The quotations of

Oscar Wilde

Irish poet, playwright, and aesthete

1854–1900

173 quotes, most often on Marriage, Love and Comedy. Part of the Writers and Poets collections.

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 (1891), Chapter IIIIn context
- Failure
- Wisdom
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 (1891), Chapter IVIn context
- Love
Children begin by loving their parents; as they grow older they judge them; sometimes they forgive them.
The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891), Chapter VIn context
There is always something ridiculous about the emotions of people whom one has ceased to love.
The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891), Chapter VIIIn context
- Love
The man who could call a spade a spade should be compelled to use one.
The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891), Chapter XVIIIn context
- Clever Jabs
“To define is to limit.”
The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891), Chapter XVIIIn context
- Philosophy
To get back my youth I would do anything in the world, except take exercise, get up early, or be respectable.
The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891), Chapter XIXIn context
- Comedy
- Youth
The tragedy of old age is not that one is old, but that one is young.
The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891), Chapter XIXIn context
- Age
- Youth
Really, if the lower orders don’t set us a good example, what on earth is the use of them?
The Importance of Being Earnest (1895), First Act, spoken by AlgernonIn context
- Clever Jabs
- Comedy
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.
The Importance of Being Earnest (1895), First Act, spoken by AlgernonIn context
- Love
- Marriage
Divorces are made in Heaven
The Importance of Being Earnest (1895), First Act, spoken by AlgernonIn context
- Comedy
- Marriage
The truth is rarely pure and never simple. Modern life would be very tedious if it were either, and modern literature a complete impossibility!
The Importance of Being Earnest (1895), First Act, spoken by AlgernonIn context
- Truth & Lies
The amount of women in London who flirt with their own husbands is perfectly scandalous. It looks so bad. It is simply washing one’s clean linen in public.
The Importance of Being Earnest (1895), First Act, spoken by AlgernonIn context
- Comedy
- Marriage
In married life three is company and two is none.
The Importance of Being Earnest (1895), First Act, spoken by AlgernonIn context
- Marriage
Ah! that must be Aunt Augusta. Only relatives, or creditors, ever ring in that Wagnerian manner.
The Importance of Being Earnest (1895), First Act, spoken by AlgernonIn context
- Comedy
- Family

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