Oscar Wilde Quotes - Page 17

• The reason we all like to think so well of others is that we are all afraid for ourselves. The basis of optimism is sheer terror.

  Oscar Wilde

  Relationship, Thinking, Optimism

  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.52, Oxford University Press on Demand

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• Time is a waste of money.

  Oscar Wilde

  Time, Money, Waste

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• The tragedy of the poor is that they can afford nothing but self denial.

  Oscar Wilde

  Self, Tragedy, Denial

  Oscar Wilde, Alvin Redman (1959). “The Wit and Humor of Oscar Wilde”, p.185, Courier Corporation

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• A gentleman never offends unintentionally

  Oscar Wilde

  Gentleman

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• Nothing worth learning can ever be taught

  Oscar Wilde

  Taught

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• How clever you are, my dear! You never mean a single word you say.

  Oscar Wilde

  Clever, Mean, Hypocrisy

  "The Best of Oscar Wilde: Selected Plays and Writings".

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• Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.

  Oscar Wilde

  Being Yourself, Truth, Honesty

  "The Critic as Artist". Book by Oscar Wilde, 1891.

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• There is one thing infinitely more pathetic than to have lost the woman one is in love with, and that is to have won her and found out how shallow she is!

  Oscar Wilde

  Shallow, Lost, Found

  Oscar Wilde (2007). “Epigrams of Oscar Wilde”, p.21, Wordsworth Editions

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• The great things in life are what they seem to be. And for that reason, strange as it may sound to you, often are very difficult to interpret (understand). Great passions are for the great of souls. Great events can only be seen by people who are on a level with them. We think we can have our visions for nothing. We cannot. Even the finest and most self-sacrificing visions have to be paid for. Strangely enough, that is what makes them fine.

  Oscar Wilde

  Passion, Sacrifice, Thinking

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• 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.

  Oscar Wilde

  Funny, Drinking, Vacation

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• You can have your secret as long as I have your heart[.]

  Oscar Wilde

  Heart, Long, Secret

  Oscar Wilde (1997). “Collected Works of Oscar Wilde: The Plays, the Poems, the Stories and the Essays Including De Profundis”, p.212, Wordsworth Editions

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• To believe is very dull. To doubt is intensely engrossing. To be on the alert is to live, to be lulled into security is to die.

  Oscar Wilde

  Inspirational, Life, Courage

  Quoted in Hesketh Pearson, Oscar Wilde, His Life and Wit (1946)

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• A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal.

  Oscar Wilde

  Funny, Witty, Sarcasm

  'The Critic as Artist' pt. 2 in 'Intentions' (1891)

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• Everything that is popular is wrong.

  Oscar Wilde

  Health, Inspire

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• Whenever a man does a thoroughly stupid thing, it is always from the noblest motives.

  Oscar Wilde

  Money, Clever, Stupid

  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.51, Oxford University Press on Demand

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• Now art should never try to be popular. The public should try to make itself artistic.

  Oscar Wilde

  Inspirational, Art, Trying

  Oscar Wilde (1997). “Collected Works of Oscar Wilde: The Plays, the Poems, the Stories and the Essays Including De Profundis”, p.1052, Wordsworth Editions

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• People are very fond of giving away what they need most themselves. It is what I call the depth of generosity.

  Oscar Wilde

  People, Generosity, Giving

  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.217, Oxford University Press on Demand

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• Would you be in any way offended if I said that you seem to me to be in every way the visible personification of absolute perfection?

  Oscar Wilde

  Perfection, Way, Said

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• Experience was of no ethical value. It was merely the name men gave to their mistakes. Moralists had, as a rule, regarded it as a mode of warning, had claimed for it a certain ethical efficacy in the formation of character, had praised it as something that taught us what to follow and showed us what to avoid. But there was no motive power in experience. It was as little of an active cause as conscience itself. All that it really demonstrated was that our future would be the same as our past, and that the sin we had done once, and with loathing, we would do many times, and with joy.

  Oscar Wilde

  Mistake, Character, Past

  Bram Stoker, Mary Shelley, Oscar Wilde (2015). “The Penny Dreadfuls: Tales of Horror: Dracula, Frankenstein, and The Picture of Dorian Gray”, p.719, Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

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• A true gentleman is one who is never intentionally rude.

  Oscar Wilde

  Rude, Gentleman, Rudeness

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• When you really want love you will find it waiting for you.

  Oscar Wilde

  Love, Happy Valentines Day, Waiting

  Oscar Wilde (1961). “DE PROFUNDIS”, p.10, VICTORIA INSTITUTIONS

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• What is the good of friendship if one cannot say exactly what one means?

  Oscar Wilde

  Relationship, Mean, Ifs

  Oscar Wilde, Alvin Redman (1959). “The Wit and Humor of Oscar Wilde”, p.187, Courier Corporation

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• Our ambition should be to rule ourselves, the true kingdom for each one of us; and true progress is to know more, and be more, and to do more.

  Oscar Wilde

  Ambition, Progress, Kingdoms

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• I like men who have a future and women who have a past.

  Oscar Wilde

  Wise, Women, Future

  Oscar Wilde, General Press (2016). “The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde: Novel, Short Stories, Poetry, Essays and Plays”, p.136, GENERAL PRESS

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• Love does not traffic in a marketplace, nor use a huckster's scales. Its joy, like the joy of the intellect, is to feel itself alive. The aim of Love is to love: no more, and no less. You were my enemy: such an enemy as no man ever had. I had given you all my life, and to gratify the lowest and most contemptible of all human passions, hatred and vanity and greed, you had thrown it away. In less than three years you had entirely ruined me in every point of view. For my own sake there was nothing for me to do but to love you.

  Oscar Wilde

  Love You, Passion, Men

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