Oscar Wilde: Trending quotes (page 8)

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“When a voice behind me whispered low,
"That fellow's got to swing."”

Oscar Wilde book The Ballad of Reading Gaol

Pt. I, st. 4
The Ballad of Reading Gaol (1898)

“When a man does exactly what a woman expects him to do she doesn't think much of him. One should always do what a woman doesn't expect, just as one should say what she doesn't understand.”

Oscar Wilde The Importance of Being Earnest

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

Understanding , Thinking

“It seems to me that we all look at Nature too much, and live with her too little.”

Oscar Wilde book De Profundis

De Profundis (1897)

Nature

“Lo! with a little rod
I did but touch the honey of romance —
And must I lose a soul's inheritance?”

Oscar Wilde

Helas! http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/wilde/helas.html, l. 12-14 (1881)

Soul

“Indifference is the revenge the world takes on mediocrities.”

Oscar Wilde Vera; or, The Nihilists

Vera; or, The Nihilists (1880)

World , Revenge , Indifference

“For Man's grim Justice goes its way,
And will not swerve aside:
It slays the weak, it slays the strong,
It has a deadly stride:
With iron heel it slays the strong,
The monstrous parricide!”

Oscar Wilde book The Ballad of Reading Gaol

Pt. III, st. 19
The Ballad of Reading Gaol (1898)

Justice , Way , Strong

“There are three kinds of despots. There is the despot who tyrannises over the body. There is the despot who tyrannises over the soul. There is the despot who tyrannises over the soul and body alike. The first is called the Prince. The second is called the Pope. The third is called the People.”

Oscar Wilde book The Soul of Man under Socialism

The Soul of Man Under Socialism (1891)

People , Soul

“I have never admitted that I am more than twenty-nine, or thirty at the most. Twenty-nine when there are pink shades, thirty when there are not.”

Oscar Wilde Lady Windermere's Fan

Mrs. Erlynne, Act IV
Lady Windermere's Fan (1892)

“In examinations the foolish ask questions that the wise cannot answer.”

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

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

Question

“Agitators are a set of interfering, meddling people, who come down to some perfectly contented class of the community, and sow the seeds of discontent amongst them. That is the reason why agitators are so absolutely necessary. Without them, in our incomplete state, there would be no advance towards civilisation.”

Oscar Wilde book The Soul of Man under Socialism

The Soul of Man Under Socialism (1891)

People , Communication

“It is well for his peace that the saint goes to his martyrdom. He is spared the sight of the horror of his harvest.”

Oscar Wilde

The Critic as Artist (1891), Part I

Peace

“No gentleman ever has any money.”

Oscar Wilde The Importance of Being Earnest

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

Money

“The fact is, that the public have an insatiable curiosity to know everything, except what is worth knowing. Journalism, conscious of this, and having tradesmanlike habits, supplies their demands”

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 26 February 2018 https://archive.org/details/soulofmanunderso00wildiala

“In Art, the public accept what has been, because they cannot alter it, not because they appreciate it. They swallow their classics whole, and never taste them. They endure them as the inevitable, and, as they cannot mar them, they mouth about them…A fresh mode of Beauty is absolutely distasteful to them, and whenever it appears they get so angry and bewildered that they always use two stupid expressions - one is that the work of art is grossly unintelligible; the other, that the work of art is grossly immoral.”

Oscar Wilde book The Soul of Man under Socialism

The Soul of Man Under Socialism (1891)

Stupidity , Beauty , Art , Appearance

“For a sentimentalist is simply one who desires to have the luxury of an emotion without paying for it.”

Oscar Wilde book De Profundis

De Profundis (1897)

“Tread Lightly, she is near
Under the snow,
Speak gently, she can hear
The daisies grow.”

Oscar Wilde Requiescat

Requiescat, st. 1 (1881)

“An engagement should come on a young girl as a surprise, pleasant or unpleasant as the case may be.”

Oscar Wilde The Importance of Being Earnest

Lady Bracknell, Act I
The Importance of Being Earnest (1895)

Girl

“Something was dead in each of us,
And what was dead was Hope.”

Oscar Wilde book The Ballad of Reading Gaol

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

Hope , Dead