Oscar Wilde: Trending quotes (page 22)

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Oscar Wilde: 1624   quotes 1005   likes

“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.”

Oscar Wilde An Ideal Husband

Sir Robert Chiltern, Act III
An Ideal Husband (1895)

Courage , Thinking

“It's an odd thing, but anyone who disappears
is said to be seen in San Francisco.
It must be a delightful city and possess
all the attractions of the next world”

Oscar Wilde
World

“In the common world of fact the wicked were not punished, nor the good rewarded. Success was given to the strong, failure thrust upon the weak. That was all.”

Oscar Wilde book The Picture of Dorian Gray

Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray

World , Failure , Strong , Success

“It is not wise to find symbols in everything that one sees. It makes life too full of terrors.”

Oscar Wilde Salome

Source: Salome

Life

“The only way to behave to a woman is to make love to her if she is pretty and to someone else if she is plain.”

Oscar Wilde The Importance of Being Earnest

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

Love , Making love , Way

“Well, I can't eat muffins in an agitated manner. The butter would probably get on my cuffs. One must eat muffins quite calmly, it is the only way to eat them.”

Oscar Wilde The Importance of Being Earnest

Algernon, Act II
Source: The Importance of Being Earnest (1895)

Way

“Do you smoke?

Well, yes, I must admit I smoke.

I'm glad to hear of it. A man should always have an occupation of some kind.”

Oscar Wilde The Importance of Being Earnest

Source: The Importance of Being Earnest

“He is really not so ugly after all, provided, of course, that one shuts one's eyes, and does not look at him.”

Oscar Wilde book A House of Pomegranates

"The Birthday of the Infanta", The House of Pomegranates http://emotionalliteracyeducation.com/classic_books_online/hpomg10.htm (1892)
Source: A House of Pomegranates

“I am the only person in the world I should like to know thoroughly.”

Oscar Wilde Lady Windermere's Fan

Mr. Dumby, Act II
Lady Windermere's Fan (1892)

World , Personality

“But youth smiles without any reason. It is one of its chiefest charms.”

Oscar Wilde book The Picture of Dorian Gray

Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray

Youth , Smile

“Long engagements give people the opportunity of finding out each other's character before marriage, which is never advisable.”

Oscar Wilde The Importance of Being Earnest

Source: The Importance of Being Earnest

Marriage , People

“The old believe everything; the middle-aged suspect everything; the young know everything.”

Oscar Wilde book Phrases and Philosophies for the Use of the Young

Phrases and Philosophies for the Use of the Young (1894)

Birthday , Age

“Now art should never try to be popular. The public should try to make itself artistic.”

Oscar Wilde book The Soul of Man under Socialism

The Soul of Man Under Socialism (1891)
Context: Art is this intense form of individualism that makes the public try to exercise over it an authority that is as immoral as it is ridiculous, and as corrupting as it is contemptible. It is not quite their fault. The public have always, and in every age, been badly brought up. They are continually asking Art to be popular, to please their want of taste, to flatter their absurd vanity, to tell them what they have been told before, to show them what they ought to be tired of seeing, to amuse them when they feel heavy after eating too much, and to distract their thoughts when they are wearied of their own stupidity. Now Art should never try to be popular. The public should try to make itself artistic.

Art

“I can't help detesting my relations. I suppose it comes from the fact that none of us can stand other people having the same faults as ourselves.”

Oscar Wilde

Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray and Selected Stories

People , Help

“The moon in her chariot of pearl”

Oscar Wilde book The Nightingale and the Rose

Source: The Nightingale and the Rose

“Why can't these American women stay in their own country? They are always telling us that it is the paradise for women.

It is. That is the reason why, like Eve, they are so excessively anxious to get out of it.”

Oscar Wilde

Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray and Other Writings

Women , Country