Oscar Wilde Quotes - Page 20

• No work of art ever puts forward views. Views belong to people who are not artists.

  Oscar Wilde

  Art, Views, People

  Oscar Wilde (1969). “The Artist as Critic: Critical Writings of Oscar Wilde”, p.438, University of Chicago Press

  11 Copy quote

• Whenever a man does a thoroughly stupid thing, it is always from the noblest motives.

  Oscar Wilde

  Money, Clever, Stupid

  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.51, Oxford University Press on Demand

  24 Copy quote

• What is beautiful is a joy for all seasons.

  Oscar Wilde

  Beauty, Beautiful, Joy

  Oscar Wilde, General Press (2016). “The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde: Novel, Short Stories, Poetry, Essays and Plays”, p.772, GENERAL PRESS

  10 Copy quote

• The one person who has more illusions than the dreamer is the man of action.

  Oscar Wilde

  Dream, Men, Action

  Oscar Wilde (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Oscar Wilde (Illustrated)”, p.1466, Delphi Classics

  13 Copy quote

• When people talk to me about the weather, I always feel they mean something else.

  Oscar Wilde

  Mean, Weather, People

  10 Copy quote

• Do you really think it is weakness that yields to temptation? I tell you that there are terrible temptations which it requires strength, strength and courage to yield to.

  Oscar Wilde

  Inspirational, Life, Motivational

  Oscar Wilde (2015). “An Ideal Husband”, p.40, Sheba Blake Publishing

  16 Copy quote

• In fact, the whole of Japan is a pure invention. There is no such country, there are no such people.... The Japanese people are ... simply a mode of style, an exquisite fancy of art.

  Oscar Wilde

  Country, Art, Japan

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

  33 Copy quote

• I wonder who it was defined man as a rational animal. It was the most premature definition ever given. Man is many things, but he is not rational.

  Oscar Wilde

  Animal, Men, Definitions

  The Picture of Dorian Gray ch. 2 (1891)

  8 Copy quote

• The more one analyses people, the more all reasons for analysis disappear. Sooner or later one comes to that dreadful universal thing called human nature.

  Oscar Wilde

  Nature, People, Analysis

  Oscar Wilde (2007). “Epigrams of Oscar Wilde”, p.27, Wordsworth Editions

  31 Copy quote

• Friendship never forgets. That is the wonderful thing about it.

  Oscar Wilde

  Friendship, Never Forget, Wonderful

  Oscar Wilde (2001). “The Devoted Friend”, p.9, Electric Book Company

  6 Copy quote

• Philosophy teaches us to bear with equanimity the misfortunes of others.

  Oscar Wilde

  Philosophy, Bears, Misfortunes Of Others

  Oscar Wilde (1997). “Nothing...Except My Genius”, p.46, Penguin UK

  9 Copy quote

• I wrote when I did not know life;
  now that I do know the meaning of life,
  I have no more to write.
  Life cannot be written; life can only be lived.

  Oscar Wilde

  Writing, Meaning Of Life, Knows

  Oscar Wilde (2012). “Oscar Wilde's Wit and Wisdom: A Book of Quotations”, p.4, Courier Corporation

  9 Copy quote

• The only artists I have ever known who are personally delightful are bad artists. Good artists exist simply in what they make, and consequently are perfectly uninteresting in what they are. A great poet, a really great poet, is the most unpoetical of all creatures. But inferior poets are absolutely fascinating. The worse their rhymes are, the more picturesque they look. The mere fact of having published a book of second-rate sonnets makes a man quite irresistible. He lives the poetry that he cannot write. The others write the poetry that they dare not realize.

  Oscar Wilde

  Book, Writing, Artist

  Oscar Wilde (2015). “Oscar Wilde The Dover Reader”, p.48, Courier Dover Publications

  7 Copy quote

• Life is far too important a thing ever to talk seriously about.

  Oscar Wilde

  Inspirational, Funny, Life

  Oscar Wilde (2014). “The Importance of Being Earnest and Other Plays”, p.116, Simon and Schuster

  14 Copy quote

• The only thing that one really knows about human nature is that it changes. Change is the one quality we can predicate of it. The systems that fail are those that rely on the permanency of human nature, and not on its growth and development. The error of Louis XIV was that he thought human nature would always be the same. The result of his error was the French Revolution. It was an admirable result.

  Oscar Wilde

  Nature, Errors, Growth

  Oscar Wilde (2007). “The Collected Works of Oscar Wilde”, p.1062, Wordsworth Editions

  60 Copy quote

• I am quite incapable of understanding how any work of art can be criticized from a moral standpoint. The sphere of art and the sphere of ethics are absolutely distinct and separate.

  Oscar Wilde

  Art, Understanding, Spheres

  Oscar Wilde, Nicholas Frankel (2011). “The Picture of Dorian Gray: An Annotated, Uncensored Edition”, p.22, Harvard University Press

  6 Copy quote

• The proper basis for marriage is a mutual misunderstanding.

  Oscar Wilde

  Marriage, Bases, Mutual

  Oscar Wilde (2012). “Oscar Wilde's Wit and Wisdom: A Book of Quotations”, p.21, Courier Corporation

  20 Copy quote

• As one reads history ... one is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed, but by the punishments that the good have inflicted.

  Oscar Wilde

  Funny, Humor, Punishment

  Oscar Wilde (2016). “Aphorisms”, p.50, Oscar Wilde

  26 Copy quote

• Pessimist: One who, when he has the choice of two evils, chooses both.

  Oscar Wilde

  Inspirational, Attitude, Two

  21 Copy quote

• Every impulse we strangle will only poison us.

  Oscar Wilde

  Poison, Impulse

  11 Copy quote

• The moon in her chariot of pearl

  Oscar Wilde

  Moon, Pearls, Chariots

  Oscar Wilde (2012). “The Picture of Dorian Gray and Other Short Stories”, p.357, Cosimo, Inc.

  22 Copy quote

• Never trust a woman who wears mauve, whatever her age may be, or a woman over thirty-five who is fond of pink ribbons.

  Oscar Wilde

  Age, May, Ribbons

  Oscar Wilde (2007). “Epigrams of Oscar Wilde”, p.15, Wordsworth Editions

  16 Copy quote

• Intuition is a strange instinct that tells a woman she is right, whether she is or not.

  Oscar Wilde

  Intuition, Strange, Instinct

  12 Copy quote

• Everything in moderation, including moderation.

  Oscar Wilde

  Inspirational, Funny, Food

  32 Copy quote

• All charming people, I fancy, are spoiled. It is the secret of their attraction.

  Oscar Wilde

  Selfish, People, Secret

  Oscar Wilde (2012). “The Complete Short Stories of Oscar Wilde”, p.40, Courier Corporation

  25 Copy quote

You May Also Like:

Alfred Douglas

Edgar Allan Poe

Mark Twain

Charles Dickens

George Bernard Shaw

James Joyce

William Shakespeare

Jane Austen