"If one hears bad music, it is one's duty to drown it by one's conversation." Oscar Wilde (1856 - 1900) Anglo-Irish "playwright, novelist"
"In The Ultimate Success Quotations Library, 1997."
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In America the young are always ready to give to those who are older than themselves the full benefits of their inexperience. Oscar Wilde (1856 - 1900) Anglo-Irish "playwright, novelist"
"""The American Invasion,"" in ""Court and Society Review,"" (London) 23 Mar 1887."
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In going to America one learns that poverty is not a necessary accompaniment to civilisation. Oscar Wilde (1856 - 1900) Anglo-Irish "playwright, novelist"
"""Personal Impressions of America,"" lecture, 10 July 1883."
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"In the old times men carried out their rights for themselves as they lived, but nowadays every baby seems born with a social manifesto in its mouth much bigger than itself." Oscar Wilde (1856 - 1900) Anglo-Irish "playwright, novelist"
"Prince Paul, in ""Vera, or the Nihilists,"" act 3."
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It is a very sad thing nowadays that there is so little useless information. Oscar Wilde (1856 - 1900) Anglo-Irish "playwright, novelist"
"In ""Webster's Electronic Quotebase,"" ed. Keith Mohler, 1994."
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It is absurd to divide people into good and bad. People are either charming or tedious. Oscar Wilde (1856 - 1900) Anglo-Irish "playwright, novelist"
"Lord Darlington, in ""Lady Windermere's Fan,"" act 1."
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"It is an odd thing, but every one who disappears is said to be in San Francisco. It must be a delightful city, and possess all the attractions of the next world." Oscar Wilde (1856 - 1900) Anglo-Irish "playwright, novelist"
"The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1891"
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It is because Humanity has never known where it was going that it has been able to find its way. Oscar Wilde (1856 - 1900) Anglo-Irish "playwright, novelist"
"Gilbert, in ""The Critic as Artist,"" pt. 1 (published in Intentions, 1891)."
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"It is sweet to dance to violins When Love and Life are fair: To dance to flutes, to dance to lutes Is delicate and rare: But it is not sweet with nimble feet To dance upon the air!" Oscar Wilde (1856 - 1900) Anglo-Irish "playwright, novelist"
"The Ballad of Reading Gaol, sct. 2."
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It is what you read when you don't have to that determines what you will be when you can't help it. Oscar Wilde (1856 - 1900) Anglo-Irish "playwright, novelist"
"In ""Webster's Electronic Quotebase,"" ed. Keith Mohler, 1994."
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"It often happens that the real tragedies of life occur in such an inartistic manner that they hurt us by their crude violence, their absolute incoherence, their absurd want of meaning, their entire lack of style." Oscar Wilde (1856 - 1900) Anglo-Irish "playwright, novelist"
"Lord Henry, in ""The Picture of Dorian Gray,"" ch. 8, 1891."
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Life has been your art. You have set yourself to music. Your days are your sonnets. Oscar Wilde (1856 - 1900) Anglo-Irish "playwright, novelist"
"Lord Henry to Dorian Gray, in ""The Picture of Dorian Gray,"" ch. 19, 1891."
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Life imitates art far more than art imitates life. Oscar Wilde (1856 - 1900) Anglo-Irish "playwright, novelist"
"In ""Webster's Electronic Quotebase,"" ed. Keith Mohler, 1994."
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"Life! Life! Don't let us go to life for our fulfillment or our experience. It is a thing narrowed by circumstances, incoherent in its utterance, and without that fine correspondence of form and spirit . . ." Oscar Wilde (1856 - 1900) Anglo-Irish "playwright, novelist"
"Gilbert, in ""The Critic as Artist,"" pt. 2 (published in Intentions, 1891)."
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London is full of women who trust their husbands. One can always recognise them. They look so thoroughly unhappy. Oscar Wilde (1856 - 1900) Anglo-Irish "playwright, novelist"
"Lady Windermere, in Lady Windermere's Fan, act 2."
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"Lots of people act well, but few people talk well. This shows that talking is the more difficult of the two." Oscar Wilde (1856 - 1900) Anglo-Irish "playwright, novelist"
"In The Ultimate Success Quotations Library, 1997."
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Man is made for something better than disturbing dirt. Oscar Wilde (1856 - 1900) Anglo-Irish "playwright, novelist"
"""The Soul of Man under Socialism,"" in Fortnightly Review (London, Feb 1890)."
