Oscar Wilde Quotes - Page 70

• As for begging, it is safer to beg than to take, but it is finer to take than to beg

  Oscar Wilde

  Poverty, Poor, Begging

  Oscar Wilde (1997). “Collected Works of Oscar Wilde: The Plays, the Poems, the Stories and the Essays Including De Profundis”, p.1043, Wordsworth Editions

  9 Copy quote

• It is in the brain that the poppy is red, that the apple is odorous, that the skylark sings.

  Oscar Wilde

  Apples, Brain, Red

  Oscar Wilde (2004). “The Best of Oscar Wilde: Selected Plays and Writings”, p.9, Penguin

  14 Copy quote

• In art, the public accept what has been, because they cannot alter it, not because they appreciate it. They swallow their classics whole, and never taste them.

  Oscar Wilde

  Art, Appreciate, Taste

  Oscar Wilde (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Oscar Wilde (Illustrated)”, p.1653, Delphi Classics

  4 Copy quote

• He was a hero to his valet, who bullied him, and a terror to most of his relations, whom he bullied in turn. Only England could have produced him, and he always said that the country was going to the dogs. His principles were out of date, but there was a good deal to be said for his prejudices.

  Oscar Wilde

  Country, Bullying, Dog

  Oscar Wilde (2007). “The Collected Works of Oscar Wilde”, p.25, Wordsworth Editions

  7 Copy quote

• Misery and poverty are so absolutely degrading, and exercise such
  a paralysing effect over the nature of men, that no class is ever really conscious of its own suffering. They have to be told of it by other people, and they often entirely disbelieve them.

  Oscar Wilde

  Exercise, Men, Class

  Oscar Wilde (2007). “The Collected Works of Oscar Wilde”, p.1044, Wordsworth Editions

  4 Copy quote

• In one dancing saloon I saw the only rational method of art criticism I have ever come across. Over the piano was printed a notice: 'Please do not shoot the pianist. He is doing his best.'

  Oscar Wilde

  Art, Piano, America

  Oscar Wilde, Matthew Hofer, Gary Scharnhorst (2010). “Oscar Wilde in America: The Interviews”, p.180, University of Illinois Press

  18 Copy quote

• Why is it that at a bachelor's establishment the servants invariably drink the champagne.

  Oscar Wilde

  Champagne Drinking, Drinking Champagne, Bachelors

  Oscar Wilde (1899). “The Importance of Being Earnest”, p.2

  7 Copy quote

• How strange a thing this is! The Priest telleth me that the Soul is worth all the gold in the world, and the merchants say that it is not worth a clipped piece of silver.

  Oscar Wilde

  Soul, Gold, Pieces

  Oscar Wilde, General Press (2016). “The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde: Novel, Short Stories, Poetry, Essays and Plays”, p.230, GENERAL PRESS

  9 Copy quote

• He had uttered a mad wish that he himself might remain untarnished, and the face on the canvas bear the burden of his passions and his sins; that the painted image might be seared with the lines of suffering and thought, and that he might keep all the delicate bloom and loveliness of his then just conscious boyhood.

  Oscar Wilde

  Love, Passion, Mad

  Oscar Wilde (2016). “The Picture of Dorian Gray”, p.80, Xist Publishing

  4 Copy quote

• If only the picture could grow old, and I stay young. For that...for that, I would give my SOUL for that.

  Oscar Wilde

  Vanity, Giving, Soul

  4 Copy quote

• The birds did not understand a single word of what he was saying, but that made no matter, for they put their heads on one side, and looked wise, which is quite as good as understanding a thing, and very much easier.

  Oscar Wilde

  Wise, Bird, Understanding

  Oscar Wilde, General Press (2016). “The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde: Novel, Short Stories, Poetry, Essays and Plays”, p.178, GENERAL PRESS

  5 Copy quote

• Now and then the fantastic shadows of birds in flight flitted across the long tussore-silk curtains that were stretched in front of the huge window, producing a kind of momentary Japanese effect, and making him think of those pallid, jade-faced painters of Tokyo who, through the medium of an art that is necessarily immobile, seek to convey the sense of swiftness and motion.

