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.

Duty is what one expects from others.
- Morality
A man’s very highest moment is, I have no doubt at all, when he kneels in the dust, and beats his breast, and tells all the sins of his life.
- Morality
The only difference between the saint and the sinner is that every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future.
A Woman of No Importance (1893), Act III
- Morality
Wickedness is a myth invented by good people to account for the curious attraction of others.
- Morality
The sick do not ask if the hand that smoothes their pillow is pure, nor the dying care if the lips that touch their brow have known the kiss of sin.
- Morality
“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
The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it.
The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891), Chapter IIIn context
- Morality
The moral life of man forms part of the subject-matter of the artist, but the morality of art consists in the perfect use of an imperfect medium.
The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891), The PrefaceIn context
- Art
- Morality
Sin is a thing that writes itself across a man’s face. It cannot be concealed. People talk sometimes of secret vices. There are no such things. If a wretched man has a vice, it shows itself in the lines of his mouth, the droop of his eyelids, the moulding of his hands even.
The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891), Chapter XIIIn context
- Morality

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