Quotes from Oscar Wilde

The proper school to learn art is not life but art

Ambition is the last refuge of failure.

When I was young I thought that money was the most important thing in life; now that I am old I know that it is.

Memory is the diary that we all carry about with us.

Nothing looks so like innocence as an indiscretion.

A red rose is not selfish because it wants to be a red rose. It would be horribly selfish if it wanted all the other flowers in the garden to be both red and roses.

The condition of perfection is idleness: the aim of perfection is youth

They are horribly tedious when they are good husbands, and abominably conceited when they are not.

Nothing makes one so vain as being told one is a sinner. Conscience makes egotists of us all.

Always borrow money from a pessimist. He won't expect it back.

Give a man a mask and he will show his true face.

Paradoxically though it may seem, it is non the less true that life imitates art far more than art imitates life.

Women are made to be loved, not understood.

Her hair has turned quite gold from grief.

There are moments when art attains almost to the dignity of manual labor.

Mrs. Allonby: They say, Lady Hunstanton, that when good Americans die they go to Paris.Lady Hunstanton: Indeed? And when bad Americans die, where do they go to?Lord Illingworth: Oh, they go to America.

I love to talk about nothing. It's the only thing I know anything about.

Too much work, and no vacation, Deserves at least a small libation. So hail! my friends, and raise your glasses, Work's the curse of the drinking classes.

A man who marries his mistress leaves a vacancy in that position.

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

I forgot that every little action of the common day makes or unmakes character, and that therefore what one has done in the secret chamber one has some day to cry aloud on the house-tops.

Really, if the lower orders don't set us a good example, what on earth is the use of them?

Life is not governed by will or intention. Life is a question of nerves, and fibers, and slowly built-up cells in which thought hides itself and passion has its dreams.

Never love anyone who treats you like you're ordinary.