Top 16 Most Famous Oscar Wilde Quotes to Inspire You
PinBe yourself; everyone else is already taken.PinIt takes great deal of courage to see the world in all its tainted glory, and still to love it.PinAlways forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much.PinWhat seems to us as bitter trials are often blessings in disguise.PinMan is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell the truth.PinLive life with no excuses and travel with no regret.PinTo live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.PinYou don’t love someone for their looks, or their clothes, or for their fancy car, but because they sing a song only you can hear.PinIt is absurd to divide people into good and bad. People are either charming or tedious.PinKeep love in your heart. A life without it is like a sunless garden where the flowers are dead.PinI am so clever that sometimes I don’t understand a single word of what I am saying.PinSome cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go.PinLife is not complex. We are complex. Life is simple, and the simple thing is the right thing.PinWe live in an age when unnecessary things are our only necessities.PinThe world is divided into two classes, those who believe the incredible, and those who do the improbable.PinI have the simplest tastes. I am always satisfied with the best.
88 Best Oscar Wilde Quotes About Life, Imagination, and Books
Death must be so beautiful. To lie in the soft brown earth, with the grasses waving above one’s head, and listen to silence. To have no yesterday, and no tomorrow. To forget time, to forgive life, to be at peace.”
Oscar Wilde
PinWe are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.PinI adore simple pleasures. They are the last refuge of the complex.PinIt is what you read when you don’t have to that determines what you will be when you can’t help it.PinThere are only two tragedies in life: one is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it.PinThe only thing to do with good advice is pass it on. It is never any use to oneself.PinI can never travel without my diary, one should always have something sensational to read on the train.PinTrue friends stab you in the front.PinEducation is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught.PinThere is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.PinI don’t want to be at the mercy of my emotions. I want to use them, to enjoy them, and to dominate them.PinMost people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else’s opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation.PinIf one cannot enjoy reading a book over and over again, there is no use in reading it at all.PinA gentleman is one who never hurts anyone’s feelings unintentionally.PinI am a dreamer. For a dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world.PinThey’ve promised that dreams can come true – but forgot to mention that nightmares are dreams, too.PinThe world is a stage, but the play is badly cast.PinA man who does not think for himself does not think at all.PinA pessimist is somebody who complains about the noise when opportunity knocks.PinThe public is wonderfully tolerant. It forgives everything except genius.PinThe truth is rarely pure and never simple.PinA man’s face is his autobiography. A woman’s face is her work of fiction.PinI can resist everything except temptation.PinA cynic is a man who knows the price of everything, and the value of nothing.PinWhen I was young I thought that money was the most important thing in life; now that I am old I know that it is.PinAnyone who lives within their means suffers from a lack of imagination.PinFashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months.PinYou will always be fond of me. I represent to you all the sins you never had the courage to commit.PinThere are only two kinds of people who are really fascinating – people who know absolutely everything, and people who know absolutely nothing.PinSuccess is a science; if you have the conditions, you get the result.PinWith freedom, books, flowers, and the moon, who could not be happy?PinA thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it.PinIf you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh, otherwise they’ll kill you.PinQuotation is a serviceable substitute for witPinThe books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame.PinYou can never be overdressed or overeducated.PinMy own business always bores me to death; I prefer other people’s.PinOrdinary riches can be stolen, real riches cannot. In your soul are infinitely precious things that cannot be taken from you.PinA little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal.PinSelfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live.PinOne’s real life is so often the life that one does not lead.PinAll women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. No man does. That’s his.PinSome things are more precious because they don’t last long.PinNo man is rich enough to buy back his past.PinAnybody can sympathize with the sufferings of a friend, but it requires a very fine nature to sympathize with a friend’s success.PinI am not young enough to know everything.PinLive! Live the wonderful life that is in you! Let nothing be lost upon you. Be always searching for new sensations. Be afraid of nothing!PinExperience is merely the name men gave to their mistakes.PinWhenever a man does a thoroughly stupid thing, it is always from the noblest motives.PinChildren begin by loving their parents; as they grow older they judge them; sometimes they forgive them.PinEverything in moderation, including moderation.PinThe suspense is terrible. I hope it will last.PinI choose my friends for their good looks, my acquaintances for their good characters, and