"We think that we are generous because..." - Quote by Oscar Wilde

“It was the passions about whose origin we deceived ourselves that tyrannized most strongly over us.”

“To get back my youth I would do anything in the world, except take exercise, get up early, or be respectable.”

“I adore simple pleasures. They are the last refuge of the complex.”

“Hope, deceitful as it is, carries us through life agreeably enough.”

“I think the Romans must have aggravated one another very much, with their noses. Perhaps, they became the restless people they were, in consequence.”

“...we rarely confide in those who are better than we. Rather, we are more inclined to flee their society. Most often, on the other hand, we confess to those who are like us and who share our weaknesses. Hence we don't want to improve ourselves and be bettered, for we should first have to be judged in default. We merely wish to be pitied and encouraged in the course we have chosen. In short, we should like, at the same time, to cease being guilty and yet not to make the effort of cleansing ourselves.”

“Courtesy is only a thin veneer on the general selfishness.”

“When I was young, I was very selfish, now not any more.”

“Those who live to the future must always appear selfish to those who live to the present.”