Oscar Wilde Quotes - Page 12

• I have spent most of the day putting in a comma and the rest of the day taking it out.

  Oscar Wilde

  37 Copy quote

• It is so easy to convince others; it is so difficult to convince oneself.

  Oscar Wilde

  Logic, Easy, Difficult

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• The well bred contradict other people. The wise contradict themselves.

  Oscar Wilde

  Wise, Wisdom, Yoga

  Oscar Wilde, Isobel Murray (2000). “Oscar Wilde - The Major Works”, p.572, Oxford Paperbacks

  33 Copy quote

• It is what we fear that happens to us.

  Oscar Wilde

  Happens

  Oscar Wilde (2007). “Epigrams of Oscar Wilde”, p.33, Wordsworth Editions

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• The soul is a terrible reality. It can be bought and sold and bartered away.

  Oscar Wilde

  Reality, Soul, Terrible

  Oscar Wilde, Moira Muldoon (2005). “The Picture of Dorian Gray and Other Writings”, p.230, Simon and Schuster

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• Progress in thought is the assertion of individualism against authority.

  Oscar Wilde

  Liberty, Progress, Individualism

  Oscar Wilde, Nicholas Frankel (2011). “The Picture of Dorian Gray: An Annotated, Uncensored Edition”, p.94, Harvard University Press

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• To expect the unexpected shows a thoroughly modern intellect.

  Oscar Wilde

  Future, Expectations, Unexpected

  Oscar Wilde (2013). “An Ideal Husband: Second Edition, Revised”, p.93, A&C Black

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• Scandal is gossip made tedious by morality.

  Oscar Wilde

  Gossip, Political, Scandal

  Oscar Wilde (2016). “Aphorisms”, p.9, Oscar Wilde

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• 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.

  Oscar Wilde

  Kissing, Hands, Sick

  Oscar Wilde (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.150, OUP Oxford

  47 Copy quote

• No great artist ever sees things as they really are. If he did, he would cease to be an artist.

  Oscar Wilde

  Art, Business, Acting

  Oscar Wilde, General Press (2016). “The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde: Novel, Short Stories, Poetry, Essays and Plays”, p.755, GENERAL PRESS

  20 Copy quote

• Yet each man kills the thing he loves, By each let this be heard, Some do it with a bitter look, Some with a flattering word, The coward does it with a kiss, The brave man with a sword! Some kill their love when they are young, And some when they are old; Some strangle with the hands of Lust, Some with the hands of Gold: The kindest use a knife, because The dead so soon grow cold. Some love too little, some too long, Some sell, and others buy; Some do the deed with many tears, And some without a sigh: For each man kills the thing he loves, Yet each man does not die.

  Oscar Wilde

  Kissing, Men, Hands

  The Ballad of Reading Gaol pt. 1, st. 7 (1898) See Roberts 1

  28 Copy quote

• Experience is one thing you can't get for nothing.

  Oscar Wilde

  Funny, Positive, Witty

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• I have learned this: it is not what one does that is wrong, but what one becomes as a consequence of it.

  Oscar Wilde

  Doe, I Have Learned, Consequence

  29 Copy quote

• If I hadn't believed it, then I wouldn't have seen it

  Oscar Wilde

  Ifs

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• Nothing is good in moderation. You cannot know good in anything until you have torn the heart out of it by excess.

  Oscar Wilde

  Heart, Excess, Moderation

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• Good intentions are invariably ungrammatical.

  Oscar Wilde

  Writing, Good Intentions, Intention

  Oscar Wilde (2014). “Miscellaneous Aphorisms: The Soul of Man”, p.41, Simon and Schuster

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• Men marry because they are tired; women, because they are curious; both are disappointed.

  Oscar Wilde

  Funny, Marriage, Sarcastic

  The Picture of Dorian Gray ch. 4 (1891).Wilde used the same words in A Woman of No Importance (1893).

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• Beauty is the only thing that time cannot harm.

  Oscar Wilde

  Beauty, Creeds, Harm

  Oscar Wilde (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Oscar Wilde (Illustrated)”, p.1594, Delphi Classics

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• Public opinion exists only where there are no ideas.

  Oscar Wilde

  Ideas, Public Opinion, Opinion

  Oscar Wilde (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Oscar Wilde (Illustrated)”, p.1670, Delphi Classics

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• Wherever there is a man who exercises authority, there is a man who resists authority.

  Oscar Wilde

  Leadership, Exercise, Power

  Oscar Wilde, Isobel Murray (1999). “The Soul of Man, and Prison Writings”, p.8, Oxford University Press, USA

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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

  Wisdom, Book, Reading

  65 Copy quote

• The best people to work for are me, myself and I.

  Oscar Wilde

  People

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• I did not think I should be ever loved: do you indeed Love me so much as now you say you do? Ask of the sea-bird if it loves the sea, Ask of the roses if they love the rain, Ask of the little lark, that will not sing Till day break, if it loves to see the day: And yet, these are but empty images, Mere shadows of my love, which is a fire So great that all the waters of the main Can not avail to quench it.

  Oscar Wilde

  Rain, Thinking, Fire

  Oscar Wilde (2008). “The Duchess of Padua: Easyread Large Bold Edition”, p.39, ReadHowYouWant.com

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• I don't like principles. I prefer prejudices.

  Oscar Wilde

  Principles, Prejudice, Ethics

  Oscar Wilde (1983). “Two Society Comedies”, A&C Black

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• They have been eating muffins. That looks like repentance

  Oscar Wilde

  Looks, Muffins, Eating

  Oscar Wilde (2012). “The Importance of Being Earnest and Other Plays”, p.159, Penguin

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