“Life is terrible. It rules us, we do not rule it.”

—  Oscar Wilde, Lady Windermere's Fan

Source: Lady Windermere's Fan

Last update Sept. 27, 2023. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Life is terrible. It rules us, we do not rule it." by Oscar Wilde?
Oscar Wilde photo
Oscar Wilde812
Irish writer and poet 1854–1900

Related quotes

Alfred Korzybski photo

“Man's achievements rest upon the use of symbols.... we must consider ourselves as a symbolic, semantic class of life, and those who rule the symbols, rule us.”

Alfred Korzybski (1879–1950) Polish scientist and philosopher

Source: Science and Sanity (1933), p. 76.

Cato the Elder photo

“All mankind rules its women, and we rule all mankind, but our women rule us.”

Cato the Elder (-234–-149 BC) politician, writer and economist (0234-0149)

In bitter criticism of the prevalent domination of women (The Classical weekly, Vol. 25–26, 1932, p. 273).
Quoted in Plutarch Apophthegmata regum et imperatorum, in Greek.

Ludwig Wittgenstein photo

“For remember that in general we don't use language according to strict rules — it hasn't been taught us by means of strict rules, either.”

Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951) Austrian-British philosopher

Source: 1930s-1951, The Blue Book (c. 1931–1935; published 1965), p. 25

Kim Stanley Robinson photo

“In games there are rules, but in life the rules keep changing.”

Kim Stanley Robinson (1952) American science fiction writer

Source: Red Mars (1992), Chapter 6, “Guns Under the Table” (p. 431)

“We follow two rules in the matter of optimization:
Rule 1: Don't do it.
Rule 2 (for experts only). Don't do it yet - that is, not until you have a perfectly clear and unoptimized solution.”

Michael A. Jackson (1936) British computer scientist

Principles of program design, 1975

C.G. Jung photo

“A particularly beautiful woman is a source of terror. As a rule, a beautiful woman is a terrible disappointment.”

C.G. Jung (1875–1961) Swiss psychiatrist and psychotherapist who founded analytical psychology

John Lancaster Spalding photo

“Rules of grammar can not give us a mastery of language, rules of rhetoric can not make us eloquent, rules of conduct can not make us good.”

John Lancaster Spalding (1840–1916) Catholic bishop

Source: Aphorisms and Reflections (1901), p. 103

Chris Hedges photo

“We on the left have forgotten that the question is not how do you get good people to rule, most people who rule are mediocre at best and usually venal. The question is how do we make those in power frightened of us and not be seduced by formal political processes.”

Chris Hedges (1956) American journalist

Transcript: Thom Hartmann talks to Chris Hedges about how liberals are a useless lot. 07 Dec '09. http://www.thomhartmann.com/blog/2010/02/transcript-thom-hartmann-talks-chris-hedges-about-how-liberals-are-useless-lot-07-dec-0

Harun Yahya photo

“We will demolish the rule of satan. The rule of the system of the Mahdi will come. The rule of God, the rule of our Lord will come.”

Harun Yahya (1956) Turkish author

3 January 2014.
A9 TV addresses, 2014

Related topics