“Neither at things, nor at people should one look. Only in mirrors should one look, for mirrors do but show us masks.”

— Oscar Wilde , Salome

Source: Salomé

Last update Sept. 27, 2023. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Neither at things, nor at people should one look. Only in mirrors should one look, for mirrors do but show us masks." by Oscar Wilde?

Oscar Wilde 812

Irish writer and poet 1854–1900

Related quotes

“You should look into a mirror: if you look fine, do fine things; if you look ugly, correct by nobility the defect of your nature.”

Bias of Priene (-600–-530 BC) ancient Greek philosopher, one of the Seven Sages

as reported by Demetrius of Phalerum in Apophthegms of the Seven Sages, Loeb Classical Library, volume 525 Early Greek Philosophy, p. 137

“One doesn't generally look into mirrors when one is especially angry; one has better things to do, like pace the floor or throw things.”

Robin McKinley book The Blue Sword

Source: The Blue Sword

“Look in the mirror and one thing is sure: what we see is not who we are.”

Richard Bach (1936) American spiritual writer

Source: The Bridge Across Forever: A True Love Story

“People had a habit of looking at me as if I were some kind of mirror instead of a person. They didn't see me, they saw their own lewd thoughts, then they white-masked themselves by calling me the lewd one.”

Marilyn Monroe (1926–1962) American actress, model, and singer

Variant: People had a habit of looking at me as if I were some kind of mirror instead of a person. They didn't see me, they saw their own lewd thoughts, then they white-masked themselves by calling me the lewd one.
Source: On Being Blonde (2007), p. 54

“A writer should not run around with a mirror for his countrymen; he should tell his society and his times things no one ever thought before.”

Stanisław Lem (1921–2006) Polish science fiction author

“Scots of my generation and above should be looking at themselves in the mirror and wonder if we by majority, as a result of our decision, have actually impeded progress for the next generation, something no generation should do.”

Alex Salmond (1954) Scottish National Party politician and former First Minister of Scotland

Remarks http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/politics/alex-salmond-insists-wrath-khan-4301649 during a television interview (21 September 2014).
Context: When you have the majority of a country up to the age of 55 already voting for independence, then I think the writing's on the wall for Westminster. I think Scots of my generation and above should be looking at themselves in the mirror and wonder if we by majority, as a result of our decision, have actually impeded progress for the next generation, something no generation should do. The destination is pretty certain – we're only now debating the timescale and the method. I'll contribute to that debate, but I think it's time for new leadership. There are a number of political opportunities coming up. For many, many years, a referendum route wasn't the chosen route of the SNP or Scotland. For many years, there was a gradual attitude to independence. You establish a parliament and establish successively more powers until you have a situation where you're independent in all but name, and then presumably declare yourself to be independent. Many countries have proceeded through that route – there is a parliamentary route where people can make their voice heard as well – so a referendum is only one of a number of routes. I think that’s the best route. That’s always been my opinion but my opinion is only one of many.

“Such grinning inanity is very sad to the soul of man. Human faces should not grin on one like masks; they should look on one like faces! I love honest laughter, as I do sunlight; but not dishonest”

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish philosopher, satirical writer, essayist, historian and teacher

1840s, Past and Present (1843)
Context: "No man in this fashionable London of yours," friend Sauerteig would say, "speaks a plain word to me. Every man feels bound to be something more than plain; to be pungent withal, witty, ornamental. His poor fraction of sense has to be perked into some epigrammatic shape, that it may prick into me;—perhaps (this is the commonest) to be topsyturvied, left standing on its head, that I may remember it the better! Such grinning inanity is very sad to the soul of man. Human faces should not grin on one like masks; they should look on one like faces! I love honest laughter, as I do sunlight; but not dishonest: most kinds of dancing too; but the St.-Vitus kind not at all! A fashionable wit, ach Himmel, if you ask, Which, he or a Death's- head, will be the cheerier company for me? pray send not him!"