Oscar Wilde Quotes - Page 61

• Never speak disrespectfully of Society, Algernon. Only people who can’t get into it do that.

  Oscar Wilde

  People, Society, Importance Of Being Earnest

  Oscar Wilde (1984). “The Importance of Being Earnest”, p.65, Dramatic Publishing

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• What is abnormal in Life stands in normal relations to Art. It is the only thing in Life that stands in normal relations to Art.

  Oscar Wilde

  Art, Things In Life, Abnormal

  Oscar Wilde (2007). “Epigrams of Oscar Wilde”, p.35, Wordsworth Editions

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• The basis of action is lack of imagination. It is the last resource of those who know not how to dream.

  Oscar Wilde

  Funny, Sarcastic, Dream

  Oscar Wilde (2012). “Epigrams”, p.102, BoD – Books on Demand

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• For the canons of good society are, or should be, the same as the canons of art. Form is absolutely essential to it.

  Oscar Wilde

  Art, Essentials, Sociology

  Oscar Wilde (2015). “The Picture of Dorian Gray (Diversion Classics)”, p.155, Diversion Books

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• In England, an inventor is regarded almost as a crazy man, and in too many instances invention ends in disappointment and poverty. In America, an inventor is honoured, help is forthcoming, and the exercise of ingenuity, the application of science to the work of man, is there the shortest road to wealth.

  Oscar Wilde

  Disappointment, Crazy, Exercise

  Oscar Wilde, Merlin Holland (2003). “Collins complete works of Oscar Wilde”, HarperCollins UK

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• I asked the question for the best reason possible, for the only reason, indeed, that excuses anyone for asking any question - simple curiosity.

  Oscar Wilde

  Simple, Curiosity, Asking

  Oscar Wilde (2015). “The Picture of Dorian Gray”, p.94, First Avenue Editions

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• Aestheticism is a search after the signs of the beautiful. It is the science of the beautiful through which men seek the correlation of the arts. It is, to speak more exactly, the search after the secret of life.

  Oscar Wilde

  Beautiful, Art, Men

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• Nature....she will hang the night stars so that I may walk abroad in the darkness without stumbling, and send word the wind over my footprints so that none may track me to my hurt: she will cleanse me in great waters, and with bitter herbs make me whole.

  Oscar Wilde

  Hurt, Stars, Night

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• The 19thc hatred of Realism is Caliban's enraged reaction to seeing his own face in the mirror. The 19thc rejection of Romanticism is Caliban's fury at not seeing his face reflected in the mirror.

  Oscar Wilde

  Mirrors, Rejection, Hatred

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• A method of procuring sensations? Do you think then, that a man who has once committed a murder could possibly do the same crime again? Don't tell me that." says Dorian. "Oh! anything becomes a pleasure if one does it too often," says Lord Henry

  Oscar Wilde

  Men, Thinking, Doe

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• We in the House of Lords are never in touch with public opinion. That makes us a civilised body.

  Oscar Wilde

  House, Body, Public Opinion

  Oscar Wilde (1997). “Collected Works of Oscar Wilde: The Plays, the Poems, the Stories and the Essays Including De Profundis”, p.543, Wordsworth Editions

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• He thinks like a Tory, and talks like a Radical, and that's so important nowadays.

  Oscar Wilde

  Thinking, Important, Society

  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.26, OUP Oxford

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• "There is no such thing as a good influence, Mr. Gray. All influence is immoral — immoral from the scientific point of view." "Why?" "Because to influence a person is to give him one's own soul."

  Oscar Wilde

  Giving, Soul, Influence

  "The Picture of Dorian Gray and Other Writings".

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• I have never learned anything except from people younger than myself.

  Oscar Wilde

  Learning, People, Programming

  Oscar Wilde (1962). “The letters of Oscar Wilde”

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• I'm sure I don't know half the people who come to my house. Indeed, from all I hear, I shouldn't like to.

  Oscar Wilde

  People, House, Half

  Oscar Wilde (2007). “Epigrams of Oscar Wilde”, p.31, Wordsworth Editions

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• As for modern journalism, it is not my business to defend it. It justifies its own existence by the great Darwinian principle of the survival of the vulgarest.

  Oscar Wilde

  Business, Modern Journalism, Survival

  Oscar Wilde, General Press (2016). “The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde: Novel, Short Stories, Poetry, Essays and Plays”, p.664, GENERAL PRESS

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• Those who find ugly meanings in beautiful things are corrupt without being charming. This is a fault. Those who find beautiful meanings in beautiful things are the cultivated. For these there is hope. They are the elect to whom beautiful things mean only Beauty. There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written. That is all.

  Oscar Wilde

  Beautiful, Book, Mean

  The Picture of Dorian Gray preface (1891)

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• His style is chaos illumined by flashes of lightning. As a writer he has mastered everything except language.

  Oscar Wilde

  Writing, Style, Lightning

  Oscar Wilde, Isobel Murray (2008). “Oscar Wilde - The Major Works”, p.221, Oxford University Press

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• I never play cricket. It requires one to assume such indecent postures.

  Oscar Wilde

  Funny, Sarcastic, Inspiration

  His reason for not playing cricket. Quoted in Bloomsbury Thematic Dictionary of Quotations (1988)

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• It is perfectly monstrous,' he said, at last, 'the way people go about nowadays saying things against one behind one's back that are absolutely and entirely true.

  Oscar Wilde

  Funny, Truth, Gossip

  A Woman of No Importance act 1 (1893)

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• Now produce your explanation and pray make it improbable.

  Oscar Wilde

  Praying, Produce, Explanation

  Oscar Wilde (1899). “The Importance of Being Earnest”, p.14

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• Down the long and silent street, The dawn, with silver-sandaled feet, Crept like a frightened girl.

  Oscar Wilde

  Girl, Feet, Long

  Oscar Wilde, “The Harlot's House”

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• And the marvellous rose became crimson, like the rose of the eastern sky. Crimson was the girdle of petals, and crimson as a ruby was the heart

  Oscar Wilde

  Heart, Sky, Rose

  Oscar Wilde (2007). “The Collected Works of Oscar Wilde”, p.330, Wordsworth Editions

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• The great events of life often leave one unmoved; they pass out of consciousness, and, when thinks of them, become unreal. Even the scarlet flowers of passion seem to grow in the same meadow as the poppies of oblivion. We reject the burden of their memory, and have anodynes against them. But the little things, the things of no moment, remain with us. In some tiny ivory cell the brain stores the most delicate, and the most fleeting impressions.

  Oscar Wilde

  Memories, Flower, Passion

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• My life-my whole life- take it, and do with it what you will. I love you-love you as I have never loved any living thing. From the moment I met you I loved you, loved you blindly, adoringly,madly! You didn't know it then-you know it now.

  Oscar Wilde

  Love You, Moments, I Loved You

  Oscar Wilde (2007). “The Collected Works of Oscar Wilde”, p.506, Wordsworth Editions

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