Oscar Wilde's quote

Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 1854 – 30 November 1900) was an Irish writer and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s. Today he is remembered for his epigrams, plays and the circumstances of his imprisonment, followed by his early death.

오스카 와일드 (ko)
Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.
I am so clever that sometimes I don't understand a single word of what I am saying.
Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much.
To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.
There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about. The Picture of Dorian Gray
I don't want to be at the mercy of my emotions. I want to use them, to enjoy them, and to dominate them. The Picture of Dorian Gray
Every woman is a rebel.
Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live.
Only dull people are brilliant at breakfast.
Life is far too important a thing ever to talk seriously about. Lady Windermere's Fan
To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance. An Ideal Husband
I have the simplest tastes. I am always satisfied with the best.
No good deed goes unpunished.
Whenever people agree with me I always feel I must be wrong.
Morality is simply the attitude we adopt towards people we personally dislike. An Ideal Husband
To define is to limit. The Picture of Dorian Gray
A man's face is his autobiography. A woman's face is her work of fiction.
We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars. Lady Windermere's Fan
If one cannot enjoy reading a book over and over again, there is no use in reading it at all.
You can never be overdressed or overeducated.
Yes: I am a dreamer. For a dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world. The Critic as Artist
It is what you read when you don't have to that determines what you will be when you can't help it.
The pure and simple truth is rarely pure and never simple.
The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame.
I don't want to go to heaven. None of my friends are there.
Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation.
A good friend will always stab you in the front.
Never love anyone who treats you like you're ordinary.
Customs officer : Do you have anything to declare? Oscar Wilde : I have nothing to declare except my genius.
Quotation is a serviceable substitute for wit.
All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. No man does, and that is his. The Importance of Being Earnest
I can resist anything except temptation. Lady Windermere's Fan
Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go.
I am too fond of reading books to care to write them. The Picture of Dorian Gray
There are only two kinds of people who are really fascinating: people who know absolutely everything, and people who know absolutely nothing.
We are each our own devil, and we make this world our hell.
Anybody can sympathise with the sufferings of a friend, but it requires a very fine nature to sympathise with a friend's success.
When one is in love, one always begins by deceiving one's self, and one always ends by deceiving others. That is what the world calls a romance. The Picture of Dorian Gray
America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between.
The only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it. The Picture of Dorian Gray
Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months.
The very essence of romance is uncertainty. The Importance of Being Earnest and Other Plays
You don't love someone for their looks, or their clothes, or for their fancy car, but because they sing a song only you can hear.
Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught.
A cynic is a man who knows the price of everything, and the value of nothing.
Everything in the world is about sex except sex. Sex is about power.
Experience is merely the name men gave to their mistakes. The Picture of Dorian Gray
I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read in the train. The Importance of Being Earnest
Women are meant to be loved, not to be understood. Lord Arthur Savile's Crime and Other Stories
I am not young enough to know everything.
A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it.
The heart was made to be broken.
Every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future.
You will always be fond of me. I represent to you all the sins you never had the courage to commit. The Picture of Dorian Gray
Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.
I think God, in creating man, somewhat overestimated his ability.
Anyone who lives within their means suffers from a lack of imagination.
The good ended happily, and the bad unhappily. That is what Fiction means. The Importance of Being Earnest
An idea that is not dangerous is unworthy of being called an idea at all.
Yes, death. Death must be so beautiful. To lie in the soft brown earth, with the grasses waving above one's head, and listen to silence. To have no yesterday, and no to-morrow. To forget time, to forget life, to be at peace. You can help me. You can open for me the portals of death's house, for love is always with you, and love is stronger than death is. The Canterville Ghost
Men always want to be a woman’s first love. That is their clumsy vanity. We women have a more subtle instinct about these things. What (women) like is to be a man’s last romance.
Music makes one feel so romantic - at least it always gets on one's nerves - which is the same thing nowadays.
The only good thing to do with good advice is pass it on; it is never of any use to oneself. An Ideal Husband
The nicest feeling in the world is to do a good deed anonymously-and have somebody find out.
There are many things that we would throw away if we were not afraid that others might pick them up.
Humanity takes itself too seriously. It is the world's original sin. If the cave-man had known how to laugh, History would have been different. The Picture of Dorian Gray
Nowadays people know the price of everything and the value of nothing. The Picture of Dorian Gray
The public have an insatiable curiosity to know everything, except what is worth knowing. The Soul of Man Under Socialism and Selected Critical Prose
Indeed I have always been of the opinion that hard work is simply the refuge of people who have nothing to do.
