Oscar Wilde A-Z of Quotes

"A cigarette is the perfect type of a perfect pleasure. 

It is exquisite, and it leaves one unsatisfied. 

What more can one want?"

“A cynic is a man who knows the price of everything, and the value of nothing.”

"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."

“A good friend will always stab you in the front.”

"A kiss may ruin a human life."

"A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal."

"A man can be happy with any woman as long as he does not love her."

"A man cannot be too careful in the choice of his enemies."

"A man is very apt to complain of the ingratitude of those who have risen far above him."

"A man who moralizes is usually a hypocrite, and a woman who moralizes is invariably plain."

“A man’s face is his autobiography. A woman’s face is her work of fiction.”

"A man's very highest moment is, 

I have no doubt at all, 

when he kneels in the dust, 

and beats his breast, 

and tells all the sins of his life."

"A map of the world that does not include Utopia 

is not worth even glancing at, for it leaves out the one country 

at which Humanity is always landing."

"A person who, because he has corns himself, always treads on other people's toes."

"A pessimist is one who, when he has the choice of two evils, chooses both."

"A poet can survive anything but a misprint."

"A sentimentalist is simply one who desires to have 

the luxury of an emotion without paying for it."

“A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it.”

"A true gentleman is one who is never unintentionally rude."

"Absolute catholicity of taste is not without its dangers. 

It is only an auctioneer who should admire all schools of art."

"Action is the last resource of those who know not how to dream."

"Alas, I am dying beyond my means."

"All art is quite useless"

"All charming people, I fancy, are spoiled. 
It is the secret of their attraction."

"All trials are trials for one's life, 
just as all sentences are sentences of death."

“All women become like their mothers. 

That is their tragedy. 

No man does, and that is his.”

“Always forgive your enemies; 

nothing annoys them so much.”

"Ambition is the last refuge of failure."

"America had often been discovered before Columbus, 

but it had always been hushed up."

"America is the only country that went from barbarism

 to decadence without civilization in between."

"An acquaintance that begins with a compliment

 is sure to develop into a real friendship."

"An ordinary man away from home giving advice."

"And the wild regrets, 

and the bloody sweats, 

none knew so well as I: 

for he who lives more lives than one 

more deaths than one must die."

"Anybody can be good in the country. 

There are no temptations there."

"Anybody can make history. 

Only a great man can write it."

“Anybody can sympathise with the sufferings of a friend, 

but it requires a very fine nature to sympathise with a friend’s success.”

"Anybody can write a three-volume novel. 

It merely requires a complete ignorance of both life and literature."

“Anyone who lives within their means 
suffers from a lack of imagination.”

"Arguments are to be avoided; 
they are always vulgar and often convincing."

"Art is not to be taught in Academies. 

It is what one looks at, 

not what one listens to, 

that makes the artist. 

The real schools should be the streets"

"Art, like Nature, has her monsters, 
things of bestial shape and with hideous voices"

"As a wicked man I am a complete failure. 

Why, there are lots of people who say 

I have never really done anything wrong 
in the whole course of my life. 
Of course they only say it behind my back."

"As for begging, it is safer to beg than to take, 

but it is finer to take than to beg."

"As for the virtuous poor, one can pity them, 

of course, but one cannot possibly admire them. 

They have made private terms with the enemy, 

and sold their birthright for very bad pottage. 

They must also be extraordinarily stupid."

"As long as a woman can look ten years 

younger than her own daughter, 

she is perfectly satisfied."

"As long as war is regarded as wicked, 

it will always have it's fascination. 

When it is looked upon as vulgar, 

it will cease to be popular."

"As one knows the poet by his fine music, 

so one can recognize the liar by his rich rhythmic utterance, 

and in neither case will the casual inspiration of the moment suffice. 

Here, as elsewhere, practice must precede perfection."

"At twilight, nature is not without loveliness, 

though perhaps its chief use is to illustrate quotations from the poets."

"Bad art is a great deal worse than no art at all."

"Bad artists always admire each other's work. 

They call it being large-minded and free from prejudice. 

But a truly great artist cannot conceive of life being shown, 

or beauty fashioned, under any conditions 

other than those he has selected."

"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.”