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| Oscar Wilde born 1854 died 1900 was a famous Irish author playwright and poet |
Quotes by Oscar Wilde
Bernard Shaw is an
excellent man; he has not an enemy in the world, and none of his friends like
him either.
A thing is not necessarily
true because a man dies for it.
Education is an admirable
thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth
knowing can be taught.
The English country
gentleman galloping after a fox is the unspeakable in full pursuit of the
uneatable.
The brotherhood of man is
not a mere poet’s dream; it is a most depressing and humiliating reality.
There are two ways of
disliking art. One is to dislike it. The other is to like it rationally.
There is only one thing in
the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked
about.
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.
Alas, I am dying beyond my
means.
Why was I born with such contemporaries?
Lawyers have been known to
wrestle from reluctant juries triumphant verdicts of acquittal for their
clients, even when those clients, as often happens, were clearly and
unmistakably innocent.
America has been
discovered before, but it has always been hushed up.
The typewriting machine,
when played with expression, is no more annoying than the piano when played by
a sister or near relation.
Arguments are extremely
vulgar, for everyone in good society holds exactly the same opinion.
As long as war is regarded
as wicked, it will always have its fascination. When it is looked upon as
vulgar, it will cease to be popular.
While riding in a train
between London and Birmingham, a woman inquired of Oscar Wilde, “You don’t mind
if I smoke, do you?” Wilde gave her a sidelong glance and replied, “I don’t
mind if you burn, madam.”
Whenever people agree with
me I always feel I must be wrong.
The only thing to do with
good advice is pass it on. It is never any use to oneself.
There are two ways of
disliking poetry; one way is to dislike it, the other is to read Pope.
Bad artists always admire
each other’s work.
We are all in the gutter,
but some of us are looking at the stars.
To be popular I must be
mediocre.
Nothing makes one so vain
as being told that one is a sinner. Conscience makes egotists of us all.
My own business always
bores me to death; I prefer other people’s.
The worst vice of the
fanatic is his sincerity.
Democracy means simply the
bludgeoning of the people by the people for the people.
It is exactly because a
man cannot do a thing that he is a proper judge of it.
The truth is rarely pure,
and never simple.
It is a very sad thing
that nowadays there is so little useless information.
The only proper
intoxication is conversation.
Only great masters of
style can succeed in being obtuse.
The one charm of marriage
is that it makes a life of deception a necessity.
Fashion is a form of
ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months.
Patriotism is the virtue
of the vicious.
I always choose my friends
for their good looks and my enemies for their good intellects. Man cannot be
too careful in his choice of enemies.
I always pass on good
advice. It is the only thing to do with it. It is never any good to oneself.
I have the simplest tastes. I am always satisfied with the best.
If England treats her
criminals the way she has treated me, she doesn’t deserve to have any.
If one cannot enjoy
reading a book over and over again, there is no use in reading it at all.
If one tells the truth,
one is sure, sooner or later, to be found out.
If we men married the
women we deserved, we should have a very bad time of it.
In this world there are
only two tragedies. One is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting
it.
