Sir Robert Chiltern, Act II
Source: An Ideal Husband (1895)
Oscar Wilde: 812 quotes1012 likes
Oscar Wilde Quotes
“We have really everything in common with America nowadays, except, of course, language.”
Oscar Wilde book The Canterville Ghost
Source: The Canterville Ghost http://www.oscarwildecollection.com/savile/canterville.c1.html (1887). For history and analysis of the quote see Common Language http://oscarwildeinamerica.org/quotations/common-language.html.
“Be Yourself. Everyone Else Is Already Taken.”
Anonymous advertising copywriter for Menards chain of hardware stores (2000), according to Quote Investigator http://quoteinvestigator.com/2014/01/20/be-yourself <br class="br">Misattributed
“The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame.”
Oscar Wilde book The Picture of Dorian Gray
Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray
“The truth is rarely pure and never simple.”
Oscar Wilde The Importance of Being Earnest
Source: The Importance of Being Earnest (1895)
Context: Jack: That, my dear Algy, is the whole truth pure and simple.
Algernon: The truth is rarely pure and never simple. Modern life would be very tedious if it were either, and modern literature a complete impossibility!
Act I
Often quoted as "The pure and simple truth is rarely pure and never simple."
“Anyone who lives within their means suffers from a lack of imagination.”
Variant: Anyone who lives within their means suffers from a lack of imagination.
“I am not young enough to know everything.”
Variant: I am not young enough to know everything.
“A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it.”
The Portrait of Mr. W. H. http://www.planetmonk.com/wilde/portrait/wh01.html (1889)
In a letter to Ada Leverson [Sphinx] recorded in her book Letters To The Sphinx From Oscar Wilde and Reminiscences of the Author (1930)
“The very essence of romance is uncertainty.”
Variant: The very essence of romance is uncertainty.
Source: The Importance of Being Earnest and Other Plays
“I think God, in creating man, somewhat overestimated his ability.”
Variant: I think that God in creating Man somewhat overestimated his ability.
“Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go.”
A version of this quote was published anonymously in an insurance magazine in 1908 https://books.google.com/books?id=S2JJAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA375&dq=%22others+whenever+they+go%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwja94i3iaXLAhUY7mMKHW5fAGIQ6AEIJjAC#v=onepage&q=%22others%20whenever%20they%20go%22&f=false. The earliest attribution to Wilde was in 1955 https://www.google.com/search?tbm=bks&hl=en&q=%22others+whenever+they+go%22+wilde#hl=en&tbs=cdr:1%2Ccd_min:1900%2Ccd_max:1999&tbm=bks&q=%22others+whenever+they+go+oscar+wilde+jive%22; no source in Wilde's writings has been found. <br class="br">Disputed
“The only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it.”
Oscar Wilde book The Picture of Dorian Gray
Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray
“I have the simplest tastes. I am always satisfied with the best.”
As quoted in Oscar Wilde : An Idler's Impression (1917) http://books.google.com/books?id=ddAVAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=edgar+saltus+wilde&cd=3#v=snippet&q=satisfied&f=false by Edgar Saltus, p. 20
“I am too fond of reading books to care to write them.”
Oscar Wilde book The Picture of Dorian Gray
Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray
“Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months.”
Variant: Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six month.
“Behind every exquisite thing that existed, there was something tragic.”
Oscar Wilde book The Picture of Dorian Gray
Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray
“After a good dinner one can forgive anybody, even one's own relations.”
Oscar Wilde A Woman of No Importance
Source: A Woman of No Importance
Oscar Wilde book The Picture of Dorian Gray
Mrs. Arbuthnot http://books.google.com/books?id=RHkWAAAAYAAJ&q=%22Children+begin+by+loving+their+parents+after+a+time%22+%22they+judge+them+rarely+if+ever+do+they+forgive+them%22&pg=PA187#v=onepage, Act IV <br class="br">A Woman of No Importance (1893) <br class="br">Variant: Children begin by loving their parents; as they grow older they judge them; sometimes they forgive them. <br class="br">Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray
“To lose one parent may be regarded as a misfortune … to lose both seems like carelessness.”
Oscar Wilde The Importance of Being Earnest
Lady Bracknell, Act I
The Importance of Being Earnest (1895)
Oscar Wilde book The Ballad of Reading Gaol
Pt. I, st. 7
The Ballad of Reading Gaol (1898)
Source: The Ballad Of Reading Gaol
A Few Maxims for the Instruction of the Over-Educated (1894)
Oscar Wilde book The Picture of Dorian Gray
Variant: One of the great secrets of life. Most people die of a sort of creeping common sense and discover too late that the only things one never regrets are one's mistakes.
Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray
“Nothing can cure the soul but the senses, just as nothing can cure the senses but the soul.”
Oscar Wilde book The Picture of Dorian Gray
Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray
“Some things are more precious because they don't last long.”
Oscar Wilde book The Picture of Dorian Gray
Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray
“The public have an insatiable curiosity to know everything, except what is worth knowing.”
Source: The Soul of Man Under Socialism, and Selected Critical Prose
“An idea that is not dangerous is unworthy of being called an idea at all.”
The Epigrams of Oscar Wilde, edited by Alvin Redman (1954)
Lord Goring, Act I
Variant: The only thing to do with good advice is to pass it on. It is never of any use to oneself.
Source: An Ideal Husband (1895)
