Oscar Wilde Quotes - Page 22

• A work of art is the unique result of a unique temperament.

  Oscar Wilde

  Art, Work, Unique

  Oscar Wilde (1969). “The Artist as Critic: Critical Writings of Oscar Wilde”, p.270, University of Chicago Press

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• There are few of us who have not sometimes wakened before dawn, either after one of those dreamless nights that make one almost enamoured of death, or one of those nights of horror and misshapen joy, when through the chambers of the brain sweep phantoms more terrible than reality itself, and instinct with that vivid life that lurks in all grotesques, and that lends to Gothic art its enduring vitality, this art being, one might fancy, especially the art of those whose minds have been troubled with the malady of reverie.

  Oscar Wilde

  Art, Night, Reality

  Oscar Wilde (2007). “The Collected Works of Oscar Wilde”, p.92, Wordsworth Editions

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• Finding the meaning of life is easy. Simply get a dictionary, go to the 'L' section, and find the word 'life.'

  Oscar Wilde

  Meaning Of Life, Life Is, Easy

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• The gods have been good to you. But what the gods give they quickly take away. You have only a few years in which to live really, perfectly, and fully. When your youth goes, your beauty will go with it, and then you will suddenly discover that there are no triumphs left for you, or have to content yourself with those mean triumphs that the memory of your past will make more bitter than defeats. Every month as it wanes bring you nearer to something dreadful. Time is jealous of you, and wars against your lilies and your roses.

  Oscar Wilde

  Memories, War, Jealous

  Oscar Wilde (2013). “The Essential Oscar Wilde”, p.89, Simon and Schuster

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• Keep love in your heart. A life without it is like a sunless garden when the flowers are dead.

  Oscar Wilde

  Love, Inspirational, Life

  Oscar Wilde (2007). “Epigrams of Oscar Wilde”, p.103, Wordsworth Editions

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• In fact, I am never wrong.

  Oscar Wilde

  Facts, Knows

  "The Importance of Being Earnest: A Trivial Comedy for Serious People".

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• There is only one thing in life worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.

  Oscar Wilde

  Funny, Humor, Things In Life

  The Picture of Dorian Gray ch. 1 (1891) See Behan 3; Modern Proverbs 71

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• The only way to behave to a woman is to make love to her if she is pretty, and to someone else if she is plain.

  Oscar Wilde

  Women, Making Love, Way

  Oscar Wilde (2007). “Epigrams of Oscar Wilde”, p.21, Wordsworth Editions

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• Thirty-five is a very attractive age. London society is full of women of the very highest birth who have, of their own free choice, remained thirty-five for years.

  Oscar Wilde

  Funny, Birthday, Friends

  1895 Lady Bracknell. The Importance of Being Earnest, act 3.

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• The ability of the theist to misunderstand a thing is directly proportional to the obviousness of the thing.

  Oscar Wilde

  Obviousness, Ability, Theist

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• The basis of optimism is sheer terror.

  Oscar Wilde

  Positive, Funny Inspirational, Attitude

  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.52, Oxford University Press on Demand

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• Football is all very well as a game for rough girls, but is hardly suitable for delicate boys.

  Oscar Wilde

  Girl, Soccer, Football

  Quoted in Alvin Redman The Epigrams of Oscar Wilde (1952).

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• Public Opinion... an attempt to organize the ignorance of the community, and to elevate it to the dignity of physical force.

  Oscar Wilde

  Ignorance, Community, Public Opinion

  Oscar Wilde (2012). “The Wit and Humor of Oscar Wilde”, p.118, Courier Corporation

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• 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

  33 Copy quote

• I am not laughing, Dorian; at least I am not laughing at you. But you should not say the greatest romance of your life. You should say the first romance of your life. You will always be loved, and you will always be in love with love. A grande passion is the privilege of people who have nothing to do. That is the one use of the idle classes of a country. Don't be afraid. There are exquisite things in store for you. This is merely the beginning.

  Oscar Wilde

  Country, Passion, Class

  Oscar Wilde (2016). “The picture of Dorian Gray/Le portrait de Dorian Gray”, p.60, Oscar Wilde

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• Beauty is a form of genius -- is higher, indeed, than genius, as it needs no explanation.

  Oscar Wilde

  Art, Philosophy, Dark Water

  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.25, Oxford University Press on Demand

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• Men always want to be a woman's first love - women like to be a man's last romance.

  Oscar Wilde

  Love, Funny, Relationship

  Oscar Wilde (2010). “Epigrams & Aphorisms”, p.56, BoD – Books on Demand

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• Good intentions have been the ruin of the world. The only people who have achieved anything have been those who have had no intentions at all.

  Oscar Wilde

  People, World, Ruins

  Oscar Wilde, General Press (2016). “The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde: Novel, Short Stories, Poetry, Essays and Plays”, p.841, GENERAL PRESS

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• But beauty, real beauty, ends where an intellectual expression begins. Intellect is in itself a mode of exaggeration, and destroys the harmony of any face. The moment one sits down to think, one becomes all nose, or all forehead, or something horrid. Look at the successful men in any of the learned professions. How perfectly hideous they are! Except, of course, in the Church. But then in the Church they don't think.

  Oscar Wilde

  Real, Successful, Thinking

  Oscar Wilde (2015). “The Picture of Dorian Gray (Diversion Classics)”, p.7, Diversion Books

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• I have said to you to speak the truth is a painful thing. To be forced to tell lies is much worse.

  Oscar Wilde

  Lying, Dishonesty, Speak

  Oscar Wilde, Russell Jackson, Ian Small (2000). “The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde: De profundis, "Epistola : in carcere et vinculis"”, p.141, Oxford University Press on Demand

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• The first duty in life is to be as artificial as possible. What the second duty is no one has as yet discovered.

  Oscar Wilde

  Life, Firsts, Duty

  Oscar Wilde (2007). “Epigrams of Oscar Wilde”, p.120, Wordsworth Editions

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• An idea that is not dangerous is unworthy of being called an idea at all.

  Oscar Wilde

  Funny, Witty, Writing

  Oscar Wilde (2007). “The Collected Works of Oscar Wilde”, p.1001, Wordsworth Editions

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• When a man is old enough to do wrong he should be old enough to do right also.

  Oscar Wilde

  Men, Enough, Should

  Oscar Wilde (2012). “The Wit and Humor of Oscar Wilde”, p.34, Courier Corporation

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• There are moments, psychologists tell us, when the passion for sin, or what the world calls sin, so dominates a nature, that every fibre of the body, as every cell of the brain, seems to be instinct with fearful impulses. Men and women at such moments lose the freedom of their will. They move to their terrible end as automatons move. Choice is taken from them, and conscience is either killed, or, if it lives at all, lives but to give rebellion its fascination, and disobedience its charm.

  Oscar Wilde

  Taken, Moving, Passion

  Oscar Wilde (2013). “The Picture of Dorian Gray: The Story of a Fashionable Young Man Who Sells His Soul for Eternal Youth and Beauty (Beloved Books Edition)”, p.212, Lulu Press, Inc

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• "I hope your hair curls naturally, does it?" "Yes, darling, with a little help from others."

  Oscar Wilde

  Hair, Curls, Doe

  "The Importance of Being Earnest and Other Plays".

  9 Copy quote

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