OSCAR WILDE QUOTES Quicklyfind - Quotes on just about anything!
(1854 – 1900) / Verified "Experience is the name everyone gives to their mistakes." Source: Lady Windermere's Fan, Act 3, Scene 1. Dumby "I always pass on good advice. It is the only thing to do with it. It is never of any use to oneself." Source: An Ideal Husband, Act 1, Scene 1. Lord Goring "I have said to you to speak the truth is a painful thing. To be forced to tell lies is much worse." Source: De Profundis "In examinations the foolish ask questions that the wise cannot answer." Source: Phrases and Philosophies for the use of the Young "My wallpaper and I are fighting a duel to the death. One or the other of us has to go." Notes: Mr. Wilde said this in the Left Bank hotel in Paris where he passed away on November 30 1900, the wallpaper has since been removed and the room re-furnished in the style of one of Mr. Wildes London flats. See also Famous last words. "Religions die when they are proven to be true. Science is the record of dead religions." Source: Phrases and Philosophies for the use of the Young "The truth is rarely pure and never simple. Modern life would be very tedious if it were either, and modern literature a complete impossibility!" Source: The importance of being Earnest. "There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written. That is all." Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray "To love oneself is the beginning of a life-long romance." Source: An Ideal Husband "No great artist ever sees things as they really are. If he did, he would cease to be an artist." Source: "The Decay of Lying" "[T]here is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about." Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray "When I like people immensely I never tell their names to any one. It seems like surrendering a part of them." Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray "The commonest thing is delightful if one only hides it." Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray "[T]he one charm of marriage is that it makes a life of deception necessary for both parties." Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray "[E]very portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of the sitter. The sitter is merely the accident, the occasion. It is not he who is revealed by the painter; it is rather the painter who, on the colored canvas, reveals himself." Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray "Laughter is not a bad beginning for a friendship, and it is the best ending for one" Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray "Now, the value of an idea has nothing whatsoever to do with the sincerity of the man who expresses it. Indeed, the probabilities are that the more insincere the man is, the more purely intellectual will the idea be, as in that case it will not be coloured by either his wants, his desires, or his prejudices." Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray "Nowadays people know the price of everything, and the value of nothing." Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray "Men marry because they are tired; women, because they are curious: both are disappointed." Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray "When one is in love, one always begins by deceiving one's self, and one always ends by deceiving others." Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray "He gives you good advice, I suppose. People are very fond of giving away what they need most themselves." Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray "Experience was of no ethical value. It was merely the name we gave to our mistakes." Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray "To get back my youth I would do anything in the world, except take exercise, get up early, or be respectable." Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray Attributed "All bad art is the result of good intentions." "Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much." "Buck up and be jolly, my dear lady! Stillbirth is a sign that God has a sense of humour!" Notes: It is claimed that Mr. Wilde said this upon visiting a London birthing ward and visiting with a distraught mother who had just birthed stillborn twins. "Children begin by loving their parents; after a time they judge them. Rarely, if ever, do they forgive them." "Disobedience, in the eyes of any one who has read history, is man's original virtue. It is through disobedience that progress has been made, through disobedience and through rebellion." "I am always astonishing myself. It is the only thing that makes life worth living." "I have nothing to declare except my Genius" Notes: This is one of Wilde's most famous sayings, which he is supposed to have said while passing through a customs checkpoint in New York. However, there is no contemporary evidence that such words were ever uttered, and the first record of them at all did not appear until many years later. This is most likely apocryphal, but if Wilde didn't say it, he should have. "Illusion is the first of all pleasures." "My own business bores me to death. I prefer other people's." "No gentleman ever has any money." "Patriotism is the virtue of the vicious." "The growing influence of women is the one reassuring thing in our political life." "The supreme vice is shallowness." "The value of an idea has nothing to do with the sincerity of the person expressing it." "There is no sin except stupidity." "There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about." "Those who find ugly meanings in beautiful things are corrupt without being charming. This is a fault." "To be popular one must be a mediocrity." "Why was I born with such contemporaries?" "Democracy is the bludgeoning of the people, by the people, for the people." "The old believe everything, the middle-aged suspect everything, the young know everything." "What a pity that in life we only get our lessons when they are of no use to us." Note: A great many misquotations are attributed to Mr. Wilde. Please carefully verify the provenance of any quotations you believe should be ascribed to him.
