Oscar Wilde Quotes About Moral

• 

  It is absurd to divide people into good and bad. People are either charming or tedious.

  Oscar Wilde

  People, Luck, Enemy

  LadyWindermere's Fan act 1 (1892)

• I never came across anyone in whom the moral sense was dominant who was not heartless, cruel, vindictive, log-stupid, and entirely lacking in the smallest sense of humanity. Moral people, as they are termed, are simple beasts.

  Oscar Wilde

  Stupid, Simple, People

  Oscar Wilde (2012). “The Wit and Humor of Oscar Wilde”, p.191, Courier Corporation

• 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.

  Oscar Wilde

  Attitude, Air, Expression

  Oscar Wilde (2017). “The Picture of Dorian Gray”, p.54, Pan Macmillan

• 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.

  Oscar Wilde

  Hypocrite, Land, People

  Oscar Wilde (2015). “The Picture of Dorian Gray (Diversion Classics)”, p.165, Diversion Books

• Morality is simply the attitude we adopt towards people whom we personally dislike.

  Oscar Wilde

  Inspirational, Funny, Inspiring

  An Ideal Husband act 2 (1895)

• There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written.

  Oscar Wilde

  Book, Reading, Writing

  The Picture of Dorian Gray preface (1891)

• On an occasion of this kind it becomes more than a moral duty to speak one's mind. It becomes a pleasure.

  Oscar Wilde

  Funny, Mind, Criticism

  'The Importance of Being Earnest' (1895) act 2

• He had that curious love of green, which in individuals is always the sign of a subtle artistic temperament, and in nations is said to denote a laxity, if not a decadence of morals.

  Oscar Wilde

  Love, Color, Green

  Oscar Wilde (1997). “Collected Works of Oscar Wilde: The Plays, the Poems, the Stories and the Essays Including De Profundis”, p.950, Wordsworth Editions

• The aim of the liar is simply to charm, to delight, to give pleasure. He is the very basis of civilized society.

  Oscar Wilde

  Liars, Giving, Delight

  Oscar Wilde (1969). “The Artist as Critic: Critical Writings of Oscar Wilde”, p.305, University of Chicago Press

• Women represent the triumph of matter over mind, just as men represent the triumph of mind over morals.

  Oscar Wilde

  Funny, Sarcastic, Independent Women

  Oscar Wilde (2014). “A Woman of No Importance”, p.50, Trajectory Inc

• 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)

• Science is out of the reach of morals, for her eyes are fixed upon eternal truths. Art is out of the reach of morals, for her eyes are fixed upon things beautiful and immortal and ever-changing.

  Oscar Wilde

  Change, Beautiful, Art

  Oscar Wilde (2000). “Oscar Wilde - The Major Works”, p.285, OUP Oxford

• Intellectual generalities are always interesting, but generalities in morals mean absolutely nothing.

  Oscar Wilde

  Mean, Interesting, Intellectual

  Oscar Wilde (2012). “The Wit and Humor of Oscar Wilde”, p.190, Courier Corporation

• Though of all poses a moral pose is the most offensive, still to have a pose at all is something.

  Oscar Wilde

  Integrity, Ethics, Moral

  Oscar Wilde (2007). “The Collected Works of Oscar Wilde”, p.999, Wordsworth Editions

• The terror of society, which is the basis of morals, the terror of God, which is the secret of religion-these are the two things that govern us.

  Oscar Wilde

  Two, Anxiety, Secret

  Oscar Wilde (2014). “The Picture of Dorian Gray and Other Writings”, p.22, Simon and Schuster

• Even men of the noblest possible moral character are extremely susceptible to the influence of the physical charms of others. Modern, no less then Ancient History, supplies us with many most painful examples of what I refer to. If it were not so, indeed, History would be quite unreadable.

  Oscar Wilde

  Character, Men, Example

  Oscar Wilde (1899). “The Importance of Being Earnest”, p.98

• Society, civilized society at least, is never very ready to believe anything to the detriment of those who are both rich and fascinating. It feels instinctively that manners are of more importance than morals, and, in its opinion, the highest respectability is of much less value than the possession of a good chef.

  Oscar Wilde

  Believe, Opinion, Moral

  Oscar Wilde (2007). “The Picture of Dorian Gray and Three Stories”, p.141, Penguin

• I am quite incapable of understanding how any work of art can be criticized from a moral standpoint. The sphere of art and the sphere of ethics are absolutely distinct and separate.

  Oscar Wilde

  Art, Understanding, Spheres

  Oscar Wilde, Nicholas Frankel (2011). “The Picture of Dorian Gray: An Annotated, Uncensored Edition”, p.22, Harvard University Press

• It is not good for one's morals to see bad acting

  Oscar Wilde

  Acting, Moral, Bad Acting

  Oscar Wilde, Nicholas Frankel (2011). “The Picture of Dorian Gray: An Annotated, Uncensored Edition”, p.142, Harvard University Press

• The crude commercialism of America, its materialising spirit, its indifference to the poetical side of things, and its lack of imagination and of high unattainable ideals, are entirely due to that country having adopted for its national hero a man who, according to his own confession, was incapable of telling a lie, and it is not too much to say that the story of George Washington and the cherry-tree has done more harm, and in a shorter space of time, than any other moral tale in the whole of literature.

  Oscar Wilde

  Country, Lying, Hero

  Oscar Wilde (1969). “The Artist as Critic: Critical Writings of Oscar Wilde”, p.304, University of Chicago Press

You May Also Like:

Alfred Douglas

Edgar Allan Poe

Mark Twain

Charles Dickens

George Bernard Shaw

James Joyce

William Shakespeare