Oscar Wilde Quotes

“Punctuality is the thief of time”

“The nicest feeling in the world is to do a good deed anonymously-and have somebody find out.”

“I was very much disappointed in the Atlantic Ocean.”

“The 19thc hatred of Realism is Caliban's enraged reaction to seeing his own face in the mirror. The 19thc rejection of Romanticism is Caliban's fury at not seeing his face reflected in the mirror.”

“A red rose is not selfish because it wants to be a red rose. It would be horribly selfish if it wanted all the other flowers in the garden to be both red and roses.”

“Those who find beautiful meanings in beautiful things are the cultivated. For these there is hope. They are the elect to whom beautiful things mean only beauty.”

“What seems to us as bitter trials are often blessings in disguise for which we are later, in the fullness of time and understanding, very grateful for!”

“My dear Arthur, I never talk scandal. I only talk gossip. What is the difference between scandal and gossip? Oh! Gossip is charming! History is merely gossip. But scandal is gossip made tedious by morality.”

“Pleasure is the only thing one should live for, nothing ages like happiness.”

“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.”

“The worst thing to do with success, is to boast about it.”

“If people are dishonest once, they will be dishonest a second time. And honest people should keep away from them. (Lady Chiltern)”

“True friends stab you in the front.”

“The only way to behave to a woman is to make love to her if she is pretty, and to someone else if she is plain.”

“I've now realised for the first time in my life the vital Importance of Being Earnest.”

“Philosophy teaches us to bear with equanimity the misfortunes of others.”

“When good Americans die, they go to Paris" "Where do bad Americans go?" "They stay in America”

“Nothing annoys people so much as not receiving invitations.”

“Down the long and silent street, The dawn, with silver-sandaled feet, Crept like a frightened girl.”

“Of course I have played outdoor games. I once played dominoes in an open air cafe in Paris.”

“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.”

“I tremble with pleasure when I think that on the very day of my leaving prison both the laburnum and the lilac will be blooming in the gardens, and that I shall see the wind stir into restless beauty the swaying gold of the one, and make the other toss the pale purple of its plumes, so that all the air shall be Arabia for me.”

“There is always something ridiculous about the emotions of people whom one has ceased to love.”

“Believe me, no civilized man ever regrets a pleasure, and no uncivilized man ever knows what a pleasure is.”

“How you can sit there, calmly eating muffins when we are in this horrible trouble, I can’t make out. You seem to me to be perfectly heartless." "Well, I can’t eat muffins in an agitated manner. The butter would probably get on my cuffs. One should always eat muffins quite calmly. It is the only way to eat them." "I say it’s perfectly heartless your eating muffins at all, under the circumstances.”