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Playwright, author and poet Oscar Wilde is a popular literary figure from Dublin.
This wild, witty and flamboyant writer is popularly known for his notable works: “The Picture of Dorian Gray” and “The Importance of Being Earnest”.
His only novel “The Picture of Dorian Gray” published in 1891.
This book caused a stir among the Victorian critics because of the homoerotic overtones content.
In 1891, Wilde had an affair with Lord Alfred Douglas, nicknamed ‘Bosie’.
In 1895, Wilde was arrested on charges of “gross indecency” and was imprisoned for two years.
While he was in prison, Reading Gaol, he wrote “De Profundis”.
After the released, the controversial Wilde the poem titled “The Ballad Of Reading Gaol”.
On November 30, 1900, Oscar Wilde at the age of 46.
Authentic Oscar Wilde Quotations
Anyway, here is my selection of authentic Oscar Wilde quotations taken from his novel, plays, essays and also letters.
“Man can believe the impossible, but man can never believe the improbable.” – Oscar Wilde
“In this world there are only two tragedies. One is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it.” – Oscar Wilde
“The old believe everything; the middle-aged suspect everything; the young know everything.” – Oscar Wilde
“To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.” – Oscar Wilde
“Ordinary riches can be stolen from a man. Real riches cannot. In the treasury-house of your soul, there are infinitely precious things that may not be taken from you.” – Oscar Wilde
“The well bred contradict other people. The wise contradict themselves.” – Oscar Wilde
“Avoid arguments of any kind. They are always vulgar, and often convincing.” – Oscar
“Only the shallow know themselves.” – Oscar Wilde
“The critic has to educate the public; the artist has to educate the critic.” – Oscar Wilde
“The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame.” – Oscar Wilde
“It is better to be beautiful than to be good. But it is better to be good than to be ugly.” – Oscar Wilde
“I have the simplest tastes. I am always satisfied with the best.” – Oscar Wilde
“There are many things that we would throw away if we were not afraid that others might pick them up.” – Oscar Wilde
“The world is a stage, but the play is badly cast.” – Oscar Wilde
“…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.” – Oscar Wilde
“Discontent is the first step in the progress of a man or a nation.” – Oscar Wilde
“Men always want to be a woman’s first love. That is their clumsy vanity. We women have a more subtle instinct about things. What we like is to be a man’s last romance” – Oscar Wilde
“The Book of Life begins with a man and a woman in a garden.(…) It ends with Revelations.” – Oscar Wilde
“One can survive everything nowadays, except death, and live down anything except a good reputation.” – Oscar Wilde
“Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else’s opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation.” – Oscar Wilde
“…consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative…” – Oscar Wilde
“A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal.” – Oscar Wilde
“I always pass on good advice. It is the only thing to do with it. It is never of any use to oneself.” – Oscar Wilde
“Women are meant to be loved, not to be understood.” – Oscar Wilde
“Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.” – Oscar Wilde
“We are each our own devil, and we make this world our hell.” – Oscar Wilde
“One can resist everything except temptation.” – Oscar Wilde
“I can resist everything except temptation.” – Oscar Wilde
“Each of us has heaven and hell in him…” – Oscar Wilde
“…passion for pleasure which is the secret of remaining young.” – Oscar Wilde
“One should never trust a woman who tells one her real age. A woman who would tell one that would tell one anything.” – Oscar Wilde
“I like men who have a future, and women who have a past.” – Oscar Wilde
“Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live.” – Oscar Wilde
“A man who does not think for himself does not think at all.” – Oscar Wilde
“Experience is the name every one gives to their mistakes.” – Oscar Wilde
“To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance…” – Oscar Wilde
“The very essence of romance is uncertainty.” – Oscar Wilde
“A man can be happy with any woman as long as he does not love her.” – Oscar Wilde
“Between men and women there is no friendship possible. There is passion, enmity, worship, love, but no friendship.” – Oscar Wilde
“I choose my friends for their good looks, my acquaintances for their good characters, and my enemies for their good intellects.” – Oscar Wilde
“Friendship is far more tragic than love. It lasts longer.” – Oscar Wilde
“In old days books were written by men of letters and read by the public. Nowadays books are written by the public and read by nobody.” – Oscar Wilde
“The only thing that the artist cannot see is the obvious. The only thing that the public can see is the obvious. The result is the Criticism of the Journalist.” – Oscar Wilde
“One can always be kind to people about whom one cares nothing.” – Oscar Wilde
“As long as a woman can look ten years younger than her own daughter, she is perfectly satisfied” – Oscar Wilde
“It is only shallow people who do not judge by appearances. The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible….” – Oscar Wilde
“The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it.” – Oscar Wilde
“The secret of life is to resist temptation…” – Oscar Wilde source
“Humanity takes itself too seriously. It is the world’s original sin. If the cave-man had known how to laugh, History would have been different.” – Oscar Wilde
“To get back my youth I would do anything in the world, except take exercise, get up early, or be respectable.” – Oscar Wilde
“Whenever a man does a thoroughly stupid thing, it is always from the noblest motives.” – Oscar Wilde
“…there is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.” – Oscar Wilde
“When one is in love, one always begins by deceiving one’s self, and one always ends by deceiving others. That is what the world calls a romance.” – Oscar Wilde
“To define is to limit.” – Oscar Wilde
“Nowadays people know the price of everything and the value of nothing.” – Oscar Wilde
“Laughter is not at all a bad beginning for a friendship and it is far the best ending for one.” – Oscar Wilde
“Men marry because they are tired; women, because they are curious: both are disappointed.” – Oscar Wilde
“Religion? The fashionable substitute for Belief.” – Oscar Wilde
“There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written or badly written That is all.” – Oscar Wilde
“The reason we all like to think so well of others is that we are all afraid for ourselves. The basis of optimism is sheer terror.” – Oscar Wilde
“You like everyone: that is to say, you are indifferent to everyone.” – Oscar Wilde
“One should always be a little improbable.” – Oscar Wilde
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