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.

The note of the perfect personality is not rebellion, but peace.
The Soul of Man Under Socialism (1891)
- Character
Action … is the last resource of those who know not how to dream.
The Critic as Artist (1891), Part I
- Motivation & Goals
I summed up all systems in a phrase, and all existence in an epigram.
Written in a letter from Reading Prison to Lord Alfred Douglas (early 1897)
- Writing
Truth, in the matters of religion, is simply the opinion that has survived.
The Critic as Artist (1891), Part I
- Religion
- Truth & Lies
All charming people, I fancy, are spoiled. It is the secret of their attraction.
“The Portrait of Mr. W. H.”, Blackwood’s Magazine (July 1889)
- Character
It seems to me that we all look at Nature too much, and live with her too little.
De Profundis (1897)
- Nature
A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal.
The Critic as Artist (1891), Part II
- Truth & Lies
The things people say of a man do not alter a man. He is what he is. Public opinion is of no value whatsoever.
The Soul of Man Under Socialism (1891)
- Character
It is immoral to use private property in order to alleviate the horrible evils that result from the institution of private property.
The Soul of Man Under Socialism (1891)
- Charity
- Economics
I hope you have not been leading a double life, pretending to be wicked and being really good all the time. That would be hypocrisy.
The Importance of Being Earnest (1895), Act IIIn context
- Comedy
I do not approve of anything that tampers with natural ignorance. Ignorance is like a delicate exotic fruit; touch it and the bloom is gone.
The Importance of Being Earnest (1895)In context
- Education
- Knowledge
As for modern Journalism, its not my business to defend it. It justifies its own existence by the great Darwinian principle of the survival of the vulgarest.
The Critic as Artist (1891), Part I
- Journalism
The absence of old friends one can endure with equanimity. But even a momentary separation from anyone to whom one has just been introduced is almost unbearable.
The Importance of Being Earnest (1895), Act IIIn context
- Friendship
There are as many perfections as there are imperfect men. And while to the claims of charity a man may yield and yet be free, to the claims of conformity no man may yield and remain free at all.
The Soul of Man Under Socialism (1891)
- Freedom
The fact is, that the public have an insatiable curiosity to know everything, except what is worth knowing. Journalism, conscious of this, and having tradesmanlike habits, supplies their demands.
The Soul of Man Under Socialism (1891)
- Journalism

More writers

All 29 writers

C. S. Lewis1898–1963151 quotes

Mark Twain1835–1910151 quotes

Dave Barryborn 1947100 quotes

G. K. Chesterton1874–193694 quotes

Dr. Seuss1904–199112 quotes

Robert A. Heinlein1907–198834 quotes