my enemies for their good intellects.PinThe advantage of the emotions is that they lead us astray.PinWe are each our own devil, and we make this world our hell.PinThere is no sin except stupidity.PinLaughter is not at all a bad beginning for a friendship, and it is far the best ending for one.PinA bore is someone who deprives you of solitude without providing you with company.PinOne should always play fairly when one has the winning cards.PinLife is far too important a thing ever to talk seriously about.PinMan is a rational animal who always loses his temper when he is called upon to act in accordance with the dictates of reason.PinAmerica is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between.PinThe old believe everything, the middle-aged suspect everything, the young know everything.PinOnly dull people are brilliant at breakfast.PinArt is the most intense mode of individualism that the world has known.PinI have nothing to declare except my genius.PinThe only difference between the saint and the sinner is that every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future.PinIf there was less sympathy in the world, there would be less trouble in the world.PinThe only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it.PinI am too fond of reading books to care to write them.PinMorality is simply the attitude we adopt towards people whom we personally dislike.PinThere is a luxury in self-reproach. When we blame ourselves we feel no one else has a right to blame us.PinBehind every exquisite thing that existed, there was something tragic.PinIt is better to be beautiful than to be good. But… it is better to be good than to be ugly.PinWhenever people agree with me I always feel I must be wrong.PinMemory… is the diary that we all carry about with us.PinHe has no enemies, but is intensely disliked by his friends.PinThose who find ugly meanings in beautiful things are corrupt without being charming. This is a fault.PinConsistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative.PinArt is the only serious thing in the world. And the artist is the only person who is never serious.PinLife is never fair, and perhaps it is a good thing for most of us that it is not.PinI put all my genius into my life; I put only my talent into my works.PinNothing can cure the soul but the senses, just as nothing can cure the senses but the soul.PinTo expect the unexpected shows a thoroughly modern intellect.PinSociety often forgives the criminal; it never forgives the dreamer.PinI am the only person in the world I should like to know thoroughly.PinThe true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible.PinI like men who have a future and women who have a past.
23 Oscar Wilde Quotes on Love, Marriage & Relationships
PinNever love anyone who treats you like you’re ordinary.PinWomen are meant to be loved, not to be understood.PinHow can a woman be expected to be happy with a man who insists on treating her as if she were a perfectly normal human being?PinTo love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance.PinThe mystery of love is greater than the mystery of death.PinMen always want to be a woman’s first love – women like to be a man’s last romance.PinThe one charm about marriage is that it makes a life of deception absolutely necessary for both parties.PinWho, being loved, is poor?PinI have no objection to anyone’s sex life as long as they don’t practice it in the street and frighten the horses.PinOne should always be in love. That is the reason one should never marry.PinDeceiving others. That is what the world calls a romance.PinBetween men and women there is no friendship possible. There is passion, enmity, worship, love, but no friendship.PinThe world has grown suspicious of anything that looks like a happily married life.PinMen marry because they are tired, women, because they are curious – both are disappointed.PinHearts are made to be broken.PinAs long as a woman can look ten years younger than her own daughter, she is perfectly satisfied.PinWomen love us for our defects. If we have enough of them, they will forgive us everything, even our gigantic intellects.PinEverything in the world is about sex except sex. Sex is about power.PinRomance should never begin with sentiment. It should begin with science and end with a settlement.PinThe very essence of romance is uncertainty.PinWhen a man has once loved a woman he will do anything for her except continue to love her.PinA man can be happy with any woman, as long as he does not love her.PinThere is nothing so difficult to marry as a large nose.
Oscar Wilde was a spokesman for aestheticism in the late 19th-century which advocated art for art’s sake. He was also well applauded for his biting wit, flamboyant style, and impressive conversational skill.
Wilde was the subject of the infamous imprisonment for his criminal suits which involved homosexuality and sodomy on 25 May 1895. Rather than escaping to France, he decided to remain and face trial.
Wilde’s health suffered tremendously in prison due to hard labor and continued to decline after his release. He spent his final 3 years exile in France where he composed his last work The Ballad of Reading Gaol.
He passed away on November 30, 1900, at the age of 46 and was buried in France.
Overcoming depression and suicidal thoughts, Jeremiah Say found solace in quotes. After filling countless pages with resonating words, he moved his collection online to save trees and inspire others. Thus, GraciousQuotes.com was born. Jeremiah firmly believes in the power of quotes to swiftly spark inspiration during hard times. His blog is dedicated to uplifting others through these shared wisdoms. Discover more about Gracious Quotes or get in touch with Jeremiah.