Oscar Wilde Quotes - Page 16

• Never trust a woman who wears mauve, whatever her age may be, or a woman over thirty-five who is fond of pink ribbons.

  Oscar Wilde

  Age, May, Ribbons

  Oscar Wilde (2007). “Epigrams of Oscar Wilde”, p.15, Wordsworth Editions

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• Something was dead in each of us, and what was dead was hope

  Oscar Wilde

  Hope

  'The Ballad of Reading Gaol' (1898) pt. 3, st. 31

  9 Copy quote

• My great mistake, the fault for which I can’t forgive myself, is that one day I ceased my obstinate pursuit of my own individuality.

  Oscar Wilde

  Respect, Mistake, Being Different

  62 Copy quote

• The optimist sees the donut, the pessimist sees the hole.

  Oscar Wilde

  Inspirational, Optimism, Perspective

  42 Copy quote

• What a pity that in life we only get our lessons when they are of no use to us.

  Oscar Wilde

  Use, Lessons, Pity

  Oscar Wilde (2016). “Aphorisms”, p.4, Oscar Wilde

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• If you are not long, I will wait for you all my life.

  Oscar Wilde

  Love, Long, Waiting

  79 Copy quote

• The only way to behave to a woman is to make love to her if she is pretty, and to someone else if she is plain.

  Oscar Wilde

  Women, Making Love, Way

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

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• Those who see any difference between soul and body have neither

  Oscar Wilde

  Soul And Body, Differences, Soul

  Oscar Wilde (2012). “The Wit and Humor of Oscar Wilde”, p.210, Courier Corporation

  11 Copy quote

• Only the great masters of style ever succeed in being obscure.

  Oscar Wilde

  Style, Succeed, Obscure

  Oscar Wilde (2012). “Oscar Wilde's Wit and Wisdom: A Book of Quotations”, p.39, Courier Corporation

  5 Copy quote

• If you pretend to be good, the world takes you very seriously. If you pretend to be bad, it doesn't. Such is the astounding stupidity of optimism.

  Oscar Wilde

  Funny, Sarcastic, Optimism

  Oscar Wilde (2007). “The Collected Works of Oscar Wilde”, p.488, Wordsworth Editions

  44 Copy quote

• 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

  5 Copy quote

• She wore far too much rouge last night and not quite enough clothes. That is always a sign of despair in a woman.

  Oscar Wilde

  Fashion, Maturity, Night

  1895 Lord Goring. An Ideal Husband, act 2.

  39 Copy quote

• It is awfully hard work doing nothing.

  Oscar Wilde

  Hard Work, Doing Nothing, Importance Of Being Earnest

  Oscar Wilde (1899). “The Importance of Being Earnest”, p.46

  9 Copy quote

• Good taste is the excuse I've always given for leading such a bad life

  Oscar Wilde

  Failure, Taste, Excuse

  Oscar Wilde (2012). “Oscar Wilde's Wit and Wisdom: A Book of Quotations”, p.4, Courier Corporation

  30 Copy quote

• Mere color, unspoiled by meaning, and unallied with definite form, can speak to the soul in a thousand different ways.

  Oscar Wilde

  Color, Soul, Different

  Oscar Wilde (2004). “The Best of Oscar Wilde: Selected Plays and Writings”, p.319, Penguin

  32 Copy quote

• 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.

  6 Copy quote

• What is a cynic? A man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.

  Oscar Wilde

  Inspirational, Funny, Leadership

  'Lady Windermere's Fan' (1892) act 3

  34 Copy quote

• Consistency is the hallmark of the unimaginative.

  Oscar Wilde

  Consistency, Hallmark

  11 Copy quote

• 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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• Time is a waste of money.

  Oscar Wilde

  Time, Money, Waste

  9 Copy quote

• The world is divided into two classes, those who believe the incredible, and those who do the improbable.

  Oscar Wilde

  Believe, Class, Two

  Oscar Wilde (2012). “Epigrams”, p.60, BoD – Books on Demand

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• I quite agree with Dr. Nordau's assertion that all men of genius are insane, but Dr. Nordau forgets that all sane people are idiots.

  Oscar Wilde

  Funny, Men, People

  35 Copy quote

• To be in love is to surpass one's self.

  Oscar Wilde

  Life, Love Is, Self

  Oscar Wilde (2005). “Picture of Dorian Gray”, p.62, Prestwick House Inc

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• What the artist is always looking for is the mode of existence in which soul and body are one and indivisible: in which the outward is expressive of the inward: in which form reveals.

  Oscar Wilde

  Artist, Soul And Body, Inward

  Oscar Wilde, Russell Jackson, Ian Small (2000). “The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde: De profundis, "Epistola : in carcere et vinculis"”, p.170, Oxford University Press on Demand

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• The English are always degrading truths into facts. When a truth becomes a fact it loses all its intellectual value.

  Oscar Wilde

  Intellectual, Facts, Truth Is

  Oscar Wilde (2007). “Epigrams of Oscar Wilde”, p.200, Wordsworth Editions

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