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"Most of our modern portrait painters are doomed to absolute oblivion. They never paint what they see. They paint what the public sees, and the public never sees anything." Oscar Wilde (1856 - 1900) Anglo-Irish "playwright, novelist"
"Vivian, in ""The Decay of Lying"" (published in Intentions, 1891)."
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Must we really see Chicago in order to be educated? Oscar Wilde (1856 - 1900) Anglo-Irish "playwright, novelist"
"Mr. Erskine, in The Picture of Dorian Gray, ch. 3 (1891)."
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"My great mistake, the fault for which I can't forgive myself, is that one day I ceased my obstinate pursuit of my own individuality." Oscar Wilde (1856 - 1900) Anglo-Irish "playwright, novelist"
"In The Ultimate Success Quotations Library, 1997."
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"Newspapers. . . give us the bald, sordid, disgusting facts of life. They chronicle, with degrading avidity, the sins of the second-rate, and with the conscientiousness of the illiterate give us accurate and prosaic details. . ." Oscar Wilde (1856 - 1900) Anglo-Irish "playwright, novelist"
"Gilbert, in The Critic as Artist, pt. 2 (published in Intentions, 1891)."
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"No object is so beautiful, that under certain conditions, it will not look ugly." Oscar Wilde (1856 - 1900) Anglo-Irish "playwright, novelist"
"In ""Webster's Electronic Quotebase,"" ed. Keith Mohler, 1994."
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"Nobody of any real culture, for instance, ever talks nowadays about the beauty of sunset. Sunsets are quite old fashioned. . . . To admire them is a distinct sign of provincialism of temperament. Upon the other hand they go on." Oscar Wilde (1856 - 1900) Anglo-Irish "playwright, novelist"
"Vivian, in The Decay of Lying (published in Intentions, 1891)."
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Nothing that is worth knowing can be taught. Oscar Wilde (1856 - 1900) Anglo-Irish "playwright, novelist"
"Gilbert, in ""The Critic as Artist,"" pt. 1 (published in Intentions, 1891)."
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"Nowadays, all the married men live like bachelors, and all the bachelors like married men." Oscar Wilde (1856 - 1900) Anglo-Irish "playwright, novelist"
"Lady Hunstanton, in A Woman of No Importance, act 2. The aphorism also appeared in The Picture of Dorian Gray, ch. 15 (1891)."
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Only the shallow know themselves. Oscar Wilde (1856 - 1900) Anglo-Irish "playwright, novelist"
"In ""1,911 Best Things Anybody Ever Said,"" ed. Robert Byrne, 1988."
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People sometimes inquire what form of government is most suitable for an artist to live under. To this question there is only one answer. The form of government that is most suitable to the artist is no government at all. Oscar Wilde (1856 - 1900) Anglo-Irish "playwright, novelist"
"""The Soul of Man under Socialism,"" in Fortnightly Review (London, Feb 1890)."
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"Pleasure is Nature's test, her sign of approval. When man is happy, he is in harmony with himself and his environment." Oscar Wilde (1856 - 1900) Anglo-Irish "playwright, novelist"
"""The Soul of Man under Socialism,"" in Fortnightly Review (London, Feb 1890)."
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Political life at Washington is like political life in a suburban vestry. Oscar Wilde (1856 - 1900) Anglo-Irish "playwright, novelist"
"""The American Invasion,"" in Court and Society Review (March 1887)."
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"Pray don't talk to me about the weather, Mr. Worthing. Whenever people talk to me about the weather, I always feel quite certain that they mean something else." Oscar Wilde (1856 - 1900) Anglo-Irish "playwright, novelist"
"Gwendolen, in ""The Importance of Being Earnest,"" act 1."
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"Starvation, and not sin, is the parent of modern crime." Oscar Wilde (1856 - 1900) Anglo-Irish "playwright, novelist"
"The Soul of Man Under Socialism, 1881"
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"Talk to every woman as if you loved her, and to every man as if he bored you, and at the end of your first season you will have the reputation of possessing the most perfect social tact." Oscar Wilde (1856 - 1900) Anglo-Irish "playwright, novelist"
"Lord Illingworth, in ""A Woman of No Importance,"" act 3."
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The American father. . . is never seen in London. He passes his life entirely in Wall Street and communicates with his family once a month by means of a telegram in cipher. Oscar Wilde (1856 - 1900) Anglo-Irish "playwright, novelist"
"""The American Invasion,"" in Court and Society Review (London, 23 March 1887)."