How can a woman be expected to be happy with a man who insists on treating her as if she were a perfectly normal human being
A bore is someone who deprives you of solitude without providing you with company.
There is no sin except stupidity.
Youth is wasted on the young.
Art is the only serious thing in the world. And the artist is the only person who is never serious.
Paradoxically though it may seem, it is none the less true that life imitates art far more than art imitates life.
To get back my youth I would do anything in the world, except take exercise, get up early, or be respectable.
Children begin by loving their parents; after a time they judge them; rarely, if ever, do they forgive them.
There are moments when one has to choose between living one's own life, fully, entirely, completely-or dragging out some false, shallow, degrading existence that the world in its hypocrisy demands. Lady Windermere's Fan
Everything in moderation, including moderation.
I like persons better than principles, and I like persons with no principles better than anything else in the world.
The mystery of love is greater than the mystery of death. Salome
After a good dinner one can forgive anybody, even one's own relatives.
Nowadays most people die of a sort of creeping common sense, and discover when it is too late that the only things one never regrets are one's mistakes. The Picture of Dorian Gray
One should never trust a woman who tells one her real age. A woman who would tell one that would tell one anything.
Women have a much better time than men in this world; there are far more things forbidden to them.
We live in an age when unnecessary things are our only necessities.
Society often forgives the criminal; it never forgives the dreamer.
Behind every exquisite thing that existed, there was something tragic. The Picture of Dorian Gray
Laughter is not at all a bad beginning for a friendship, and it is by far the best ending for one. The Picture of Dorian Gray
I never put off till tomorrow what I can possibly do - the day after.
Hear no evil, speak no evil, and you won't be invited to cocktail parties.
The aim of life is self-development. To realize one's nature perfectly - that is what each of us is here for.
Life is never fair, and perhaps it is a good thing for most of us that it is not.
The world was my oyster but I used the wrong fork.
He has no enemies, but is intensely disliked by his friends.
A man can be happy with any woman as long as he does not love her.
Keep love in your heart. A life without it is like a sunless garden when the flowers are dead. The consciousness of loving and being loved brings a warmth and a richness to life that nothing else can bring.
Everything popular is wrong.
Work is the curse of the drinking classes.
Life has been your art. You have set yourself to music. Your days are your sonnets.
The world is changed because you are made of ivory and gold. The curves of your lips rewrite history. The Picture of Dorian Gray
The play was a great success, but the audience was a total failure
I don't like compliments, and I don't see why a man should think he is pleasing a woman enormously when he says to her a whole heap of things that he doesn't mean.
Men marry because they are tired; women, because they are curious: both are disappointed. The Picture of Dorian Gray
The public is wonderfully tolerant. It forgives everything except genius. The Artist as Critic: Critical Writings of Oscar Wilde
Consistency is the hallmark of the unimaginative.
One should always play fairly when one has the winning cards.
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. The Picture of Dorian Gray
Illusion is the first of all pleasures
Some things are too important to be taken seriously.
Some things are more precious because they don't last long. The Picture of Dorian Gray
Life is not complex. We are complex. Life is simple, and the simple thing is the right thing.
Popularity is the one insult I have never suffered.
I was working on the proof of one of my poems all the morning, and took out a comma. In the afternoon I put it back again.
I adore simple pleasures. They are the last refuge of the complex.
Between men and women there is no friendship possible. There is passion, enmity, worship, love, but no friendship.
There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written. That is all. The Picture of Dorian Gray
I love acting. It is so much more real than life. The Picture of Dorian Gray
Wickedness is a myth invented by good people to account for the curious attractiveness of others.
Ordinary riches can be stolen, real riches cannot. In your soul are infinitely precious things that cannot be taken from you.
Punctuality is the thief of time
Every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of the sitter. The Picture of Dorian Gray
In old days books were written by men of letters and read by the public. Nowadays books are written by the public and read by nobody.
When Oscar Wilde was asked in an interview to list his 100 favorite books he said he could not. When asked why, he replied, 'Because I have only written five.
One can always be kind to people about whom one cares nothing. The Picture of Dorian Gray
Each of us has heaven and hell in him...
Moderation is a fatal thing. Nothing succeeds like excess.
They've promised that dreams can come true - but forgot to mention that nightmares are dreams, too.
As long as a woman can look ten years younger than her daughter, she is perfectly satisfied The Picture of Dorian Gray
Always! That is a dreadful word. It makes me shudder when I hear it. Women are so fond of using it. They spoil every romance by trying to make it last forever. It is a meaningless word, too. The only difference between a caprice and a life-long passion is that the caprice lasts a little longer. The Picture of Dorian Gray
One's real life is so often the life that one does not lead.