Verified "Experience is the name everyone gives to their mistakes." Source: Lady Windermere's Fan, Act 3, Scene 1. Dumby "I always pass on good advice. It is the only thing to do with it. It is never of any use to oneself." Source: An Ideal Husband, Act 1, Scene 1. Lord Goring "I have said to you to speak the truth is a painful thing. To be forced to tell lies is much worse." Source: De Profundis "In examinations the foolish ask questions that the wise cannot answer." Source: Phrases and Philosophies for the use of the Young "My wallpaper and I are fighting a duel to the death. One or the other of us has to go." Notes: Mr. Wilde said this in the Left Bank hotel in Paris where he passed away on November 30 1900, the wallpaper has since been removed and the room re-furnished in the style of one of Mr. Wildes London flats. See also Famous last words. "Religions die when they are proven to be true. Science is the record of dead religions." Source: Phrases and Philosophies for the use of the Young "The truth is rarely pure and never simple. Modern life would be very tedious if it were either, and modern literature a complete impossibility!" Source: The importance of being Earnest. "There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written. That is all." Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray "To love oneself is the beginning of a life-long romance." Source: An Ideal Husband "No great artist ever sees things as they really are. If he did, he would cease to be an artist." Source: "The Decay of Lying" "[T]here is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about." Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray "When I like people immensely I never tell their names to any one. It seems like surrendering a part of them." Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray "The commonest thing is delightful if one only hides it." Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray "[T]he one charm of marriage is that it makes a life of deception necessary for both parties." Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray "[E]very portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of the sitter. The sitter is merely the accident, the occasion. It is not he who is revealed by the painter; it is rather the painter who, on the colored canvas, reveals himself." Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray "Laughter is not a bad beginning for a friendship, and it is the best ending for one" Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray "Now, the value of an idea has nothing whatsoever to do with the sincerity of the man who expresses it. Indeed, the probabilities are that the more insincere the man is, the more purely intellectual will the idea be, as in that case it will not be coloured by either his wants, his desires, or his prejudices." Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray "Nowadays people know the price of everything, and the value of nothing." Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray "Men marry because they are tired; women, because they are curious: both are disappointed." Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray "When one is in love, one always begins by deceiving one's self, and one always ends by deceiving others." Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray "He gives you good advice, I suppose. People are very fond of giving away what they need most themselves." Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray "Experience was of no ethical value. It was merely the name we gave to our mistakes." Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray "To get back my youth I would do anything in the world, except take exercise, get up early, or be respectable." Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray Attributed "All bad art is the result of good intentions." "Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much." "Buck up and be jolly, my dear lady! Stillbirth is a sign that God has a sense of humour!" Notes: It is claimed that Mr. Wilde said this upon visiting a London birthing ward and visiting with a distraught mother who had just birthed stillborn twins. "Children begin by loving their parents; after a time they judge them. Rarely, if ever, do they forgive them." "Disobedience, in the eyes of any one who has read history, is man's original virtue. It is through disobedience that progress has been made, through disobedience and through rebellion." "I am always astonishing myself. It is the only thing that makes life worth living." "I have nothing to declare except my Genius" Notes: This is one of Wilde's most famous sayings, which he is supposed to have said while passing through a customs checkpoint in New York. However, there is no contemporary evidence that such words were ever uttered, and the first record of them at all did not appear until many years later. This is most likely apocryphal, but if Wilde didn't say it, he should have. "Illusion is the first of all pleasures." "My own business bores me to death. I prefer other people's." "No gentleman ever has any money." "Patriotism is the virtue of the vicious." "The growing influence of women is the one reassuring thing in our political life." "The supreme vice is shallowness." "The value of an idea has nothing to do with the sincerity of the person expressing it." "There is no sin except stupidity." "There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about." "Those who find ugly meanings in beautiful things are corrupt without being charming. This is a fault." "To be popular one must be a mediocrity." "Why was I born with such contemporaries?" "Democracy is the bludgeoning of the people, by the people, for the people." "The old believe everything, the middle-aged suspect everything, the young know everything." "What a pity that in life we only get our lessons when they are of no use to us." Note: A great many misquotations are attributed to Mr. Wilde. Please carefully verify the provenance of any quotations you believe should be ascribed to him.