Quotes from Oscar Wilde

Other people are quite dreadful. The only possible society is oneself.

People say sometimes that Beauty is superficial. That may be so. But at least it is not so superficial as Thought is. To me, Beauty is the wonder of wonders. It is only shallow people who do not judge by appearances. The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible.

Now produce your explanation and pray make it improbable.

We teach people how to remember, we never teach them how to grow.

Memory is the diary that chronicles things that never happened or couldn't possibly have happened.

Where there is no love there is no understanding.

It is so easy to convince others; it is so difficult to convince oneself.

There are two ways to dislike poetry: One is to dislike it; the other is to read Pope.

Perhaps, after all, America never has been discovered. I myself would say that it had merely been detected.

The old believe everything; the middle-aged suspect everything; the young know everything.

This ghastly state of things is what you call Bunburying, I suppose? Algernon. Yes, and a perfectly wonderful Bunbury it is. The most wonderful Bunbury I have ever had in my life. Jack. Well, you've no right whatsoever to Bunbury here. Algernon. That is absurd. One has a right to Bunbury anywhere one chooses. Every serious Bunburyist knows that.

Be happy, cried the Nightingale, be happy; you shall have your red rose. I will build it out of music by moonlight, and stain it with my own heart's-blood. All that I ask of you in return is that you will be a true lover, for Love is wiser than Philosophy, though she is wise, and mightier than Power, though he is mighty. Flame-coloured are his wings, and coloured like flame is his body. His lips are sweet as honey, and his breath is like frankincense.

In the common world of fact the wicked were not punished, nor the good rewarded. Success was given to the strong, failure thrust upon the weak. That was all.

Love is a sacrament that should be taken kneeling, and Domine non sum dignus should be on the lips and in the hearts of those who receive it.

The consciousness of loving and being loved brings a warmth and richness to life that nothing else can bring.

And all the woe that moved him so That he gave that bitter cry the wild regrets, and the bloody sweats None knew so well as I: For he who lives more lives than one More deaths than one must die.

I must say... that I ruined myself: and that nobody, great or small, can be ruined except by his own hand.

As for believing things, I can believe anything, provided that it is quite incredible.

When bankers get together for dinner, they discuss Art. When artists get together for dinner, they discuss Money

I want to be good. I can't bear the idea of my soul being hideous.

Imagination is a quality that was given to man compensate him from whats not. The sense of humor was given to console him from what is.

The secret to life is to enjoy the pleasure of being terribly, terribly deceived.

Women have a wonderful instinct about things. They can discover everything except the obvious.

I am jealous of everything whose beauty does not die. I am jealous of the portrait you have painted of me. Why should it keep what I must lose? Every moment that passes takes something from me and gives something to it. Oh, if it were only the other way! If the picture could change, and I could be always what I am now! Why did you paint it? It will mock me some day—mock me horribly!