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Oscar Wilde Quotes
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812 Quotes on Love, Forgiveness, Rebellion, and Embracing Your Unique Voice

Experience the wit and wisdom of Oscar Wilde through his most famous quotes. From the importance of love and forgiveness to the rebellion within every woman, delve into the captivating world of Wilde's words and be inspired to embrace your own unique voice.

Oscar Wilde was an Irish poet and playwright who gained popularity in London in the late 19th century. Known for his epigrams and plays, Wilde achieved great success with works such as The Picture of Dorian Gray. He was also infamous for his conviction for gross indecency, resulting in imprisonment and ultimately, his early death at the age of 46.

Born to Anglo-Irish parents in Dublin, Wilde showed exceptional talent and intellect from a young age. After studying at prestigious universities, he became associated with aestheticism and immersed himself in literary pursuits. With his sharp wit and extravagant style, Wilde became a prominent figure in social circles. He expressed his artistic ideas through various literary endeavors, including poetry, lectures, and journalism.

Wilde’s fascination with art led him to write dramas that combined aesthetic details with broader societal themes. Although faced with obstacles such as the prohibition of biblical subjects on English stages, he proved resilient and went on to become one of the most successful playwrights of his time. However, his fame took a dramatic turn when he prosecuted the Marquess of Queensberry for libel due to their connection through Lord Alfred Douglas. The trial resulted not only in Wilde dropping charges but also in his arrest and conviction for homosexual acts.

While serving his sentence, Wilde penned De Profundis, a reflective letter that delves into his spiritual journey during his trials. Upon release, he fled to France where he wrote what would be his last work - The Ballad of Reading Gaol - an introspective poem inspired by the harsh realities of prison life. Wilde never returned to Ireland or Britain before his untimely demise. Despite enduring personal turmoil and societal backlash, Oscar Wilde left an indelible mark on literature and continues to be remembered as one of history's most influential writers.

✵ 16. October 1854 – 30. November 1900
Oscar Wilde photo
Oscar Wilde: 812 quotes1011 likes

Oscar Wilde Quotes

“Life is terrible. It rules us, we do not rule it.”

Oscar Wilde Lady Windermere's Fan

Source: Lady Windermere's Fan

“We can forgive a man for making a useful thing as long as he does not admire it. The only excuse for making a useless thing is that one admires it intensely.

All art is quite useless.”

Oscar Wilde book The Picture of Dorian Gray

Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray

“Our ambition should be to rule ourselves, the true kingdom for each one of us; and true progress is to know more, and be more, and to do more.”

Oscar Wilde

“There is nothing in the world like the devotion of a married woman. It is a thing no married man knows anything about.”

Oscar Wilde

“Believe me, no civilized man ever regrets a pleasure, and no uncivilized man ever knows what a pleasure is.”

Oscar Wilde book The Picture of Dorian Gray

Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray

“You are a sceptic." "Never! Scepticism is the beginning of faith." "What are you?" "To define is to limit.”

Oscar Wilde book The Picture of Dorian Gray

Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray

“Life is not governed by will or intention. Life is a question of nerves, and fibres, and slowly built-up cells in which thought hides itself and passion has its dreams.”

Oscar Wilde book The Picture of Dorian Gray

Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray

“He hadn’t a single redeeming vice.”

Oscar Wilde

“Many people become bankrupt through having invested too heavily in the prose of life. To have ruined one's self over poetry is an honor.”

Oscar Wilde book The Picture of Dorian Gray

Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray

“Come, dear, [Gwendolen rises] we have already missed five, if not six, trains. To miss any more might expose us to comment on the platform.”

Oscar Wilde The Importance of Being Earnest

Source: The Importance of Being Earnest

“It is sweet to dance to violins
When Love and Life are fair:
To dance to flutes, to dance to lutes
Is delicate and rare:
But it is not sweet with nimble feet
To dance upon the air!”

Oscar Wilde book The Ballad of Reading Gaol

Pt. II, st. 9
The Ballad of Reading Gaol (1898)

“Never mind what I say. I am always saying what I shouldn't say. In fact, I usually say what I really think. A great mistake nowadays. It makes one so liable to be misunderstood.”

Oscar Wilde An Ideal Husband

Source: An Ideal Husband

“Don't squander the gold of your days, listening to the tedious, trying to improve the hopeless failure, or giving away your life to the ignorant, the common, and the vulgar”

Oscar Wilde

Source: The Picture Of Dorian Gray

“My experience is that as soon as people are old enough to know better, they don't know anything at all.”

