Oscar Wilde Quotes page 4 812 Quotes on Love, Forgiveness, Rebellion, and Embracing Your Unique Voice

“I don't like compliments, and I don't see why a man should think he is pleasing a woman enormously when he says to her a whole heap of things that he doesn't mean.”

Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray

“An excellent man: he has no enemies, and none of his friends like him.”

“The only thing that one really knows about human nature is that it changes.”

Quoted by George Bernard Shaw in a letter to Ellen Terry, 25 September 1896.
Context: On George Bernard Shaw An excellent man: he has no enemies, and none of his friends like him.

“Public Opinion, which is an attempt to organize the ignorance of the community, and to elevate it to the dignity of physical force.”

The Soul of Man Under Socialism (1891)
Context: The only thing that one really knows about human nature is that it changes. Change is the one quality we can predicate of it. The systems that fail are those that rely on the permanency of human nature, and not on its growth and development. The error of Louis XIV was that he thought human nature would always be the same. The result of his error was the French Revolution. It was an admirable result. All the results of the mistakes of governments are quite admirable.

“The more we study Art, the less we care for Nature.”

The Critic as Artist (1891), Part II
Context: England has done one thing; it has invented and established Public Opinion, which is an attempt to organize the ignorance of the community, and to elevate it to the dignity of physical force.

Oscar Wilde book Intentions

What Art really reveals to us is Nature's lack of design, her curious crudities, her extraordinary monotony, her absolutely unfinished condition.
Intentions (1891)

“Unlimited and absolute is the vision of him who sits at ease and watches, who walks in loneliness and dreams”

“The work of art is to dominate the spectator: the spectator is not to dominate the work of art.”

The Critic as Artist (1891), Part II
Context: It is to do nothing that the elect exist. Action is limited and relative. Unlimited and absolute is the vision of him who sits at ease and watches, who walks in loneliness and dreams.

“The honest ratepayer and his healthy family have no doubt often mocked at the dome-like forehead of the philosopher, and laughed over the strange perspective of the landscape that lies beneath him. If they really knew who he was, they would tremble. For Chuang Tsǔ spent his life in preaching the great creed of Inaction, and in pointing out the uselessness of all things.”

The Soul of Man Under Socialism (1891)
Context: If a man approaches a work of art with any desire to exercise authority over it and the artist, he approaches it in such a spirit that he cannot receive any artistic impression from it at all. The work of art is to dominate the spectator: the spectator is not to dominate the work of art. The spectator is to be receptive. He is to be the violin on which the master is to play. And the more completely he can suppress his own silly views, his own foolish prejudices, his own absurd ideas of what Art should be, or should not be, the more likely he is to understand and appreciate the work of art in question.

“But alone, without any reference to his neighbours, without any interference, the artist can fashion a beautiful thing; and if he does not do it solely for his own pleasure, he is not an artist at all.”

Review of Herbert Giles translation of the works of Zhuangzi (Chuang Tsu) in The Speaker (8 February 1890)

“She behaves as if she was beautiful. Most American women do. It is the secret of their charm.”

The Soul of Man Under Socialism (1891)
Context: Art is the most intense mode of individualism that the world has known. I am inclined to say that it is the only real mode of individualism that the world has known. Crime, which, under certain conditions, may seem to have created individualism, must take cognisance of other people and interfere with them. It belongs to the sphere of action. But alone, without any reference to his neighbours, without any interference, the artist can fashion a beautiful thing; and if he does not do it solely for his own pleasure, he is not an artist at all.

“No man is rich enough to buy back his past.”

“We women, as some one says, love with our ears, just as you men love with your eyes…”

“There is a luxury in self-reproach. When we blame ourselves, we feel that no one else has a right to blame us. It is the confession, not the priest, that gives us absolution.”

Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray

“Life has been your art. You have set yourself to music. Your days are your sonnets.”

Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray

“Irony is wasted on the stupid”

“Punctuality is the thief of time”

“Work is the curse of the drinking classes.”

Variant: Punctuality is the thief of time.

“One should always play fairly when one has the winning cards.”

“Illusion is the first of all pleasures.”

“Never regret thy fall,
O Icarus of the fearless flight
For the greatest tragedy of them all
Is never to feel the burning light.”

Voltaire, "L'illusion est le premier plaisir" from the satirical poem "La Pucelle d’Orléans" [The Maid of Orleans]. For a complete review see the misattributed quotation entry at Oscar Wilde in America http://oscarwildeinamerica.org/quotations/illusion-first-of-all-pleasures.html. <br class="br">Misattributed <br class="br">Variant: Illusion is the first of all pleasures.

“When a woman marries again, it is because she detested her first husband. When a man marries again, it is because he adored his first wife. Women try their luck; men risk theirs.”

“I hate people who are not serious about meals. It is so shallow of them.”

Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray

Oscar Wilde The Importance of Being Earnest

Source: The Importance of Being Earnest

“In old days books were written by men of letters and read by the public. Nowadays books are written by the public and read by nobody.”

“A man who does not think for himself does not think at all.”

A Few Maxims for the Instruction of the Over-Educated (1894)

“One has a right to judge a man by the effect he has over his friends.”

The Soul of Man Under Socialism (1891)

“I adore simple pleasures. They are the last refuge of the complex.”

“Ah! The strength of women comes from the fact that psychology cannot explain us. Men can be analyzed, women… merely adored.”

Oscar Wilde An Ideal Husband

Source: An Ideal Husband

“Misfortunes one can endure--they come from outside, they are accidents. But to suffer for one's own faults--ah!--there is the sting of life.”

Oscar Wilde Lady Windermere's Fan

Source: Lady Windermere's Fan

“After the first glass you see things as you wish they were. After the second glass you see things as they are not. Finally, you see things as they really are, and that is the most horrible thing in the world.”

“The reason we all like to think so well of others is that we are all afraid for ourselves. The basis of optimism is sheer terror.”

Said about Absinthe https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absinthe. Quoted in “Letters to the Sphinx from Oscar Wilde: With Reminiscences of the Author" by Ada Leverson (London: Duckworth, 1930)

“Deceiving others. That is what the world calls a romance.”

Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray

“Life is not complex. We are complex. Life is simple, and the simple thing is the right thing.”

“Hearts Live By Being Wounded”