Oscar Wilde Quotes

These are some assorted quotes from Oscar Wilde.

Newest Quotes

The typewriting machine, when played with expression, is no more annoying than the piano when played by a sister or near relation. -- Oscar Wilde

Young men want to be faithful and are not;
old men want to be faithless and cannot.
-- Oscar Wilde

Man is a rational animal who always loses his temper when he is called upon to act in accordance with the dictates of reason. -- Oscar Wilde

I have the simplest tastes, I am always satisfied with the best. -- Oscar Wilde

A cynic is a man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing. -- Oscar Wilde

A kiss may ruin a human life. -- Oscar Wilde

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. -- Oscar Wilde

A man can't be too careful in the choice of his enemies. -- Oscar Wilde

A man who desires to get married should know either everything or nothing. -- Oscar Wilde

Anybody can make history; only a great man can write it. -- Oscar Wilde

Democracy means simply the bludgeoning of the people, by the people, for the people. -- Oscar Wilde

Duty is what one expects from others. -- Oscar Wilde

Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught. -- Oscar Wilde

It is better to have a permanent income than to be fascinating. -- Oscar Wilde

I can resist everything except temptation. -- Oscar Wilde

I love acting. It is so much more real than life. -- Oscar Wilde

I sometimes think that God in creating man somewhat overestimated his ability. -- Oscar Wilde

Imagination is a quality given a man to compensate him for what he is not, and a sense of humor was provided to console him for what he is. -- Oscar Wilde

It is only the modern that ever becomes old-fashioned. -- Oscar Wilde

It is perfectly monstrous the way people go about, nowadays, saying things against one behind one's back that are absolutely and entirely true. -- Oscar Wilde

It often happens that the real tragedies of life occur in such an inartistic manner that they hurt us by their crude violence, their absolute incoherence, their absurd want of meaning, their entire lack of style. -- Oscar Wilde

Lots of people act well, but few people talk well. This shows that talking is the more difficult of the two. -- Oscar Wilde

Music is the art which is most nigh to tears and memory. -- Oscar Wilde

My experience is that as soon as people are old enough to know better, they don't know anything at all. -- Oscar Wilde

No woman should ever be quite accurate about her age. It looks so calculating. -- Oscar Wilde

Perhaps, after all, America never has been discovered. I myself would say that it had merely been detected. -- Oscar Wilde

Punctuality is the thief of time. -- Oscar Wilde

Self-denial is the shining sore on the leprous body of Christianity. -- Oscar Wilde

The old believe everything, the middle-aged suspect everything, the young know everything. -- Oscar Wilde

The only difference between the saint and the sinner is that every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future. -- Oscar Wilde

The public is wonderfully tolerant. It forgives everything except genius. -- Oscar Wilde

There is luxury in self-reproach. When we blame ourselves, we feel no one else has a right to blame us. -- Oscar Wilde

To believe is very dull. To doubt is intensely engrossing. To be on the alert is to live, to be lulled into security is to die. -- Oscar Wilde

We have really everything in common with America nowadays except, of course, language. -- Oscar Wilde

Woman are meant to be loved, not to be understood. -- Oscar Wilde

Woman begins by resisting a man's advances and ends by blocking his retreat. -- Oscar Wilde

Women love us for our defects. If we have enough of them, they will forgive us everything, even our gigantic intellects. -- Oscar Wilde

Yet each man kills the thing he loves, from all let this be heard. Some does it with a bitter look, some with a flattering word. The coward does it with a kiss the brave man with the sword. -- Oscar Wilde

Older Quotes

The good ended happily, and the bad unhappily. That is what 'fiction' means. -- Oscar Wilde

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