Oscar Wilde Quotes - Page 45

• To toil for a hard master is bitter, but to have no master to toil for is more bitter still.

  Oscar Wilde

  Work, Toil, Bitter

  Oscar Wilde, General Press (2016). “The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde: Novel, Short Stories, Poetry, Essays and Plays”, p.364, GENERAL PRESS

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• As for the virtuous poor, one can pity them of course, but one cannot possibly admire them.

  Oscar Wilde

  Poverty, Pity, Virtue

  'The Soul of Man under Socialism'

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• By doing just a little every day, I can gradually let the task completely overwhelm me.

  Oscar Wilde

  Tasks, Littles, Brilliant

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• Make some sacrifice for your art and you will be repaid, but ask of art to sacrifice herself for you and a bitter disappointment may come to you.

  Oscar Wilde

  Art, Disappointment, Sacrifice

  Oscar Wilde (2014). “The Wit and Wisdom of Oscar Wilde”, p.48, Courier Corporation

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• Nothing is so aggravating as calmness. There is something positively brutal about the good temper of most modern men.

  Oscar Wilde

  Anger, Men, Rage

  Oscar Wilde (2004). “The Best of Oscar Wilde: Selected Plays and Writings”, p.127, Penguin

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• He had that curious love of green, which in individuals is always the sign of a subtle artistic temperament, and in nations is said to denote a laxity, if not a decadence of morals.

  Oscar Wilde

  Love, Color, Green

  Oscar Wilde (1997). “Collected Works of Oscar Wilde: The Plays, the Poems, the Stories and the Essays Including De Profundis”, p.950, Wordsworth Editions

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• One must have a heart of stone to read the death of little Nell without laughing.

  Oscar Wilde

  Witty, Heart, Laughing

  Quoted in Letters to the Sphinx from Oscar Wilde (1930)

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• He would stab his best friend for the sake of writing an epigraph on his tombstone.

  Oscar Wilde

  Betrayal, Tombstone, Writing

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• For us there is only one season, the season of sorrow. The very sun and moon seem taken from us.

  Oscar Wilde

  Grief, Taken, Moon

  Oscar Wilde, Russell Jackson, Ian Small (2000). “The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde: De profundis, "Epistola : in carcere et vinculis"”, p.82, Oxford University Press on Demand

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• Surely Love is a wonderful thing. It is more precious than emeralds, and dearer than fine opals. Pearls and pomegranates cannot buy it, nor is it set forth in the marketplace. It may not be purchased of the merchants, for can it be weighed out in the balance for gold.

  Oscar Wilde

  Love Is, Balance, Gold

  Oscar wilde (1943). “The Happy Prince and Other Tales (Illustrated)”, p.14, LCI

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• The only thing worse than being misquoted is being sentenced to two years' hard labour for buggery

  Oscar Wilde

  Years, Two, Hard

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

  Oscar Wilde

  Mother, Men, Tragedy

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• Is it thy will that I should wax and wane,
  Barter my cloth of gold for hodden grey,
  And at thy pleasure weave that web of pain
  Whose brightest threads are each a wasted day?

  Oscar Wilde

  Sad, Pain, Gold

  Oscar Wilde (2007). “The Collected Works of Oscar Wilde”, p.847, Wordsworth Editions

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• At every single moment of one's life one is what one is going to be no less than what one has been.

  Oscar Wilde

  Single Mom, Destiny, Moments

  Oscar Wilde, Russell Jackson, Ian Small (2000). “The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde: De profundis, "Epistola : in carcere et vinculis"”, p.109, Oxford University Press on Demand

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• It is love, and not German philosophy, that is the true explanation of the world, whatever may be the explanation of the next.

  Oscar Wilde

  Life, Philosophy, World

  Oscar Wilde (2012). “The Wit and Humor of Oscar Wilde”, p.101, Courier Corporation

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• It was a fatal day when the public discovered that the pen is mightier than the paving-stone, and can be made as offensive as the brickbat. They at once sought for the journalist, found him, developed him, and made him their industrious and well-paid servant. It is greatly to be regretted, for both their sakes.

  Oscar Wilde

  Stones, Sake, Journalism

  Oscar Wilde (1997). “Collected Works of Oscar Wilde: The Plays, the Poems, the Stories and the Essays Including De Profundis”, p.1056, Wordsworth Editions

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• Nothing is so dangerous as being too modern; one is apt to grow old fashioned quite suddenly.

  Oscar Wilde

  Modern, Dangerous, Old Fashioned

  1895 Lord Mark by. An Ideal Husband, act 2.

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• Why was I born with such contemporaries?

  Oscar Wilde

  Sarcastic, Book, Beer

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• It is only through Art and through Art only that we can realize our perfection; Through Art and art only that we can shield ourselves from the sordid perils of actual existence.

  Oscar Wilde

  Art, Fear, Perfection

  Oscar Wilde (1969). “The Artist as Critic: Critical Writings of Oscar Wilde”, p.380, University of Chicago Press

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• The good ended happily, and the bad unhappily. That is what fiction means.

  Oscar Wilde

  Funny, Change, Sarcastic

  The Importance of Being Earnest act 2 (1895)

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• All art is at once surface and symbol. Those who go beneath the surface do so at their peril. Those who read the symbol do so at their peril. It is the spectator, and not life, that art really mirrors. Diversity of opinion about a work of art shows that the work is new, complex, and vital. When critics disagree, the artist is in accord with himself.

  Oscar Wilde

  Art, Mirrors, Diversity

  Oscar Wilde (2015). “The Picture of Dorian Gray”, p.6, First Avenue Editions

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• I am sick of women who love one. Women who hate one are much more interesting.

  Oscar Wilde

  Love, Hate, Sick

  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.328, Oxford University Press on Demand

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• I am too fond of reading books to care to write them.

  Oscar Wilde

  Book, Reading, Writing

  Oscar Wilde (2007). “The Picture of Dorian Gray and Three Stories”, p.45, Penguin

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• Do you really keep a diary? I'd give anything to look at it. May I? Oh, no. You see, it is simply a very young girl's record of her own thoughts and impressions, and consequently meant for publication. When it appears in volume form I hope you will order a copy.

  Oscar Wilde

  Girl, Order, Giving

  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.282, OUP Oxford

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• But she is happiest alone. She is happiest alone.

  Oscar Wilde

  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.123, Oxford Paperbacks

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