Quotes from Oscar Wilde

Where there is sorrow, there is holy ground.

Actions are the first tragedy in life, words are the second. Words are perhaps the worst. Words are merciless. . .

Oh! it is absurd to have a hard-and-fast rule about what one should read and what one shouldn't. More than half of modern culture depends on what one shouldn't read.

I do not approve of anything that tampers with natural ignorance. Ignorance is like a delicate exotic fruit; touch it and the bloom is gone. The whole theory of modern education is radically unsound. Fortunately in England, at any rate, education produces no effect whatsoever.

And what sort of lives do these people, who pose as being moral, lead themselves? My dear fellow, you forget that we are in the native land of the hypocrite.

Sarcasm is the lowest form of wit, but the highest form of intelligence.

There is only one class in the community that thinks more about money than the rich, and that is the poor.

The secret of remaining young is never to have an emotion that is unbecoming.

Life is a nightmare that prevents one from sleeping.

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

I'm a man of simple tastes. I'm always satisfied with the best.

America has never quite forgiven Europe for having been discovered somewhat earlier in history than itself.

Good heavens, I suppose a man may eat his own muffins in his own garden. But you have just said it was perfectly heartless to eat muffins! I said it was perfectly heartless of YOU under the circumstances. That is a very different thing. That may be, but the muffins are the same!

Alcohol, taken in sufficient quantities, may produce all the effects of drunkenness.

I never approve, or disapprove, of anything now. It is an absurd attitude to take towards life. We are not sent into the world to air our moral prejudices. I never take any notice of what common people say, and I never interfere with what charming people do. If a personality fascinates me, whatever mode of expression that personality selects is absolutely delightful to me.

The gods are strange. It is not our vices only they make instruments to scourge us. They bring us to ruin through what in us is good, gentle, humane, loving.

I hate vulgar realism in literature. The man who would call a spade a spade should be compelled to use one.

Life is one fool thing after another whereas love is two fool things after each other.

He wanted to be where no one would know who he was. He wanted to escape from himself.

Cecil Graham: What is a cynic? Lord Darlington: A man who knows the price of everything, and the value of nothing. Cecil Graham: And a sentimentalist, my dear Darlington, is a man who sees an absurd value in everything and doesn't know the market price of any single thing.

Arguments are to be avoided, they are always vulgar and often convincing.

No great artist ever sees things as they really are. If he did, he would cease to be an artist.

The final mystery is oneself. When one has weighed the sun in the balance, and measured the steps of the moon, and mapped out the seven heavens star by star, there still remains oneself. Who can calculate the orbit of his own soul?

Wisdom comes with winters