Oscar Wilde Quotes
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Genius is born-not paid.
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M. Zola is determined to show that, if he has not got genius, he can at least be dull.
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An actor is part illusionist, part artist, part ham.
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I prefer women with a past. They're always so damned amusing to talk to.
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The birds that were singing in the dew-drenched garden seemed to be telling the flowers about her.
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The cities of America are inexpressibly tedious. The Bostonians take their learning too sadly; culture with them is an accomplishment rather than an atmosphere; their Hub, as they call it, is the paradise of prigs. Chicago is a sort of monster-shop, full of bustles and bores. Political life at Washington is like political life in a suburban vestry. Baltimore is amusing for a week, but Philadelphia is dreadfully provincial; and though one can dine in New York one could not dwell there.
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I did not think I should be ever loved: do you indeed Love me so much as now you say you do? Ask of the sea-bird if it loves the sea, Ask of the roses if they love the rain, Ask of the little lark, that will not sing Till day break, if it loves to see the day: And yet, these are but empty images, Mere shadows of my love, which is a fire So great that all the waters of the main Can not avail to quench it.
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Mrs. Allonby: No man does. That is his.
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As yet, Bernard Shaw hasn't become prominent enough to have any enemies, but none of his friends like him.
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In England people actually try to be brilliant at breakfast. That is so dreadful of them! Only dull people are brilliant at breakfast.
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I am afraid that you have been listening to the conversation of someone older than yourself. That is always a dangerous thing to do, and if you allow it to degenerate into a habit, you will find it absolutely fatal to any intellectual development.
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I have never met any really wicked person before. I feel rather frightened. I am so afraid he will look just like every one else.
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Some of these people need ten years of therapy -ten sentences of mine do not equal ten years of therapy.
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The only one you need in your life is that person who shows you he needs you in his.
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The final mystery is oneself... Who can calculate the orbit of his own soul.
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Judges, like the criminal classes, have their lighter moments.
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The trouble with the lower classes is that they lack the sense of tragedy given to them by the upper classes.
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You like every one; that is to say, you are indifferent to every one.
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The modern sympathy with invalids is morbid. Illness of any kind is hardly a thing to be encouraged in others.
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The nineteenth century is a turning point in history, simply on account of the work of two men, Darwin and Renan, the one the critic of the Book of Nature, the other the critic of the books of God. Not to recognise this is to miss the meaning of one of the most important eras in the progress of the world.
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I am sick of women who love one. Women who hate one are much more interesting.
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The mere mechanical technique of acting can be taught, but the spirit that is to give life to lifeless forms must be born in a man. No dramatic college can teach its pupils to think or to feel. It is Nature who makes our artists for us, though it may be Art who taught them their right mode of expression.
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The terror of society, which is the basis of morals, the terror of God, which is the secret of religion-these are the two things that govern us.
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In art, the public accept what has been, because they cannot alter it, not because they appreciate it. They swallow their classics whole, and never taste them.