Oscar Wilde: Trending quotes (page 4)

In a journal or later note by George Cecil Ives recording a meeting with Wilde in 1900, Oscar Wilde: Myths, Miracles and Imitations (Cambridge University Press,1996), John Stokes

Kiss

“Most modern calendars mar the sweet simplicity of our lives by reminding us that each day that passes is the anniversary of some perfectly uninteresting event.”

Oscar Wilde

"A New Calendar," The Pall Mall Gazette http://www.online-literature.com/wilde/1307/ (February 17, 1887)

“And it is only fair to state, with regard to modern journalists, that they always apologise to one in private for what they have written against one in public.”

Oscar Wilde book The Soul of Man under Socialism

The Soul of Man Under Socialism (1891)

“I have invented an invaluable permanent invalid called Bunbury, in order that I may be able to go down into the country whenever I choose.”

Oscar Wilde The Importance of Being Earnest

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

Country

“To make a good salad is to be a brilliant diplomatist – the problem is so entirely the same in both cases. To know exactly how much oil one must put with one's vinegar.”

Oscar Wilde Vera; or, The Nihilists

Vera; or, The Nihilists (1880)

Problem

“In America, the President reigns for four years, and journalism governs for ever and ever. Fortunately, in America journalism has carried its authority to the grossest and most brutal extreme. As a natural consequence it has begun to create a spirit of revolt, people are amused by it, or disgusted by it, according to their temperaments. but it is no longer the real force it was. It is not seriously treated. In England, journalism, except in a few well-known instances, not having been carried to such excesses of brutality, is still a great factor, a remarkable power. The tyranny that it proposes to exercise over people's private lives seems to me to be quite extraordinary.”

Oscar Wilde book The Soul of Man under Socialism

The Soul of Man Under Socialism (1891)
Source: Wilde, Oscar, (1891 / 1912) The Soul of Man Under Socialism, London, Arthur L. Humphreys. Retrieved from University of California Libraries Archive.org https://archive.org 13 February 2018 https://archive.org/details/soulofmanunderso00wildiala

People , Exercises , Nature

“Be happy, be happy; you shall have your red rose. I will build it out of music by moonlight, and stain it with my own heart's-blood. All that I ask of you in return is that you will be a true lover, for Love is wiser than Philosophy, though she is wise, and mightier than Power, though he is mighty.”

Oscar Wilde book The Happy Prince and Other Tales

"The Nightingale and the Rose"
The Happy Prince and Other Tales (1888)

Love , Music , Lovers , Heart

“The English country gentleman galloping after a fox — the unspeakable in full pursuit of the uneatable.”

Oscar Wilde A Woman of No Importance

Lord Illingworth, Act I
A Woman of No Importance (1893)

Country

“Why was I born with such contemporaries?”

Oscar Wilde

George Bernard Shaw Preface to The Dark Lady of the Sonnets (1910)
Misattributed

“Reforms in Russia are very tragic, but they always end in a farce.”

Oscar Wilde Vera; or, The Nihilists

Baron Raff, Act IV
Vera; or, The Nihilists (1880)

“Relations are simply a tedious pack of people, who haven’t got the remotest knowledge of how to live, nor the smallest instinct about when to die.”

Oscar Wilde The Importance of Being Earnest

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

People , Knowledge

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

Oscar Wilde

"The Portrait of Mr. W. H.," Blackwood's Magazine, July 1889 http://books.google.com/books?id=QfczAQAAMAAJ&q=%22All+charming+people+I+fancy+are+spoiled+It+is+the+secret+of+their+attraction%22&pg=PA4#v=onepage

People , Secret

“Science can never grapple with the irrational. That is why it has no future before it, in this world.”

Oscar Wilde An Ideal Husband

Mrs Cheveley, Act I
An Ideal Husband (1895)

World , Science , Future

“There is no mode of action, no form of emotion, that we do not share with the lower animals. It is only by language that we rise above them, or above each other—by language, which is the parent, and not the child, of thought.”

Oscar Wilde

The Critic as Artist (1891), Part I

Parent , Animals

“His style is chaos illumined by flashes of lightning.”

Oscar Wilde book The Decay of Lying

A reference to George Meredith's style.
The Decay of Lying (1889)