Oscar Wilde Quotes
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The great events of life often leave one unmoved; they pass out of consciousness, and, when thinks of them, become unreal. Even the scarlet flowers of passion seem to grow in the same meadow as the poppies of oblivion. We reject the burden of their memory, and have anodynes against them. But the little things, the things of no moment, remain with us. In some tiny ivory cell the brain stores the most delicate, and the most fleeting impressions.
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When I had to fill in my immigration papers, I gave my age as 19, and my profession as genius; I added that I had nothing to declare except my talent.
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Varnishing is the only artistic process with which Royal Academicians are thoroughly familiar.
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The weather is entrancing, but in my heart there is no sun.
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Romantic literature is in effect imaginative lying.
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The moment that an artist takes notice of what other people want, and tries to supply the demand, he ceases to be an artist.
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He wanted to be where no one would know who he was. He wanted to escape from himself.
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His sudden mad love for Sibyl Vane was a psychological phenomenon of no small interest. There was no doubt that curiosity had much to do with it, curiosity and the desire for new experiences; yet it was not a simple but rather a very complex passion.
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She behaves as if she was beautiful. Most American women do. It is the secret of their charm.
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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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Missionaries are going to reform the world whether it wants to or not.
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I never change, except in my affections.
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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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I approve of any activity that requires the wearing of special clothing.
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The true artist is known by what he annexes, and he annexes everything.
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History is merely gossip.
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I was disappointed in Niagara -- most people must be disappointed in Niagara. Every American bride is taken there, and the sight of the stupendous waterfall must be one of the earliest, if not the keenest, disappointments in American married life.
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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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However, I think anything is better than high intellectual pressure. That is the most unbecoming thing there is. It makes the noses of the young girls so particularly large.
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There are moments when art attains almost to the dignity of manual labor.
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The sign of a Philistine age is the cry of immorality against art.
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Philosophy is like a normal personal organizer, but it's smaller than a matchbox.
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Artists, like the Greek gods, are only revealed to one another.
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He lives the poetry that he cannot write. The others write the poetry that they dare not realize.