Oscar Wilde Quotes About Prisons

• The vilest deeds like poison weeds Bloom well in prison air; It is only what is good in man That wastes and withers there.

  Oscar Wilde

  Weed, Men, Air

  Oscar Wilde, Russell Jackson, Ian Small (2000). “The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde: Poems and poems in prose”, p.213, Oxford University Press on Demand

• One of the many lessons that one learns in prison is, that things are what they are and will be what they will be.

  Oscar Wilde

  Lessons, Prison

  Oscar Wilde, Russell Jackson, Ian Small (2000). “The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde: De profundis, "Epistola : in carcere et vinculis"”, p.80, Oxford University Press on Demand

• We who live in prison, and in whose lives there is no event but sorrow, have to measure time by throbs of pain, and the record of bitter moments.

  Oscar Wilde

  Pain, Prison Time, Jail

  Oscar Wilde, Russell Jackson, Ian Small (2000). “The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde: De profundis, "Epistola : in carcere et vinculis"”, p.51, Oxford University Press on Demand

• I know not whether Laws be right,
  Or whether Laws be wrong;
  All that we know who be in jail
  Is that the wall is strong;
  And that each day is like a year,
  A year whose days are long.

  Oscar Wilde

  Witty, Strong, Wall

  The Ballad of Reading Gaol pt. 5, st. 1 (1898)

• I tremble with pleasure when I think that on the very day of my leaving prison both the laburnum and the lilac will be blooming in the gardens, and that I shall see the wind stir into restless beauty the swaying gold of the one, and make the other toss the pale purple of its plumes, so that all the air shall be Arabia for me.

  Oscar Wilde

  Garden, Thinking, Air

  Oscar Wilde (1961). “DE PROFUNDIS”, p.33, VICTORIA INSTITUTIONS

• ...The two great turning-points of my life were when my father sent to Oxford, and when society sent me to prison.

  Oscar Wilde

  Father, Oxford, Two

  Oscar Wilde, Russell Jackson, Ian Small (2000). “The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde: De profundis, "Epistola : in carcere et vinculis"”, p.99, Oxford University Press on Demand

• I never saw a man who looked With such a wistful eye Upon that little tent of blue Which prisoners call the sky.

  Oscar Wilde

  Eye, Men, Blue

  The Ballad of Reading Gaol pt. 1, st. 3 (1898)

• I am happy in my prison of passion

  Oscar Wilde

  Passion, Prison

• For a year after that was done to me I wept every day at the same hour and for the same space of time. That is not such a tragic thing as possibly it sounds to you. To those who are in prison tears are a part of every day's experience. A day in prison on which one does not weep is a day on which one's heart is hard, not a day on which one's heart is happy.

  Oscar Wilde

  Heart, Years, Space

  Oscar Wilde, Russell Jackson, Ian Small (2000). “The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde: De profundis, "Epistola : in carcere et vinculis"”, p.128, Oxford University Press on Demand

• My sweet rose, my delicate flower, my lily of lilies, it is perhaps in prison that I am going to test the power of love. I am going to see if I cannot make the bitter warders sweet by the intensity of the love I bear you. I have had moments when I thought it would be wise to separate. Ah! Moments of weakness and madness! Now I see that would have mutilated my life, ruined my art, broken the musical chords which make a perfect soul. Even covered with mud I shall praise you, from the deepest abysses I shall cry to you. In my solitude you will be with me.

  Oscar Wilde

  Wise, Sweet, Art

• Every prison that men build Is built with bricks of shame, And bound with bars lest Christ should see How men their brothers maim.

  Oscar Wilde

  Brother, Men, Bars

  Oscar Wilde, Russell Jackson, Ian Small (2000). “The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde: Poems and poems in prose”, p.213, Oxford University Press on Demand

• It is not the prisoners who need reformation, it is the prisons.

  Oscar Wilde

  Needs, Prison, Prisoner

  Oscar Wilde, Isobel Murray (1999). “The Soul of Man, and Prison Writings”, p.164, Oxford University Press, USA

• At six o'clock we cleaned our cells,
  At seven all was still,
  But the sough and swing of a mighty wing
  The prison seemed to fill,
  For the Lord of Death with icy breath
  Had entered in to kill.

  Oscar Wilde

  Swings, Cells, Icy

  Oscar Wilde, Isobel Murray (1999). “The Soul of Man, and Prison Writings”, p.179, Oxford University Press, USA

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