xy

@xy, member from Sept. 25, 2023

Favourite quotes (21448)

“Young men want to be faithful, and are not. Old men want to be faithless, and cannot.”

Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish writer and poet

“When a golden girl can win
Prayer from out the lips of sin,
When the barren almond bears,
And a little child gives away its tears,
Then shall all the house be still
And peace come to Canterville.”

Oscar Wilde book The Canterville Ghost

Source: The Canterville Ghost

“Even things that are true can be proved.”

Oscar Wilde book The Picture of Dorian Gray

Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray

“The one duty we owe to history is to rewrite it.”

Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish writer and poet

Source: The Critic as Artist (1891), Part I

“I don't know how to talk.
Oh! talk to every woman as if you loved her, and to every man as if he bored you, and at the end of your first season you will have the reputation of possessing the most perfect social tact.”

Oscar Wilde A Woman of No Importance

Source: A Woman of No Importance

“Oh, I don’t care about Jack. I don’t care for anybody in the whole world but you. I love you, Cecily. You will marry me, won’t you?
You silly boy! Of course. Why, we have been engaged for the last three months.
For the last three months?”

Oscar Wilde The Importance of Being Earnest

Source: The Importance of Being Earnest

“Well, in the first place girls never marry the men they flirt with. Girls don't think it right.”

Oscar Wilde The Importance of Being Earnest

Source: The Importance of Being Earnest

“Those who have much are often greedy; those who have little often share.”

Oscar Wilde book De Profundis

Source: De Profundis

“Cecily. This is no time for wearing the shallow mask of manners. When I see a spade I call it a spade.
Gwendolen. [Satirically. ] I am glad to say that I have never seen a spade. It is obvious that our social spheres have been widely different.”

Oscar Wilde The Importance of Being Earnest

Source: The Importance of Being Earnest

“Ultimately the bond of all companionship, whether in marriage or in friendship, is conversation.”

Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish writer and poet

“It is the confession, not the priest, that gives us absolution.”

Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish writer and poet

“I am jealous of everything whose beauty does not die.”

Oscar Wilde book The Picture of Dorian Gray

Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray

“What a silly thing love is! It is not half as useful as logic, for it does not prove anything and it is always telling one things that are not going to happen, and making one believe things that are not true.”

Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish writer and poet

“Muffins should always be eaten quite calmly, as it is the only way to eat them!”

Oscar Wilde The Importance of Being Earnest

Source: The Importance of Being Earnest

“The world seemed to me fine because you were in it, and goodness more real because you lived.”

Oscar Wilde An Ideal Husband

Source: An Ideal Husband

“Spontaneity is a meticulously prepared art”

Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish writer and poet

“It has been said that the great events of the world take place in the brain. It is in the brain, and the brain only, that the great sins of the world take place also.”

Oscar Wilde book The Picture of Dorian Gray

Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray

“Veil after veil of thin dusky gauze is lifted, and by degrees the forms and colours of things are restored to them, and we watch the dawn remaking the world in its antique pattern.”

Oscar Wilde book The Picture of Dorian Gray

Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray

“Good heavens! how marriage ruins a man! It's as demoralizing as cigarettes, and far more expensive.”

Oscar Wilde Lady Windermere's Fan

Source: Lady Windermere's Fan

“I am a born antinomian. I am one of those who are made for exceptions, not for laws. But while I see that there is nothing wrong in what one does, I see that there is something wrong in what one becomes.”

Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish writer and poet

Source: De Profundis and Other Writings