Oscar Wilde Lady Windermere's Fan

Cecil Graham, Act II
Source: Lady Windermere's Fan (1892)

“Nowadays we are all of us so hard up that the only pleasant things to pay are compliments. They're the only things we can pay.”

Oscar Wilde Lady Windermere's Fan

Lord Darlington, Act I
Source: Lady Windermere's Fan (1892)

“If they know nothing of victory, they are at least spared the knowledge of defeat.”

Oscar Wilde book The Picture of Dorian Gray

Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray

“The only excuse for making a useless thing is that one admires it intensely. All art is quite useless.”

Oscar Wilde book The Picture of Dorian Gray

Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray

“We should treat all the trivial things of life seriously, and all the serious things of life with sincere and studied triviality.”

Oscar Wilde

“How pale the Princess is! Never have I seen her so pale. She is like the shadow of a white rose in a mirror of silver.”

Oscar Wilde Salome

Source: Salomé

“I really don't see what is so romantic about proposing. One may be accepted - one usually is, I believe - and then the excitement is ended. The very essence of romance is uncertainty.”

Oscar Wilde The Importance of Being Earnest

Algernon, Act I.
Source: The Importance of Being Earnest (1895)
Context: I really don’t see anything romantic in proposing. It is very romantic to be in love. But there is nothing romantic about a definite proposal. Why, one may be accepted. One usually is, I believe. Then the excitement is all over. The very essence of romance is uncertainty.

“Pleasures may turn a heart to stone, riches may make it callous, but sorrows cannot break it. Hearts live by being wounded.”

Oscar Wilde

“The sick do not ask if the hand that smoothes their pillow is pure, nor the dying care if the lips that touch their brow have known the kiss of sin.”

Oscar Wilde

“Religions die when they are proved to be true. Science is the record of dead religions.”

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

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

“The supreme vice is shallowness.”

Oscar Wilde book De Profundis

De Profundis (1897)

“Duty is what one expects from others.”

Oscar Wilde

“I was wrong. God's law is only Love.”

Oscar Wilde A Woman of No Importance

Source: A Woman of No Importance

“You are Beautiful when you are happy”

Oscar Wilde An Ideal Husband

Source: An Ideal Husband

“Friendship… is not something you learn in school, but if you haven't learned the meaning of friendship you really haven't learned anything.”

Oscar Wilde

“I hope to-morrow will be a fine day, Lane.
It never is, sir.
Lane, you're a perfect pessimist.
I do my best to give satisfaction, sir.”

Oscar Wilde The Importance of Being Earnest

Source: The Importance of Being Earnest

“Thirty-five is a very attractive age. London society is full of women of the very highest birth who have, of their own free choice, remained thirty-five for years.”

Oscar Wilde The Importance of Being Earnest

Lady Bracknell, Act III
Source: The Importance of Being Earnest (1895)

“I want to make Romeo jealous! I want the dead lovers of the world to hear our laughter, and grow sad. I want a breath of our passion to stir their dust into consciousness, to wake their ashes into pain.”

Oscar Wilde

“Jack: Actually, I was found.
Lady Bracknell: Found?
Jack: Uh, yes, I was in… a handbag.
Lady Bracknell: A handbag?
Jack: Yes, it was…
[makes gestures]
Jack: an ordinary handbag.”

Oscar Wilde The Importance of Being Earnest

Source: The Importance of Being Earnest

“Music is the art which is most nigh to tears and memories.”

Oscar Wilde

“It was you I thought of all the time, I gave to them the love you did not need: lavished on them a love that was not theirs.”

Oscar Wilde A Woman of No Importance

Source: A Woman of No Importance

“I think life too complex a thing to be settled by these hard and fast rules.”

Oscar Wilde Lady Windermere's Fan

Source: Lady Windermere's Fan

“The terror of society, which is the basis of morals, the terror of God, which is the secret of religion-these are the two things that govern us.”

Oscar Wilde book The Picture of Dorian Gray

Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray

“The artist is the creator of beautiful things. To reveal art and conceal the artist is art's aim.”

Oscar Wilde book The Picture of Dorian Gray

Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray

“It was the passions about whose origin we deceived ourselves that tyrannized most strongly over us.”

Oscar Wilde book The Picture of Dorian Gray

Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray

“but the bravest man among us is afraid of himself”

Oscar Wilde book The Picture of Dorian Gray

Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray

“Would you like to know the great drama of my life? It is that I have put my genius into my life… I have put only my talent into my works.”

Oscar Wilde

“I am not at all cynical, I have merely got experience, which, however, is very much the same thing.”

Oscar Wilde book Lord Arthur Savile's Crime and Other Stories

Source: Lord Arthur Savile's Crime and Other Stories