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"The Bostonians take their learning too sadly: culture with them is an accomplishment rather than an atmosphere; their ""Hub,"" as they call it, is the paradise of prigs." Oscar Wilde (1856 - 1900) Anglo-Irish "playwright, novelist"
"""The American Invasion,"" in Court and Society Review (London, March 1887)."
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The English country gentleman galloping after a fox - the unspeakable in full pursuit of the uneatable. Oscar Wilde (1856 - 1900) Anglo-Irish "playwright, novelist"
"A Woman of No Importance,"" I"
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The best way to make children good is to make them happy. Oscar Wilde (1856 - 1900) Anglo-Irish "playwright, novelist"
The critic has to educate the public; the artist has to educate the critic. Oscar Wilde (1856 - 1900) Anglo-Irish "playwright, novelist"
"Letter, 16 Aug 1890, to the editor of the Scots Observer,"
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"The exquisite art of idleness, one of the most important things that any University can teach." Oscar Wilde (1856 - 1900) Anglo-Irish "playwright, novelist"
"In ""Pall Mall Gazette"" (London), 24 May 1890."
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"The liar at any rate recognizes that recreation, not instruction, is the aim of conversation, and is a far more civilised being than the blockhead who loudly expresses his disbelief in a story which is told simply for the amusement of the company." Oscar Wilde (1856 - 1900) Anglo-Irish "playwright, novelist"
"""Aristotle at Afternoon Tea,"" in Pall Mall Gazette (London, 28 Feb. 1885; repr. in Aristotle at Afternoon Tea: The Rare Oscar Wilde, 1991)."
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"The mere mechanical technique of acting can be taught, but the spirit that is to give life to lifeless forms must be born in a man. No dramatic college can teach its pupils to think or to feel." Oscar Wilde (1856 - 1900) Anglo-Irish "playwright, novelist"
"Court and Society Review (London, 14 Sept. 1887)."
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The old-fashioned respect for the young is fast dying out. Oscar Wilde (1856 - 1900) Anglo-Irish "playwright, novelist"
"Gwendolen, in ""The Importance of Being Earnest,"" act 1."
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"The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible." Oscar Wilde (1856 - 1900) Anglo-Irish "playwright, novelist"
"In ""Pearls of Wisdom,"" ed. J. Agel and W. Glanze, 1987."
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"The whole theory of modern education is radically unsound. Fortunately in England, at any rate, education produces no effect whatsoever. If it did, it would prove a serious danger to the upper classes. . ." Oscar Wilde (1856 - 1900) Anglo-Irish "playwright, novelist"
"Lady Bracknell, in The Importance of Being Earnest, act 1."
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The youth of America is their oldest tradition. It has been going on now for 300 years. Oscar Wilde (1856 - 1900) Anglo-Irish "playwright, novelist"
"A Woman of No Importance, 1893"
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"There are only two kinds of people who are really fascinating -- people who know absolutely everything, and people who know absolutely nothing." Oscar Wilde (1856 - 1900) Anglo-Irish "playwright, novelist"
"The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1891"
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"There is much to be said in favour of modern journalism. By giving us the opinions of the uneducated, it keeps us in touch with the ignorance of the community." Oscar Wilde (1856 - 1900) Anglo-Irish "playwright, novelist"
"The Critic as Artist,"" Pt. 2"
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There is no necessity to separate the monarch from the mob; all authority is equally bad. Oscar Wilde (1856 - 1900) Anglo-Irish "playwright, novelist"
"""The Soul of Man under Socialism,"" in Fortnightly Review (London, Feb 1890)."
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"Though one can dine in New York, one could not dwell there." Oscar Wilde (1856 - 1900) Anglo-Irish "playwright, novelist"
"""The American Invasion,"" in Court and Society Review (London, March 1887)."
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"Through our sunless lanes creeps Poverty with her hungry eyes, and Sin with his sodden face follows close behind her. Misery wakes us in the morning and Shame sits with us at night." Oscar Wilde (1856 - 1900) Anglo-Irish "playwright, novelist"
"The weaver, in ""The Young King,"" in ""A House of Pomegranates,"" 1891."
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To become the spectator of one's own life is to escape the suffering of life. Oscar Wilde (1856 - 1900) Anglo-Irish "playwright, novelist"
"In ""Webster's Electronic Quotebase,"" ed. Keith Mohler, 1994."
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