xy

@xy, member from Sept. 25, 2023

Favourite quotes (21448)

“The only possible society is oneself.”

Oscar Wilde An Ideal Husband

Lord Goring, Act III
An Ideal Husband (1895)

“An Irish gentleman is someone who can play the bagpipes but won’t.”

Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish writer and poet

First ascribed to Wilde by The Boston Globe in 1991. The joke probably appeared for the first time in 1917, when The Atchison Weekly Globe attributed it to a local man named Frank Fiest. <br class="br">Misattributed <br class="br">Source: My Idea of a Gentleman Is He Who Can Play a Cornet and Won’t, Quote Investigator, 14 August 2021 https://quoteinvestigator.com/2019/04/21/cornet/,

“The only thing to do with good advice is to pass it on. It is never of any use to oneself.”

Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish writer and poet

“Each man lived his own life, and paid his own price for living it.”

Oscar Wilde book The Picture of Dorian Gray

“For to disagree with three-fourths of the British public on all points is one of the first elements of sanity, one of the deepest consolations in all moments of spiritual doubt.”

Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish writer and poet

The English Renaissance of Art https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/w/wilde/oscar/english-renaissance-of-art/ (1882)

“Puritans cannot destroy a beautiful thing, yet, by means of their extraordinary prurience, they can almost taint beauty for a moment. It is chiefly, I regret to say, through journalism that such people find expression. I regret it because there is much to be said in favour of modern journalism. By giving us the opinions of the uneducated, it keeps us in touch with the ignorance of the community.”

Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish writer and poet

The Critic as Artist (1891), Part I

“There is much to be said in favor of modern journalism. By giving us the opinions of the uneducated, it keeps us in touch with the ignorance of the community. By carefully chronicling the current events of contemporary life, it shows us of what very little importance such events really are. By invariably discussing the unnecessary, it makes us understand what things are requisite for culture, and what are not.”

Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish writer and poet

The Critic as Artist (1891), Part I

“It is chiefly, I regret to say, through journalism that such people find expression. I regret it because there is much to be said in favour of modern journalism. By giving us the opinions of the uneducated, it keeps us in touch with the ignorance of the community. By carefully chronicling the current events of contemporary life, it shows us of what very little importance such events really are. By invariably discussing the unnecessary, it makes us understand what things are requisite for culture, and what are not.”

Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish writer and poet

The Critic as Artist (1891), Part II

“For the recognition of private property has really harmed Individualism, and obscured it, by confusing a man with what he possesses. It has led Individualism entirely astray. It has made gain not growth its aim. So that man thought that the important thing was to have, and did not know that the important thing is to be. The true perfection of man lies, not in what man has, but in what man is. Private property has crushed true Individualism, and set up an Individualism that is false. It has debarred one part of the community from being individual by starving them. It has debarred the other part of the community from being individual by putting them on the wrong road and encumbering them.”

Oscar Wilde book The Soul of Man under Socialism

The Soul of Man Under Socialism (1891)

“Art is Individualism, and Individualism is a disturbing and disintegrating force. Therein lies its immense value. For what it seeks to disturb is monotony of type, slavery of custom, tyranny of habit, and the reduction of man to the level of a machine.”

Oscar Wilde book The Soul of Man under Socialism

The Soul of Man Under Socialism (1891)

“I really don’t see anything romantic in proposing. It is very romantic to be in love. But there is nothing romantic about a definite proposal. Why, one may be accepted. One usually is, I believe. Then the excitement is all over. The very essence of romance is uncertainty.”

Oscar Wilde The Importance of Being Earnest

Algernon, Act I
The Importance of Being Earnest (1895)

“Women are a decorative sex. They never have anything to say, but they say it charmingly.”

Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish writer and poet

“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. ”

Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish writer and poet

“Each time that one loves is the only time one has ever loved.”

Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish writer and poet

“Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.”

Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish writer and poet

The Critic as Artist (1891), Part II

“Between the optimist and the pessimist, the difference is droll. The optimist sees the doughnut; the pessimist the hole! ”

Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish writer and poet

“She is not a subject.”

Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish writer and poet

After claiming he could give a speech on any subject at a moment's notice, and being challenged by Lord Ribblesdale to talk about the Queen.
Quoted in The Reminiscences of Lady Randolph Churchill (1908)

“Divorces are made in Heaven.”

Oscar Wilde The Importance of Being Earnest

Algernon, Act I
The Importance of Being Earnest (1895)

“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 book The Soul of Man under Socialism

The Soul of Man Under Socialism (1891)

“The growing influence of women is the one reassuring thing in our political life.”

Oscar Wilde A Woman of No Importance

Kelvil, Act I
A Woman of No Importance (1893)