Oscar Wilde Quotes [Part 3]

"Bad manners make a journalist."

“Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.” 

"Beauty is a form of genius 

-- is higher, indeed, than genius, 

as it needs no explanation. 

It is of the great facts in the world 

like sunlight, or springtime, 

or the reflection in dark water 

of that silver shell we call the moon."

“Behind every exquisite thing that existed, 

there was something tragic.”

"Between men and women there is no friendship possible. 

There is passion, enmity, worship, love, but no friendship."

"Better the rule of One, whom all obey, 

than to let clamorous demagogues 

betray our freedom with the kiss of anarchy."

"Biography lends to death a new terror."

"But what is the difference between literature and journalism?...

Journalism is unreadable and literature is not read. That is all."

"By persistently remaining single, 

a man converts himself into 

a permanent public temptation. 

Men should be more careful."

"Charity creates a multitude of sins."

"Children begin by loving their parents; 

as they grow older they judge them; 

sometimes they forgive them."

"Civilization is not by any means an easy thing to attain to. 

There are only two ways by which man can reach it. 

One is by being cultured, the other by being corrupt."

"Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative."

"Conversation should touch everything, 

but should concentrate itself on nothing."

"Crying is the refuge of plain women, but the ruin of pretty ones."

"Cultivated leisure is the aim of man."

"Democracy means simply the bludgeoning of the people by the people for the people."

"Despotism is unjust to everybody, 

including the despot, 

who was probably made for better things."

"Discontent is the first step in the progress of a man or a nation."

"Disobedience, in the eyes of any one who has read history, 

is man's original virtue. 

It is through disobedience that progress has been made, 

through disobedience and through rebellion."

"Do not speak ill of society, Algie. 

Only people who can't get in do that."

"Do you really think, Arthur, 

that it is weakness that yields to temptation? 

I tell you that there are terrible temptations 

that it requires strength, 

strength and courage, to yield to."

"Dullness is the coming of age of seriousness."

"Each of the professions means a prejudice. 

The necessity for a career forces every one to take sides. 

We live in the age of the overworked, and the under-educated; 

the age in which people are so industrious  that they become absolutely stupid."

“Education is an admirable thing, 

but it is well to remember from time to time 

that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught.”