  Oscar Wilde

  Art, Thinking, Long

  Oscar Wilde (2014). “Le Portrait de Dorian Gray / The Picture of Dorian Gray: Édition bilingue: français - anglais / Bilingual Edition: French - English”, p.196, BookRix

  11 Copy quote

• I see the moon like a clipped piece of silver. Like gilded bees the stars cluster round her.

  Oscar Wilde

  Stars, Science, Moon

  Oscar Wilde, General Press (2016). “The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde: Novel, Short Stories, Poetry, Essays and Plays”, p.665, GENERAL PRESS

  5 Copy quote

• The worst slave owners were those who were kind to their slaves

  Oscar Wilde

  Slave Owners, Kind, Worst

  Oscar Wilde (2007). “The Collected Works of Oscar Wilde”, p.1041, Wordsworth Editions

  7 Copy quote

• A daughter is a mother's gender partner, her closest ally in the family confederacy, an extension of herself. -Author Unknown As long as a woman can look ten years younger than her own daughter, she is perfectly satisfied.

  Oscar Wilde

  Mother Daughter, Mother And Daughter, Years

  10 Copy quote

• The Governor was strong upon
  The Regulation Act:
  The Doctor said that Death was but
  A scientific fact:
  And twice a day the Chaplain called,
  And left a little tract.

  Oscar Wilde

  Strong, Science, Doctors

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

  7 Copy quote

• Despotism is unjust to everybody, including the despot, who was probably made for better things.

  Oscar Wilde

  Government, Unjust, Made

  Oscar Wilde (2007). “The Collected Works of Oscar Wilde”, p.1049, Wordsworth Editions

  7 Copy quote

• The American father is never seen in London. He passes his life entirely in Wall Street and communicates with his family once a month by means of a telegram in cipher.

  Oscar Wilde

  Family, Wall, Father

  Oscar Wilde (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Oscar Wilde (Illustrated)”, p.1861, Delphi Classics

  17 Copy quote

• On the whole, the great success of marriage in the States is due partly to the fact that no American man is ever idle, and partly to the fact that no American wife is considered responsible for the quality of her husband's dinners.

  Oscar Wilde

  Marriage, Husband, Men

  Oscar Wilde (1969). “The Artist as Critic: Critical Writings of Oscar Wilde”, p.62, University of Chicago Press

  7 Copy quote

• What between the duties expected of one during one's lifetime, and the duties exacted from one after one's death, land has ceased to be either a profit or a pleasure. It gives one position, and prevents one from keeping it up. That's all that can be said about land.

  Oscar Wilde

  Home, Land, Giving

  Oscar Wilde (2016). “The Importance of Being Earnest: Revised Edition”, p.27, Bloomsbury Publishing

  7 Copy quote

• Yes, I am a thorough republican. No other form of government is so favorable to the growth of art.

  Oscar Wilde

  Art, Government, Growth

  7 Copy quote

• The morality of art consists in the perfect use of an imperfect medium.

  Oscar Wilde

  Art, Perfect, Use

  'The Picture of Dorian Gray' (1891) preface

  7 Copy quote

• If art is to have a special train, the critic must keep some seats reserved on it.

  Oscar Wilde

  Art, Special, Critics

  Oscar Wilde (1969). “The Artist as Critic: Critical Writings of Oscar Wilde”, p.9, University of Chicago Press

  4 Copy quote

• A beggar hates his benefactor as much as he hates himself for begging.

  Oscar Wilde

  Hate, Charity, Begging

  8 Copy quote

• Artists reproduce themselves or each other, with wearisome iteration. But criticism is always moving on, and the critic is always developing.

  Oscar Wilde

  Moving, Artist, Criticism

  Oscar Wilde (1969). “The Artist as Critic: Critical Writings of Oscar Wilde”, p.390, University of Chicago Press

  4 Copy quote

You May Also Like:

Alfred Douglas

Edgar Allan Poe

Mark Twain

Charles Dickens

George Bernard Shaw

James Joyce

William Shakespeare

Jane Austen