Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) was an Irish playwright, novelist, essayist, and poet, best known for his wit, flamboyant style, and exploration of societal norms in his works. He was a prominent figure in the late 19th-century literary scene and remains an influential cultural icon.
Oscar Wilde Quotes
Here are 100 Oscar Wilde quotes on life, love, art, relationship, success, and more.
1. “Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.”
2. “To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.”
3. “I can resist anything except temptation.”
4. “A good friend will always stab you in the front.”
5. “We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.”
6. “Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes.”
7. “The only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it.”
8. “Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months.”
9. “There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.”
10. “I am so clever that sometimes I don’t understand a single word of what I am saying.”
11. “The truth is rarely pure and never simple.”
12. “Art is the most intense mode of individualism that the world has known.”
13. “I don’t want to go to heaven. None of my friends are there.”
14. “It is absurd to divide people into good and bad. People are either charming or tedious.”
15. “I don’t pretend to be wise, but I am observing, and I see a great deal more than you’d imagine.”
16. “I am not young enough to know everything.”
17. “The world is a stage, but the play is badly cast.”
18. “Sarcasm is the lowest form of wit, but the highest form of intelligence.”
19. “Success is a science; if you have the conditions, you get the result.”
20. “A dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world.”
21. “Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go.”
22. “There are only two tragedies in life: one is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it.”
23. “Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing worth knowing can be taught.”
24. “When I was young, I thought that money was the most important thing in life; now that I am old, I know that it is.”
25. “I have the simplest tastes. I am always satisfied with the best.”
26. “I can’t stand people who do not take food seriously.”
27. “Life is too important to be taken seriously.”
28. “I love acting. It is so much more real than life.”
29. “I have nothing to declare except my genius.”
30. “One can survive everything nowadays except death.”
31. “Everything in moderation, including moderation.”
32. “Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much.”
33. “Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative.”
34. “I choose my friends for their good looks, my acquaintances for their good characters, and my enemies for their intellects.”
35. “Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live; it is asking others to live as one wishes to live.”
36. “The old believe everything, the middle-aged suspect everything, and the young know everything.”
37. “There is only one class in the community that thinks more about money than the rich, and that is the poor.”
38. “Men marry because they are tired; women because they are curious. Both are disappointed.”
39. “There is no sin except stupidity.”
40. “A man’s face is his autobiography. A woman’s face is her work of fiction.”
41. “I am not young enough to know everything.”
42. “Life is far too important a thing ever to talk seriously about.”
43. “Memory is the diary that we all carry about with us.”
44. “Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.”
45. “The heart was made to be broken.”
46. “The very essence of romance is uncertainty.”
47. “In all matters of opinion, our adversaries are insane.”
48. “There are many things that we would throw away if we were not afraid that others might pick them up.”
49. “I don’t like compliments; they distract me.”
50. “Nothing spoils a romance so much as a sense of humor in the woman.”
51. “When a man has once loved a woman, he will do anything for her except continue to love her.”
52. “Between men and women, there is no friendship possible. There is passion, enmity, worship, love, but no friendship.”
53. “In this world, there are only two tragedies. One is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it.”
54. “What seems to us as bitter trials are often blessings in disguise.”
55. “Some cause happiness wherever they go; others, whenever they go.”
56. “The aim of life is self-development. To realize one’s nature perfectly – that is what each of us is here for.”
57. “No man is rich enough to buy back his past.”
58. “To get back my youth, I would do anything in the world, except take exercise, get up early, or be respectable.”
59. “All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. No man does. That’s his.”
60. “Anybody can make history; only a great man can write it.”
61. “Nowadays, people know the price of everything and the value of nothing.”
62. “Life is too short to be anything but happy.”
63. “It is better to be beautiful than to be good. But it is better to be good than to be ugly.”
64. “The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its shame.”
65. “In married life, three is company, and two is none.”
66. “We are each our own devil, and we make this world our hell.”
67. “Punctuality is the thief of time.”
68. “Nothing can cure the soul but the senses, just as nothing can cure the senses but the soul.”
69. “The mystery of love is greater than the mystery of death.”
70. “The difference between literature and journalism is that journalism is unreadable, and literature is not read.”
71. “Death must be so beautiful. To lie in the soft brown earth, with the grasses waving above one’s head, and listen to silence. To have no yesterday, and no tomorrow. To forget time, to forgive life, to be at peace.”
72. “Whenever people agree with me, I always feel I must be wrong.”
73. “One should either be a work of art, or wear a work of art.”
74. “Art is the most intense mode of individualism that the world has known.”
75. “I have nothing to declare except my genius.”
76. “The imagination imitates. It is the critical spirit that creates.”
77. “There is much to be said in favor of modern journalism. By giving us the opinions of the uneducated, it keeps us in touch with ignorance of the community.”
78. “It is always the unreadable that occurs.”
79. “All art is at once surface and symbol. Those who go beneath the surface do so at their peril.”
80. “Genius lasts longer than beauty.”
81. “A poet can survive everything but a misprint.”
82. “Art is individualism, and individualism is a disturbing and disintegrating force. There lies its immense value.”
83. “There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well-written or badly written. That is all.”
84. “As for begging, it is safer to beg than to take, but it is finer to take than to beg.”
85. “One can survive everything nowadays except death.”
86. “It is only by not paying one’s bills that one can hope to live in the memory of the commercial classes.”
87. “Disobedience, in the eyes of anyone who has read history, is man’s original virtue. It is through disobedience that progress has been made, through disobedience and through rebellion.”
88. “Life is never fair, and perhaps it is a good thing for most of us that it is not.”
89. “The best way to appreciate your job is to imagine yourself without one.”
90. “We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.”
91. “Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live; it is asking others to live as one wishes to live.”
92. “Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much.”
93. “The world was my oyster but I used the wrong fork.”
94. “You don’t love someone for their looks, or their clothes or for their fancy car, but because they sing a song only you can hear.”
95. “Never love anyone who treats you like you’re ordinary.”
96. “It is better to be beautiful than to be good. But it is better to be good than to be ugly.”
97. “The one charm of marriage is that it makes a life of deception absolutely necessary for both parties.”
98. “Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes.”
99. “The very essence of romance is uncertainty.”
100. “There is only one class in the community that thinks more about money than the rich, and that is the poor.”
Please note that some quotes attributed to Oscar Wilde might be paraphrased or misattributed, as is common with many famous personalities. However, the quotes listed above capture the essence of his wit, wisdom, and unique perspective on life.
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