Oscar Wilde Quotes About Tragedy

• After playing Chopin, I feel as if I had been weeping over sins that I had never committed and mourning over tragedies that were not my own.

  Oscar Wilde

  Mourning, Tragedy, Sin

  1891 Intentions, 'The Critic as Artist'.

• All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. No man does. That's his.

  Oscar Wilde

  Funny, Mothers Day, Mom

  The Importance of Being Earnest act 1 (1895). The same lines appear, as a dialogue between Lord Illingworth and Mrs. Allonby, in A Woman of No Importance, act 2 (1893).

• There are only two tragedies in life: one is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it.

  Oscar Wilde

  Funny, Life, Witty

  Oscar Wilde (2012). “Epigrams”, p.37, BoD – Books on Demand

• The tragedy of growing old is not that one is old but that one is young.

  Oscar Wilde

  Time, Humor, Tragedy

• After playing Chopin, I feel as if I had been weeping over sins that I had never committed, and mourning over tragedies that were not my own. Music always seems to me to produce that effect. It creates for one a past of which one has been ignorant, and fills one with a sense of sorrows that have been hidden from one’s tears.

  Oscar Wilde

  Past, Mourning, Ignorant

  Oscar Wilde (1969). “The Artist as Critic: Critical Writings of Oscar Wilde”, p.343, University of Chicago Press

• It is perfectly possible to get what you think you want and be miserable. It's possible too, to never get it but deeply enjoy the process of trying. In this world, there are only two tragedies. One is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it.

  Oscar Wilde

  Thinking, Two, Tragedy

  Lady Windermere's Fan act 3 (1892) See Goethe 15; T. H. Huxley 4; Modern Proverbs 14; George Bernard Shaw 16; Wilde 74

• Those who are faithful know only the trivial side of love: it is the faithless who know love's tragedies.

  Oscar Wilde

  Love, Life, Heartbreak

  Oscar Wilde (2007). “The Collected Works of Oscar Wilde”, p.12, Wordsworth Editions

• There is only one real tragedy in a woman's life. The fact that her past is always her lover, and her future invariably her husband.

  Oscar Wilde

  Love, Husband, Real

  Oscar Wilde, Peter Raby (2008). “The Importance of Being Earnest and Other Plays: Lady Windermere's Fan; Salome; A Woman of No Importance; An Ideal Husband; The Importance of Being Earnest”, p.226, Oxford Paperbacks

• Every woman becomes their mother. That's their tragedy. And no man becomes his. That's his tragedy.

  Oscar Wilde

  Mother, Men, Tragedy

• Never regret thy fall, O Icarus of the fearless flight For the greatest tragedy of them all Is never to feel the burning light.

  Oscar Wilde

  Regret, Fall, Light

• Actions are the first tragedy in life, words are the second. Words are perhaps the worst. Words are merciless. . .

  Oscar Wilde

  Book, Reading, Writing

  Oscar Wilde (2014). “Epigrams and Aphorisms”, p.37, BoD – Books on Demand

• 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

  Hurt, Real, Style

  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.78, Oxford University Press on Demand

• Actors are so fortunate. They can choose whether they will appear in tragedy or in comedy, whether they will suffer or make merry, laugh or shed tears. But in real life it is different. Most men and women are forced to perform parts for which they have no qualifications. Our Guildensterns play Hamlet for us, and our Hamlets have to jest like Prince Hal. The world is a stage, but the play is badly cast.

  Oscar Wilde

  Real, Men, Play

  Oscar Wilde, General Press (2016). “The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde: Novel, Short Stories, Poetry, Essays and Plays”, p.810, GENERAL PRESS

• The tragedy of the poor is that they can afford nothing but self denial.

  Oscar Wilde

  Self, Tragedy, Denial

  Oscar Wilde, Alvin Redman (1959). “The Wit and Humor of Oscar Wilde”, p.185, Courier Corporation

• LORD ILLINGWORTH: The soul is born old but grows young. That is the comedy of life. MRS ALLONBY: And the body is born young and grows old. That is life's tragedy.

  Oscar Wilde

  Soul, Tragedy, Body

  Oscar Wilde (2007). “The Collected Works of Oscar Wilde”, p.548, Wordsworth Editions

• For life is terribly deficient in form. Its catastrophes happen in the wrong way and to the wrong people. There is a grotesque horror about its comedies, and its tragedies seem to culminate in farce.

  Oscar Wilde

  People, Tragedy, Farce

  Oscar Wilde, General Press (2016). “The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde: Novel, Short Stories, Poetry, Essays and Plays”, p.823, GENERAL PRESS

• I suppose society is wonderfully delightful. To be in it is merely a bore. But to be out of it is simply a tragedy.

  Oscar Wilde

  Tragedy, Bores, Delightful

  'A Woman of No Importance' (1893) act 3

• It is sometimes said that the tragedy of an artist's life is that he cannot realise his ideal. But the true tragedy that dogs the steps of most artists is that they realise their ideal too absolutely. For, when the ideal is realised, it is robbed of its wonder and its mystery, and becomes simply a new starting-point for an ideal that is other than itself.

  Oscar Wilde

  Dog, Artist, Tragedy

  Oscar Wilde, General Press (2016). “The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde: Novel, Short Stories, Poetry, Essays and Plays”, p.824, GENERAL PRESS

• The trouble with the lower classes is that they lack the sense of tragedy given to them by the upper classes.

  Oscar Wilde

  Class, Tragedy, Trouble

• There is always something infinitely mean about other people's tragedies.

  Oscar Wilde

  Mean, People, Tragedy

  Oscar Wilde (2007). “The Collected Works of Oscar Wilde”, p.40, Wordsworth Editions

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