Oscar Wilde Quotes About Character

• To define is to limit.

  Oscar Wilde

  Creativity, Character, Limits

  Oscar Wilde, Russell Jackson, Joseph Bristow, Ian Small (2000). “The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde: The picture of Dorian Gray : the 1890 and 1891 texts”, p.336, Oxford University Press on Demand

• Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live.

  Oscar Wilde

  Life, Sad, Beautiful

  Oscar Wilde (2016). “Aphorisms”, p.64, Oscar Wilde

• The simplicity of your character makes you exquisitely incomprehensible to me.

  Oscar Wilde

  Character, Simplicity

  Oscar Wilde (2000). “The Plays of Oscar Wilde”, p.380, Wordsworth Editions

• Misfortunes one can endure--they come from outside, they are accidents. But to suffer for one's own faults--ah!--there is the sting of life.

  Oscar Wilde

  Failure, Character, Suffering

  Oscar Wilde (2007). “The Collected Works of Oscar Wilde”, p.496, Wordsworth Editions

• Every little action of the common day makes or unmakes character.

  Oscar Wilde

  Character, Littles, Action

  Oscar Wilde, Russell Jackson, Ian Small (2000). “The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde: De profundis, "Epistola : in carcere et vinculis"”, p.95, Oxford University Press on Demand

• I forgot that every little action of the common day makes or unmakes character, and that therefore what one has done in the secret chamber one has some day to cry aloud on the house-tops.

  Oscar Wilde

  Integrity, Character, House

  Oscar Wilde, Isobel Murray (1999). “The Soul of Man, and Prison Writings”, p.96, Oxford University Press, USA

• Experience was of no ethical value. It was merely the name men gave to their mistakes. Moralists had, as a rule, regarded it as a mode of warning, had claimed for it a certain ethical efficacy in the formation of character, had praised it as something that taught us what to follow and showed us what to avoid. But there was no motive power in experience. It was as little of an active cause as conscience itself. All that it really demonstrated was that our future would be the same as our past, and that the sin we had done once, and with loathing, we would do many times, and with joy.

  Oscar Wilde

  Mistake, Character, Past

  Bram Stoker, Mary Shelley, Oscar Wilde (2015). “The Penny Dreadfuls: Tales of Horror: Dracula, Frankenstein, and The Picture of Dorian Gray”, p.719, Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

• To speak frankly, I am not in favour of long engagements. They give people the opportunity of finding out each other's character before marriage, which I think is never advisable.

  Oscar Wilde

  Marriage, Character, Opportunity

  "The Importance of Being Earnest: A Trivial Comedy for Serious People. The Original Four-act Version".

• It is only the superficial qualities that last. Man's deeper nature is soon found out.

  Oscar Wilde

  Nature, Character, Men

  Oscar Wilde (2004). “The Best of Oscar Wilde: Selected Plays and Writings”, p.14, Penguin

• The only form of fiction in which real characters do not seem out of place is history. In novels they are detestable.

  Oscar Wilde

  Real, Character, History

  Oscar Wilde (2014). “A Critic in Pall Mall: Being Extracts from Reviews and Miscellanies”, p.143, Simon and Schuster

• I choose my friends for their good looks, my acquaintances for their good characters, and my enemies for their intellects. A man cannot be too careful in the choice of his enemies.

  Oscar Wilde

  Character, Funny Relationship, Men

  The Picture of Dorian Gray ch. 1 (1891)

• You silly Arthur! If you knew anything about...anything, which you don't, you would know that I adore you. Everyone in London knows it except you. It is a public scandal the way I adore you. I have been going about for the last six months telling the whole of society that I adore you. I wonder you consent to have anything to say to me. I have no character left at all. At least, I feel so happy that I am quite sure I have no character left at all.

  Oscar Wilde

  Silly, Character, London

• Even men of the noblest possible moral character are extremely susceptible to the influence of the physical charms of others. Modern, no less then Ancient History, supplies us with many most painful examples of what I refer to. If it were not so, indeed, History would be quite unreadable.

  Oscar Wilde

  Character, Men, Example

  Oscar Wilde (1899). “The Importance of Being Earnest”, p.98

• My writing has gone to bits - like my character. I am simply a self-conscious nerve in pain.

  Oscar Wilde

  Pain, Writing, Character

  Oscar Wilde (2014). “The Wit and Wisdom of Oscar Wilde”, p.183, Courier Corporation

• Do not forget that small daily actions do or undo character.

  Oscar Wilde

  Character, Action, Forget

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