing one’s clean linen in public.
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Private information is practically the source of every large modern fortune.
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Poor? What does that matter? When poverty creeps in at the door, love flies in through the window.
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There is no such thing as a good influence. Because to influence a person is to give him one's own soul. He does not think his natural thoughts, or burn with his natural passions. His virtures are not real to him. His sins, if there are such thing as sins, are borrowed. He becomes an echo of someone else's music, an actor of a part that has not been written for him.
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I love talking about nothing. It is the only thing I know anything about.
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As a wicked man I am a complete failure. Why, there are lots of people who say I have never really done anything wrong in the whole course of my life. Of course they only say it behind my back.
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Bore: a man who is never unintentionally rude.
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Civilisation is not by any means an easy thing to attain to. There are only two ways by which man can reach it. One is by being cultured, the other by being corrupt.
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Philanthropy has become simply the refuge of people who wish to annoy their fellow creatures.
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It would leave no room for developments and I intend to develop in many directions.
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And thus we rust Life's iron chain Degraded and alone: And some men curse, and some men weep, And some men make no moan: But God's eternal Laws are kind And break the heart of stone.
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Only people who look dull ever get into the House of Commons, and only people who are dull ever succeed there.
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The General was essentially a man of peace, except in his domestic life.