Oscar Wilde Quotes
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In his very rejection of art Walt Whitman is an artist. He tried to produce a certain effect by certain means and he succeeded....He stands apart, and the chief value of his work is in its prophecy, not in its performance. He has begun a prelude to larger themes. He is the herald to a new era. As a man he is the precursor of a fresh type. He is a factor in the heroic and spiritual evolution of the human being. If Poetry has passed him by, Philosophy will take note of him.
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I don't want money. It is only people who pay their bills who want that, and I never pay mine.
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I tremble with pleasure when I think that on the very day of my leaving prison both the laburnum and the lilac will be blooming in the gardens, and that I shall see the wind stir into restless beauty the swaying gold of the one, and make the other toss the pale purple of its plumes, so that all the air shall be Arabia for me.
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A flower blossoms for its own joy.
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The tragedy of growing old is not that one is old but that one is young.
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All that we know who lie in gaol - Is that the wall is strong; And that each day is like a year, A year whose days are long.
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I don't like Switzerland; it has produced nothing but theologians and waiters.
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Surely Love is a wonderful thing. It is more precious than emeralds, and dearer than fine opals. Pearls and pomegranates cannot buy it, nor is it set forth in the marketplace. It may not be purchased of the merchants, for can it be weighed out in the balance for gold.
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One pale woman all alone, The daylight kissing her wan hair, Loitered beneath the gas lamps' flare, With lips of flame and heart of stone.
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They are so pleased to find out other people's secrets. It distracts public attention from their own.
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The sick do not ask if the hand that smoothes their pillow is pure, nor the dying care if the lips that touch their brow have known the kiss of sin.
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But the bravest man among us is afraid of himself.
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Chrysanthemums from gilded argosy Unload their gaudy senseless merchandise.
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Most people are boring and stupid.
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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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I write because it gives me the greatest possible artistic pleasure to write. If my work pleases the few I am gratified. As for the mob, I have no desire to be a popular novelist. It is far too easy.
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Women, as some witty Frenchman once put it, inspire us with the desire to do masterpieces and always prevent us from carrying them out.
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The evolution of man is slow. The injustice of men is great.
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We have little time and lots to do, lets take time for everything we do.
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Personality must be accepted for what it is. You mustn't mind that a poet is a drunk, rather that drunks are not always poets.
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Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live; it is asking others to live as one wishes to live. And unselfishness is letting other people's lives alone, not interfering with them. Selfishness always aims at uniformity of type. Unselfishness recognizes infinite variety of type as a delightful thing, accepts it, acquiesces in it, enjoys it.
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...The two great turning-points of my life were when my father sent to Oxford, and when society sent me to prison.
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If it is not nailed to the floor, it's mine. If I can pry it loose, it is not nailed down.
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No artist is ever morbid. The artist can express everything.