Oscar Wilde quotes:

Keep love in your heart. A life without it is like a sunless garden when the flowers are dead.

In England, an inventor is regarded almost as a crazy man, and in too many instances, invention ends in disappointment and poverty. In America, an inventor is honoured, help is forthcoming, and the exercise of ingenuity, the application of science to the work of man, is there the shortest road to wealth.

Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught.

Beauty is the only thing that time cannot harm. Philosophies fall away like sand, creeds follow one another, but what is beautiful is a joy for all seasons, a possession for all eternity.

Between men and women there is no friendship possible. There is passion, enmity, worship, love, but no friendship.

Laughter is not at all a bad beginning for a friendship, and it is far the best ending for one.

Society exists only as a mental concept; in the real world there are only individuals.

I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read in the train.

Arguments are extremely vulgar, for everyone in good society holds exactly the same opinion.

It is only by not paying one's bills that one can hope to live in the memory of the commercial classes.

No better way is there to learn to love Nature than to understand Art. It dignifies every flower of the field. And, the boy who sees the thing of beauty which a bird on the wing becomes when transferred to wood or canvas will probably not throw the customary stone.

This suspense is terrible. I hope it will last.

A work of art is the unique result of a unique temperament.

A critic should be taught to criticise a work of art without making any reference to the personality of the author.

In its primary aspect, a painting has no more spiritual message than an exquisite fragment of Venetian glass. The channels by which all noble and imaginative work in painting should touch the soul are not those of the truths of lives.

One can survive everything, nowadays, except death, and live down everything except a good reputation.

The mark of all good art is not that the thing done is done exactly or finely, for machinery may do as much, but that it is worked out with the head and the workman's heart.

Work is the curse of the drinking classes.

A man's face is his autobiography. A woman's face is her work of fiction.

Bad people are, from the point of view of art, fascinating studies. They represent colour, variety and strangeness. Good people exasperate one's reason; bad people stir one's imagination.

All bad poetry springs from genuine feeling.

If one plays good music, people don't listen and if one plays bad music people don't talk.

If a work of art is rich and vital and complete, those who have artistic instincts will see its beauty, and those to whom ethics appeal more strongly than aesthetics will see its moral lesson. It will fill the cowardly with terror, and the unclean will see in it their own shame.

If one could only teach the English how to talk, and the Irish how to listen, society here would be quite civilized.

Children begin by loving their parents; after a time they judge them; rarely, if ever, do they forgive them.

The moment you think you understand a great work of art, it's dead for you.

All art is at once surface and symbol. Those who go beneath the surface do so at their peril. Those who read the symbol do so at their peril. It is the spectator, and not life, that art really mirrors. Diversity of opinion about a work of art shows that the work is new, complex and vital.

I suppose society is wonderfully delightful. To be in it is merely a bore. But to be out of it is simply a tragedy.

Life imitates art far more than art imitates Life.

Yes, there is a terrible moral in 'Dorian Gray' - a moral which the prurient will not be able to find in it, but it will be revealed to all whose minds are healthy. Is this an artistic error? I fear it is. It is the only error in the book.

Ordinary riches can be stolen; real riches cannot. In your soul are infinitely precious things that cannot be taken from you.

There are many things that we would throw away if we were not afraid that others might pick them up.

You will always be fond of me. I represent to you all the sins you have never had the courage to commit.

What is a cynic? A man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.

In designing the scenery and costumes for any of Shakespeare's plays, the first thing the artist has to settle is the best date for the drama. This should be determined by the general spirit of the play more than by any actual historical references which may occur in it.

Perhaps one of the most difficult things for us to do is to choose a notable and joyous dress for men. There would be more joy in life if we were to accustom ourselves to use all the beautiful colours we can in fashioning our own clothes.

Hatred is blind, as well as love.

By giving us the opinions of the uneducated, journalism keeps us in touch with the ignorance of the community.

Men always want to be a woman's first love - women like to be a man's last romance.

Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation.

Literature must rest always on a principle, and temporal considerations are no principle at all. For, to the poet, all times and places are one; the stuff he deals with is eternal and eternally the same: no theme is inept, no past or present preferable.

Man is a rational animal who always loses his temper when he is called upon to act in accordance with the dictates of reason.

Beauty has as many meanings as man has moods. Beauty is the symbol of symbols. Beauty reveals everything, because it expresses nothing. When it shows us itself, it shows us the whole fiery-coloured world.

The Lady's World' should be made the recognized organ for the expression of women's opinions on all subjects of literature, art and modern life, and yet it should be a magazine that men could read with pleasure.

It is a very sad thing that nowadays there is so little useless information.

Do you really think it is weakness that yields to temptation? I tell you that there are terrible temptations which it requires strength, strength and courage to yield to.

There is a luxury in self-reproach. When we blame ourselves we feel no one else has a right to blame us.

Always forgive your enemies - nothing annoys them so much.

America had often been discovered before Columbus, but it had always been hushed up.

It is the spectator, and not life, that art really mirrors.

When a man has once loved a woman he will do anything for her except continue to love her.

Success is a science; if you have the conditions, you get the result.

No great artist ever sees things as they really are. If he did, he would cease to be an artist.

