Oscar Wilde Quotes
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America has never quite forgiven Europe for having been discovered somewhat earlier in history than itself.
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Even now I cannot help feeling that it is a mistake to think that the passion one feels in creation is ever really shown in the work one creates.
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But she is happiest alone. She is happiest alone.
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It is curious how vanity helps the successful man and wrecks the failure.
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Is it thy will that I should wax and wane, Barter my cloth of gold for hodden grey, And at thy pleasure weave that web of pain Whose brightest threads are each a wasted day?
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Rugby is a game for barbarians played by gentlemen. Football is a game for gentlemen played by barbarians.
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Lord Illingworth told me this morning that there was an orchid there as beautiful as the seven deadly sins.
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I love the French language... it's a delightful language, especially to curse with. It's like whopping your ass with silk.
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The English public, as a mass, takes no interest in a work of art until it is told that the work in question is immoral.
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The gods have been good to you. But what the gods give they quickly take away. You have only a few years in which to live really, perfectly, and fully. When your youth goes, your beauty will go with it, and then you will suddenly discover that there are no triumphs left for you, or have to content yourself with those mean triumphs that the memory of your past will make more bitter than defeats. Every month as it wanes bring you nearer to something dreadful. Time is jealous of you, and wars against your lilies and your roses.
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The whole theory of modern education is radically unsound. Fortunately in England, at any rate, education produces no effect whatsoever. If it did, it would prove a serious danger to the upper classes, and probably lead to acts of violence.
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It is not wise to find symbols in everything that one sees. It makes life too full of terrors.
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There is nothing that art cannot express.
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If a man needs an elaborate tombstone in order to remain in the memory of his country, it is clear that his living at all was an act of absolute superfluity.
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London is full of women who trust their husbands. One can always recognize them. They look so thoroughly unhappy.
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No woman should have a memory. Memory in a woman is the beginning of dowdiness. One can always tell from a woman's bonnet whether she has got a memory or not.
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My writing has gone to bits - like my character. I am simply a self-conscious nerve in pain.
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I find that forgiving one's enemies is a most curious morbid pleasure; perhaps I should check it.
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Newspapers have degenerated. They may now be absolutely relied upon.
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He is fond of being misunderstood. It gives him a post of vantage.
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The fatal errors of life are not due to man's being unreasonable: an unreasonable moment may be one's finest moment. They are due to man's being logical.
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All modes of government are failures. Despotism is unjust to everybody, including the despot, who was probably made for better things. Oligarchies are unjust to the many, and ochlocracies are unjust to the few. High hopes were once formed of democracy; but democracy means simply the bludgeoning of the people by the people for the people. It has been found out. I must say that it was high time, for all authority is quite degrading. It degrades those who exercise it, and degrades those over whom it is exercised.
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I don't like principles. I prefer prejudices.
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Art is the only serious thing in the world. And the artist is the only person who is never serious.