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

Napoleon Sarony, https://www.oscarwildeinamerica.org/sarony/sarony-photographs-of-oscar-wilde-1882.html used under Public domain. Colored and cleaned by quotepark.com / CC-BY-SA-4.0

Oscar Wilde: 812 quotes1011 likes

Oscar Wilde Quotes

“I don't like novels that end happily. They depress me so much”

Oscar Wilde The Importance of Being Earnest

Source: The Importance of Being Earnest

“You seem to forget that I am married, and the one charm of marriage is that it makes a life of deception absolutely necessary for both parties.”

Oscar Wilde book The Picture of Dorian Gray

Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray

“Conscience and cowardice are really the same things, Basil. Conscience is the trade-name of the firm. That is all.”

Oscar Wilde book The Picture of Dorian Gray

Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray

“Mere color, unspoiled by meaning, and unallied with definite form, can speak to the soul in a thousand different ways.”

“A simile committing suicide is always a depressing spectacle.”

"The Poets' Corner III," The Pall Mall Gazette http://www.online-literature.com/wilde/1307/ (May 30, 1887)

“We can have in life but one great experience at best, and the secret of life is to reproduce that experience as often as possible.”

Oscar Wilde book The Picture of Dorian Gray

Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray

“The basis of action is lack of imagination. It is the last resource of those who know not how to dream.”

The Critic as Artist (1891), Part I
Variant: Action... is the last resource of those who know not how to dream.

“I am one of those who are made for exceptions, not for laws.”

Oscar Wilde book De Profundis

Source: De Profundis

“I never approve, or disapprove, of anything now. It is an absurd attitude to take towards life.”

Oscar Wilde book The Picture of Dorian Gray

Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray

“I have always been of opinion that a man who desires to get married should know either everything or nothing.”

Lady Bracknell, Act I
The Importance of Being Earnest (1895)
Source: The Importance of Being Earnest and Other Plays

“Never met such a Gorgon… I don't really know what a Gorgon is like, but I am quite sure that Lady Bracknell is one. In any case, she is a monster, without being a myth, which is rather unfair.”

Oscar Wilde The Importance of Being Earnest

Source: The Importance of Being Earnest

“The great events of the world take place in the brain…”

“Young people, nowadays, imagine that money is everything.

Yes, murmured Lord Henry, settling his button-hole in his coat; and when they grow older they know it.”

Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray and Other Writings

“[E]verybody who is incapable of learning has taken to teaching.”

Oscar Wilde book The Decay of Lying

Spoken by "Vivian."
The Decay of Lying (1889)

“What fire does not destroy, it hardens”

Oscar Wilde book The Picture of Dorian Gray

Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray

“To become a spectator of one's own life is to escape the suffering of life.”

“I think it's very healthy to spend time alone. You need to know how to be alone and not be defined by another person.”

“Gwendolen, it is a terrible thing for a man to find out suddenly that all his life he has been speaking nothing but the truth. Can you forgive me?”

Oscar Wilde The Importance of Being Earnest

Source: The Importance of Being Earnest

“Well I won't argue about the matter. You always want to argue about things.
That is exactly what things were originally made for.”

Oscar Wilde The Importance of Being Earnest

Source: The Importance of Being Earnest

“Her trust makes me faithful, her belief makes me good.”

Oscar Wilde book The Picture of Dorian Gray

Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray

“It is awfully hard work doing nothing. However, I don't mind hard work where there is no definite object of any kind. -Algernon”

Source: The Importance of Being Earnest and Other Plays

“And with tears of blood he cleansed the hand,
The hand that held the steel:
For only blood can wipe out blood,
And only tears can heal”

“Every one is worthy of love, except him who thinks that he is. Love is a
sacrament that should be taken kneeling.”

Oscar Wilde book De Profundis

Source: De Profundis

“When one has weighed the sun in the balance, and measured the steps of the moon, and mapped out the seven heavens, there still remains oneself. Who can calculate the orbit of his own soul?”

Oscar Wilde book De Profundis

Source: De Profundis (1897)

“She lives the poetry she cannot write.”

“I think you are wrong, Basil, but I won't argue with you. It is only the intellectually lost who ever argue.”

Oscar Wilde book The Picture of Dorian Gray

Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray

“Nothing makes one so vain as being told that one is a sinner.”

“All bad poetry springs from genuine feeling. To be natural is to be obvious, and to be obvious is to be inartistic.”

“With age comes wisdom, but sometimes age comes alone.”

“Memory is the diary that chronicles things that never happened or couldn't possibly have happened.”

“And all the woe that moved him so
That he gave that bitter cry
the wild regrets, and the bloody sweats
None knew so well as I:
For he who lives more lives than one
More deaths than one must die.”

“There are two ways to dislike poetry: One is to dislike it; the other is to read Pope.”

“ever since I met you I have admired you more than any girl… I have ever met since… I met you.”

Oscar Wilde The Importance of Being Earnest

Source: The Importance of Being Earnest

“I hope, Cecily, I shall not offend you if I state quite frankly and openly that you seem to me to be in every way the visible personification of absolute perfection.”

Oscar Wilde The Importance of Being Earnest

Variant: Would you be in any way offended if I said that you seem to me to be in every way the visible personification of absolute perfection?
Source: The Importance of Being Earnest

“I analyzed you, though you did not adore me.”

Oscar Wilde An Ideal Husband

Source: An Ideal Husband

“To be born, or at any rate bred, in a hand-bag, whether it had handles or not, seems to me to display a contempt for the ordinary decencies of family life that reminds one of the worst excesses of the French Revolution.”

Oscar Wilde The Importance of Being Earnest

Source: The Importance of Being Earnest

“You are what you read”

“Yes, very sensible… People die of common sense, Dorian, one lost moment at a time. Life is a moment. There is no hereafter. So make it burn always with the hardest flame.”

Oscar Wilde book The Picture of Dorian Gray

Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray

“Any place you love is the world to you.”

Oscar Wilde book The Happy Prince

Source: The Happy Prince

“Now produce your explanation and pray make it improbable.”

Oscar Wilde The Importance of Being Earnest

Source: The Importance of Being Earnest

“To be really mediæval one should have no body. To be really modern one should have no soul. To be really Greek one should have no clothes.”

A Few Maxims for the Instruction of the Over-Educated (1894)
Source: Complete Works of Oscar Wilde

“Life imitates art far more than art imitates Life.”

Oscar Wilde book The Decay of Lying

The Decay of Lying (1889)

“We teach people how to remember, we never teach them how to grow.”

Source: The Critic as Artist

“Other people are quite dreadful. The only possible society is oneself.”

Oscar Wilde An Ideal Husband

Lord Goring, Act III.
Variant: The only possible society is oneself.
Source: An Ideal Husband (1895)

“I know. In fact, I am never wrong.”

Oscar Wilde The Importance of Being Earnest

Source: The Importance of Being Earnest

“The only difference between the saint and the sinner is that every saint has a past and every sinner has a future.”

Oscar Wilde A Woman of No Importance

Lord Illingworth http://books.google.com/books?id=RHkWAAAAYAAJ&q=&quot;The+only+difference+between+the+saint+and+the+sinner+is+that+every+saint+has+a+past+and+every+sinner+has+a+future&quot;&pg=PA119#v=onepage, Act III <br class="br">A Woman of No Importance (1893)

“The consciousness of loving and being loved brings a warmth and richness to life that nothing else can bring.”

“Truth is independent of facts always.”

“I must say… that I ruined myself: and that nobody, great or small, can be ruined except by his own hand.”

“Anybody can make history. Only a great man can write it.”

The Critic as Artist (1891), Part I

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