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 good ended happily, and the bad unhappily. That is what Fiction means.
The Importance of Being Earnest (1895), Act IIIn context
- Writing
After the first glass you see things as you wish they were. After the second glass you see things as they are not. Finally, you see things as they really are, and that is the most horrible thing in the world.
Said about Absinthe. Quoted in Ada Leverson, Letters to the Sphinx from Oscar Wilde: With Reminiscences of the Author (London: Duckworth, 1930)
The true perfection of man lies, not in what man has, but in what man is.
The Soul of Man under Socialism (1891)
- Character
The artist is the creator of beautiful things. To reveal art and conceal the artist is art’s aim.
The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891), The PrefaceIn context
- Art
The nineteenth century dislike of realism is the rage of Caliban seeing his own face in a glass.
The nineteenth century dislike of romanticism is the rage of Caliban not seeing his own face in a glass.
The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891), The PrefaceIn context
- Art
All art is at once surface and symbol. Those who go beneath the surface do so at their peril. Those who read the symbol do so at their peril. It is the spectator, and not life, that art really mirrors. Diversity of opinion about a work of art shows that the work is new, complex, and vital.
The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891), The PrefaceIn context
- Art
There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.
The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891), Chapter IIn context
- Fame
- Talking
You seem to forget that I am married, and the one charm of marriage is that it makes a life of deception absolutely necessary for both parties.
The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891), Chapter IIn context
- Marriage
- Truth & Lies
Being natural is simply a pose, and the most irritating pose I know
The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891), Chapter IIn context
- Character
Every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of the sitter.
The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891), Chapter IIn context
- Art
“Conscience and cowardice are really the same things, Basil. Conscience is the trade-name of the firm. That is all.”
The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891), Chapter IIn context
- Courage
- Morality
Laughter is not at all a bad beginning for a friendship, and it is far the best ending for one
The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891), Chapter IIn context
- Friendship
- Laughter
I can’t help detesting my relations. I suppose it comes from the fact that none of us can stand other people having the same faults as ourselves.
The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891), Chapter IIn context
- Family
I like persons better than principles, and I like persons with no principles better than anything else in the world.
The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891), Chapter IIn context
- Character
The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it.
The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891), Chapter IIIn context
- Morality

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