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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

“Its a beautiful woman's fate to be the subject of conversation where ever she goes”

Oscar Wilde book The Picture of Dorian Gray

Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray

“One's real life is so often the life that one does not lead.”

Oscar Wilde

“Women defend themselves by attacking, just as they attack by sudden and strange surrenders.”

Oscar Wilde book The Picture of Dorian Gray

Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray

“Actions are the first tragedy in life, words are the second. Words are perhaps the worst. Words are merciless…”

Oscar Wilde

Source: Lady Windermere's Fan / A Woman of No Importance / An Ideal Husband / The Importance of Being Earnest / Salomé

“Art is the most intense mode of individualism that the world has known.”

Oscar Wilde book The Soul of Man under Socialism

Source: The Soul of Man Under Socialism

“Oh! I don't think I would like to catch a sensible man. I shouldn't know what to talk to him about.”

Oscar Wilde The Importance of Being Earnest

Source: The Importance of Being Earnest

“Where there is sorrow there is holy ground.”

Oscar Wilde book De Profundis

De Profundis (1897)
Variant: Where there is no love there is no understanding.

“You know more than you think you know, just as you know less than you want to know.”

Oscar Wilde book The Picture of Dorian Gray

Variant: You are a wonderful creation. You know more than you think you know, just as you know less than you want to know.
Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray

“Life is a nightmare that prevents one from sleeping.”

Oscar Wilde

“Knowledge would be fatal. It is the uncertainty that charms one. A mist makes things wonderful.”

Oscar Wilde book The Picture of Dorian Gray

Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray

“I drink to separate my body from my soul.”

Oscar Wilde

“When we are happy, we are always good, but when we are good, we are not always happy.”

Oscar Wilde book The Picture of Dorian Gray

Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray

“No great artist ever sees things as they really are. If he did, he would cease to be an artist.”

Oscar Wilde book The Decay of Lying

The Decay of Lying (1889)

“In the wild struggle for existence, we want to have something that endures, and so we fill our minds with rubbish and facts, in the silly hope of keeping our place.”

Oscar Wilde book The Picture of Dorian Gray

Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray

“All art is at once surface and symbol. Those who go beneath the surface do so at their peril.”

Oscar Wilde book The Picture of Dorian Gray

Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray

“The past could always be annihilated. Regret, denial, or forgetfulness could do that. But the future was inevitable.”

Oscar Wilde book The Picture of Dorian Gray

Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray

“It is absurd to have a hard and fast rule about what one should read and what one shouldn't. More than half of modern culture depends on what one shouldn't read.”

Oscar Wilde The Importance of Being Earnest

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

“The secret of remaining young is never to have an emotion that is unbecoming.”

Oscar Wilde book The Picture of Dorian Gray

Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray

Oscar Wilde quote: “Arguments are to be avoided, they are always vulgar and often convincing.”

“Arguments are to be avoided, they are always vulgar and often convincing.”

Oscar Wilde

Variant: I dislike arguments of any kind. They are always vulgar and often convincing.

“A writer is someone who has taught his mind to misbehave.”

Oscar Wilde

“And what sort of lives do these people, who pose as being moral, lead themselves? My dear fellow, you forget that we are in the native land of the hypocrite.”

Oscar Wilde book The Picture of Dorian Gray

Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray

“It is better to be beautiful then to be good, but it is better to be good then to be ugly.”

Oscar Wilde

Variant: It is better to be beautiful than to be good, but it is better to be good than to be ugly.

“I am happy in my prison of passion”

Oscar Wilde book The Picture of Dorian Gray

Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray

“I hate vulgar realism in literature. The man who would call a spade a spade should be compelled to use one.”

Oscar Wilde book The Picture of Dorian Gray

Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray

“My dear fellow, the truth isn't quite the sort of thing one tells to a nice, sweet, refined girl.”

Oscar Wilde The Importance of Being Earnest

Jack, Act I
Source: The Importance of Being Earnest (1895)

“Indeed, no woman should ever be quite accurate about her age. It looks so calculating.”

Oscar Wilde The Importance of Being Earnest

Source: The Importance of Being Earnest

“The gods are strange. It is not our vices only they make instruments to scourge us. They bring us to ruin through what in us is good, gentle, humane, loving.”

Oscar Wilde book De Profundis

Source: De Profundis

“Wisdom comes with winters”

Oscar Wilde

“The soul is a terrible reality. It can be bought and sold and bartered away.”

Oscar Wilde book The Picture of Dorian Gray

Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray

“Women, as some witty Frenchman once put it, inspire us with the desire to do masterpieces and always prevent us from carrying them out.”

Oscar Wilde

Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray and Other Writings

“It is through art, and through art only, that we can realize our perfection; through art and art only that we can shield ourselves from the sordid perils of actual existence.”

Oscar Wilde

The Critic as Artist (1891), Part II

“Lord Illingworth: Discontent is the first step in the progress of a man or a nation.”

Oscar Wilde A Woman of No Importance

Act II
A Woman of No Importance (1893)

“Oscar Wilde was suing the Marquis of Queensbury in 1895 for libel accusing Wilde of homosexuality

Counsel: Have you ever adored a young man madly?
Wilde: I have never given adoration to anyone except myself.”

Oscar Wilde

“I'm a man of simple tastes. I'm always satisfied with the best.”

Oscar Wilde

Variant: I have simple tastes. I am always satisfied with the best

“Morality, like art, means drawing a line someplace.”

Oscar Wilde

“My dear boy, no woman is a genius. Women are a decorative sex. They never have anything to say, but they say it charmingly. Women represent the triumph of matter over mind, just as men represent the triumph of mind over morals.”

Oscar Wilde book The Picture of Dorian Gray

Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray

“Sarcasm is the lowest form of wit.”

Oscar Wilde

Variant: Sarcasm is the lowest form of wit, but the highest form of intelligence.

“Being natural is simply a pose, and the most irritating pose I know.”

Oscar Wilde book The Picture of Dorian Gray

Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray

“I like talking to a brick wall- it's the only thing in the world that never contradicts me!”

Oscar Wilde Lady Windermere's Fan

Source: Lady Windermere's Fan

“He wanted to be where no one would know who he was. He wanted to escape from himself.”

Oscar Wilde book The Picture of Dorian Gray

Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray

“But beauty, real beauty, ends where an intellectual expression begins. Intellect is in itself a mode of exaggeration, and destroys the harmony of any face.”

Oscar Wilde book The Picture of Dorian Gray

Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray

“If one doesn't talk about a thing, it has never happened. It is simply expression that gives reality to things.”

Oscar Wilde book The Picture of Dorian Gray

Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray

“The worst of having a romance of any kind is that it leaves one so unromantic.”

Oscar Wilde book The Picture of Dorian Gray

Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray