“My great mistake, the fault for which I can’t forgive myself, is that one day I ceased my obstinate pursuit of my own individuality.”

—  Oscar Wilde

Last update Sept. 27, 2023. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "My great mistake, the fault for which I can’t forgive myself, is that one day I ceased my obstinate pursuit of my own i…" by Oscar Wilde?
Oscar Wilde photo
Oscar Wilde 812
Irish writer and poet 1854–1900

Related quotes

Anne Sexton photo

“I’m lost. And it’s my own fault. It’s about time I figured out that I can’t ask people to keep me found.”

Anne Sexton (1928–1974) poet from the United States
Dmitri Shostakovich photo

“I always try to make myself as widely understood as possible, and if I don't succeed I consider it's my own fault.”

Dmitri Shostakovich (1906–1975) Russian composer and pianist

New York Times, February 9, 1942.

Shaun Micallef photo

“My attitude is one of unswerving devotion to myself. I am single-minded in my pursuit of money, fame and power. I also collect spoons.”

Shaun Micallef (1962) Australian actor
Miguel de Unamuno photo

“I must avert here once again to my view of the opposition that exists between individuality and personality, notwithstanding the fact that the one demands the other. Individuality is, if I may so express it, the container or thing which contains, personality the content or thing contained, or I might say that my personality is in a certain sense my comprehension, that which I comprehend or embrace within myself — which is in a certain way the whole Universe — and that my individuality is my extension; the one my infinite, the other my finite.”

Miguel de Unamuno (1864–1936) 19th-20th century Spanish writer and philosopher

The Tragic Sense of Life (1913), VIII : From God to God

Sara García photo

“Spanish for, I want to send a very affectionate greeting to the Mexican public, which I don't forget that every day I make more efforts to like and if I don't like so it is a disgrace but the public is benign and forgives all my mistakes, true that they forgive me?”

Sara García (1895–1980) Mexican actress

Quiero enviar al publico de México un saludo muy cariñoso, que yo no los olvido que yo cada día hago mas esfuerzos por gustar que si no gusto pues ya fue una desgracia pero el publico es benigno y me perdona todos mis errores, verdad que me los perdona?
Sara Garcia

Henry Rollins photo

“If I let you, you would make me destroy myself. But in order to survive you, I must first survive myself. I can sink no further and I cannot forgive you. There's no choice but to confront you, to engage you, to erase you. I've gone to great lengths to expand my threshold of pain. I will use my mistakes against you. There's no other choice. Shameless now. Nameless now. Nothing now. No one now. But my soul must be iron cause my fear is naked. I'm naked and fearless - and my fear is naked!”

Henry Rollins (1961) American singer-songwriter

Bottom from the album Undertow by the band TOOL

Thomas Jefferson photo

“I shall within a few days divest myself of the anxieties and the labors with which I have been oppressed, and retire with inexpressible delight to my family, my friends, my farms, and books. There I may indulge at length in that tranquillity and those pursuits from which I have been divorced by the character of the times in which I have lived, and which have forced me into the line of political life under a sense of duty and against a great and constant aversion to it.”

Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) 3rd President of the United States of America

Letter to David Baillie Warden (25 February 1809)
1800s, Second Presidential Administration (1805-1809)

Etty Hillesum photo

“That is probably the hardest thing a person can learn, as I so often find in others (and in myself as well in the past) to forgive one’s own mistakes and lapses.”

Etty Hillesum (1914–1943) Jewish diarist
Robert A. Heinlein photo

“My mistake. My inexcusable mistake, as a con man never stops being a con man; he can’t. But I suffered from a will to believe, a defect of character that I thought I had rooted out. I was mistaken.”

Robert A. Heinlein book Friday

Source: Friday (1982), Chapter 3 (p. 22)

Anchee Min photo

“I had no expectations. I thought, “If I don’t make it, it’s my own fault.””

Anchee Min (1957) Chinese-American author

Source: On choosing to immigrate to the United States in “Anchee Min: 'If I had stayed in China, I would be dead'” https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/10116718/Anchee-Min-If-I-had-stayed-in-China-I-would-be-dead.html in The Telegraph (2013 Jul 4)
Context: In China I had to suffer and labour for the Communist Party – here I was given the opportunity to suffer and labour for myself and to build my own life. I chose to look at the glass half full – I think that’s a very immigrant attitude.

Related topics