My own business always bores me to death; I prefer other people's.
Ultimately the bond of all companionship, whether in marriage or in friendship, is conversation, and conversation must have a common basis, and between two people of widely different culture the only common basis possible is the lowest level.
When a woman marries again, it is because she detested her first husband. When a man marries again, it is because he adored his first wife. Women try their luck; men risk theirs. The Picture of Dorian Gray
It takes great courage to see the world in all its tainted glory, and still to love it. And even more courage to see it in the one you love An Ideal Husband
What does it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul? The Picture of Dorian Gray
Where there is sorrow, there is holy ground.
After the first glass, you see things as you wish they were. After the second, you see things as they are not. Finally, you see things as they really are, and that is the most horrible thing in the world.
Experience is one thing you can't get for nothing.
It is only shallow people who do not judge by appearances. The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible.... The Picture of Dorian Gray
A man who does not think for himself does not think at all.
We women, as some one says, love with our ears, just as you men love with your eyes... The Picture of Dorian Gray
She...can talk brillantly upon any subject provided she knows nothing about it.
A passion for pleasure is the secret of remaining young.
The difference between literature and journalism is that journalism is unreadable and literature is not read.
Bigamy is having one wife too many. Monogamy is the same.
Art is the most intense mode of individualism that the world has known.
A pessimist is somebody who complains about the noise when opportunity knocks.
People who count their chickens before they are hatched act very wisely because chickens run about so absurdly that it's impossible to count them accurately.
You like every one; that is to say, you are indifferent to every one. The Picture of Dorian Gray
The only way a woman can ever reform a man is by boring him so completely that he loses all possible interest in life.
I knew nothing but shadows and I thought them to be real. The Picture of Dorian Gray
Life is a nightmare that prevents one from sleeping.
I see when men love women. They give them but a little of their lives. But women when they love give everything.
Oscar Wilde was suing the Marquis of Queensbury in 1895 for libel accusing Wilde of homosexuality Counsel: Have you ever adored a young man madly? Wilde: I have never given adoration to anyone except myself.
When good Americans die, they go to Paris.
'It is perfectly monstrous,' he said, at last, 'the way people go about nowadays saying things against one behind one's back that are absolutely and entirely true.' The Picture of Dorian Gray
There is only one class in the community that thinks more about money than the rich, and that is the poor.
I love to talk about nothing it's the only thing I know anything about.
I am sick of women who love one. Women who hate one are much more interesting.
I do not approve of anything that tampers with natural ignorance. Ignorance is like a delicate exotic fruit; touch it and the bloom is gone. The whole theory of modern education is radically unsound. Fortunately in England, at any rate, education produces no effect whatsoever. The Importance of Being Earnest
If you want to be a doormat you have to lay yourself down first.
A true friend stabs you in the front.
Deceiving others. That is what the world calls a romance.
It is through art, and through art only, that we can realise our perfection.
They get up early, because they have so much to do, and go to bed early, because they have so little to think about. The Picture of Dorian Gray
Discontent is the first step in the progress of a man or a nation.
If you cannot write well, you cannot think well; if you cannot think well, others will do your thinking for you.
I really don't see anything romantic in proposing. It is very romantic to be in love. But there is nothing romantic about a definite proposal. Why, one may be accepted. One usually is, I believe. Then the excitement is all over. The very essence of romance is uncertainty. If ever I get married, I'll certainly try to forget the fact. The Importance of Being Earnest
Morality, like art, means drawing a line someplace.
No great artist ever sees things as they really are. If he did, he would cease to be an artist.
All art is at once surface and symbol. Those who go beneath the surface do so at their peril. The Picture of Dorian Gray
I have no objection to anyone’s sex life as long as they don’t practice it in the street and frighten the horses.
Life is one fool thing after another whereas love is two fool things after each other. The Happy Prince and Other Tales
The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible.
When you really want love you will find it waiting for you. De Profundis
I hate vulgar realism in literature. The man who would call a spade a spade should be compelled to use one. The Picture of Dorian Gray
Alcohol, taken in sufficient quantities, may produce all the effects of drunkenness.
If you don't get everything you want, think of the things you don't get that you don't want.
Experience is the name everyone gives to their mistakes.
The best way to make children good is to make them happy.
When I was young, I thought that money was the most important thing in life; now that I am old, I know it is.
I don't play accurately, any one can play accurately, but I play with wonderful expression. As far as the piano is concerned, sentiment is my forte. I keep science for Life.