Oscar Wilde: Trending quotes (page 7)

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“Now don't stir. I'll be back in five minutes. And don't fall into any temptations while I am away.”

Oscar Wilde An Ideal Husband

Miss Mabel Chiltern to Lord Goring, just after accepting his proposal, Act IV
An Ideal Husband (1895)

“Really, if the lower orders don't set us a good example, what on earth is the use of them?”

Oscar Wilde The Importance of Being Earnest

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

“I know not whether Laws be right,
Or whether Laws be wrong;
All that we know who lie in gaol
Is that the wall is strong;
And that each day is like a year,
A year whose days are long.”

Oscar Wilde book The Ballad of Reading Gaol

Pt. V, st. 29
The Ballad of Reading Gaol (1898)

Lie , Law , Strong

“Now, nothing should be able to harm a man except himself. Nothing should be able to rob a man at all. What a man really has, is what is in him. What is outside of him should be a matter of no importance.”

Oscar Wilde book The Soul of Man under Socialism

The Soul of Man Under Socialism (1891)

“Why, what a wonderful piece of luck! Here is a red rose! I have never seen any rose like it in all my life. It is so beautiful that I am sure it has a long Latin name.”

Oscar Wilde book The Happy Prince and Other Tales

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

Life , Beauty

“As long as war is regarded as wicked, it will always have its fascination. When it is looked upon as vulgar, it will cease to be popular.”

Oscar Wilde

The Critic as Artist (1891), Part II

War

“It was a fatal day when the public discovered that the pen is mightier than the paving-stone, and can be made as offensive as the brickbat. They at once sought for the journalist, found him, developed him, and made him their industrious and well-paid servant. It is greatly to be regretted, for both their sakes. Behind the barricade there may be much that is noble and heroic. But what is there behind the leading-article but prejudice, stupidity, cant, and twaddle? And when these four are joined together they make a terrible force, and constitute the new authority.”

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

Stupidity

“Here we allow absolute freedom to the journalist and entirely limit the artist. English public opinion, that is to say, tries to constrain and impede and warp the man who makes things that are beautiful in effect, and compels the journalist to retail things that are ugly, or disgusting, or revolting in fact, so that we have the most serious journalists in the world and the most indecent newspapers.”

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

World , Beauty , Freedom

“Lady Hunstanton: But do you believe all that is written in the newspapers?
Lord Illingworth: I do. Nowadays it is only the unreadable that occurs.”

Oscar Wilde A Woman of No Importance

Act I
A Woman of No Importance (1893)

“Sooner or later we have all to pay for what we do.”

Oscar Wilde An Ideal Husband

Mrs Chevely, Act I
An Ideal Husband (1895)

“If it took Labouchere three columns to prove that I was forgotten, then there is no difference between fame and obscurity.”

Oscar Wilde

As quoted in The New-York Herald (12 August 1883) http://www.oscarwildeinamerica.org/quotations/fame-and-obscurity.html

“To drift with every passion till my soul
Is a stringed lute on which all winds can play,
Is it for this that I have given away
Mine ancient wisdom, and austere control?
Methinks my life is a twice-written scroll
Scrawled over on some boyish holiday
With idle songs for pipe and virelay,
Which do but mar the secret of the whole.”

Oscar Wilde book Poems

"Hélas" (1881)
Poems (1881)

Life , Wisdom , Secret , Soul

“I don't at all like knowing what people say of me behind my back. It makes me far too conceited.”

Oscar Wilde An Ideal Husband

Lord Goring, Act IV
An Ideal Husband (1895)

People

“Ah! That must be Aunt Augusta. Only relatives, or creditors, ever ring in that Wagnerian manner.”

Oscar Wilde The Importance of Being Earnest

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

“It is immoral to use private property in order to alleviate the horrible evils that result from the institution of private property.”

Oscar Wilde book The Soul of Man under Socialism

The Soul of Man Under Socialism (1891)

Evil

“Fashion is what one wears oneself. What is unfashionable is what other people wear.”

Oscar Wilde An Ideal Husband

Lord Goring, Act III
An Ideal Husband (1895)

People , Fashion

“He to whom the present is the only thing that is present, knows nothing of the age in which he lives.”

Oscar Wilde

"Oscariana" (1907), Complete Works, p. 32 https://books.google.com/books?id=-CtXAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA32

Age