There is always something ridiculous about the emotions of people whom one has ceased to love.

How marriage ruins a man! It is as demoralizing as cigarettes, and far more expensive.

When the gods wish to punish us they answer our prayers.

The old believe everything, the middle-aged suspect everything, the young know everything.

One should always play fairly when one has the winning cards.

To expect the unexpected shows a thoroughly modern intellect.

There is only one thing in life worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.

There is only one class in the community that thinks more about money than the rich, and that is the poor. The poor can think of nothing else.

I always pass on good advice. It is the only thing to do with it. It is never of any use to oneself.

The only thing to do with good advice is to pass it on. It is never of any use to oneself.

Pessimist: One who, when he has the choice of two evils, chooses both.

All art is quite useless.

There is no sin except stupidity.

It is absurd to divide people into good and bad. People are either charming or tedious.

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

One's real life is so often the life that one does not lead.

Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live.

There should be a law that no ordinary newspaper should be allowed to write about art. The harm they do by their foolish and random writing it would be impossible to overestimate - not to the artist, but to the public, blinding them to all but harming the artist not at all.

Technique is really personality. That is the reason why the artist cannot teach it, why the pupil cannot learn it, and why the aesthetic critic can understand it.

To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance.

Those who find ugly meanings in beautiful things are corrupt without being charming. This is a fault.

If one cannot enjoy reading a book over and over again, there is no use in reading it at all.

I have a dining room done in different shades of white, with white cushions embroidered in yellow silk: the effect is absolutely delightful and the room beautiful.

Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes.

I sometimes think that God in creating man somewhat overestimated his ability.

I think that God, in creating man, somewhat overestimated his ability.

Those whom the gods love grow young.

We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.

The typewriting machine, when played with expression, is no more annoying than the piano when played by a sister or near relation.

Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go.

Art should never try to be popular. The public should try to make itself artistic.

I would have a workshop attached to every school, and one hour a day given up to the teaching of simple decorative arts. It would be a golden hour to the children.

The world is divided into two classes, those who believe the incredible, and those who do the improbable.

I think it is perfectly natural for any artist to admire intensely and love a young man. It is an incident in the life of almost every artist.

Questions are never indiscreet, answers sometimes are.

A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it.

An excellent man; he has no enemies; and none of his friends like him.

I choose my friends for their good looks, my acquaintances for their good characters, and my enemies for their intellects. A man cannot be too careful in the choice of his enemies.

Whenever people agree with me I always feel I must be wrong.

In war, the strong make slaves of the weak, and in peace the rich makes slaves of the poor.

Im Krieg machen die Starken die Schwachen zu Sklaven, im Frieden machen die Reichen die Armen zu Sklaven.

The best way to make children good is to make them happy.

Cuando quiero intensamente a una persona, no digo nunca su nombre a nadie. Es como ceder una parte de ella. He aprendido a amar en secreto.

Actions are the first tragedy in life, words are the second. Words are perhaps the worst. Words are merciless

A strange sense of loss came over him. He felt that Dorian Gray would never again be to him all that he had been in the past. Life had come between them.His eyes darkened, and the crowded, flaring streets became blurred to his eyes. When the cab drew up at the theatre, it seemed to him that he had grown years older.

No man is rich enough to buy back his past.

So the swallow flew over the great city, and saw the rich making merry in their beautiful houses, while the beggars were sitting at the gates. He flew into dark lanes, and saw the white faces of starving children looking out listlessly at the black streets

Some red star had come too close to the earth.

Hearts Live By Being Wounded

It was always once springtime in my heart.

You can have your secret as long as I have your heart[.]

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

Never marry at all, Dorian. Men marry because they are tired, women, because they are curious: both are disappointed.

One should always be in love. That's the reason one should never marry.

Men marry because they are tired; women, because they are curious: both are disappointed.

I really don't see anything romantic in proposing. It is very romantic to be in love. But there is nothing romantic about a definite proposal. Why, one may be accepted. One usually is, I believe. Then the excitement is all over. The very essence of romance is uncertainty. If ever I get married, I'll certainly try to forget the fact.

Bigamy is having one wife too many. Monogamy is the same.

Marriage is the triumph of imagination over intelligence. Second marriage is the triumph of hope over experience.

Well, in the first place girls never marry the men they flirt with. Girls don't think it right.

The proper basis for marriage is mutual misunderstanding. The happiness of a married man depends on the people he has not married. One should always be in love - that's the reason one should never marry.

LADY BRACKNELLTo speak frankly, I am not in favour of long engagements. They give people the opportunity of finding out each other's character before marriage, which I think is never advisable.

Adevarul despre casatorie este acela ca te face sa nu mai fi egoist. Iar oamenii lipsiti de egoism sun incolori. Le lipseste individualitatea

Of course married life is merely a habit, a bad habit. But then one regrets the loss even of one's worse habits.

It is he who has broken the bond of marriage - not I. I only break its bondage.

You don't seem to realise, that in married life three is company and two is none.

Mary Farquhar, who always flirts with her own husband across the dinner-table. That is not very pleasant. Indeed, it is not even decent and that sort of thing is enormously on the increase. The amount of women in London who flirt with their own husbands is perfectly scandalous. It looks so bad. It is simply washing one's clean linen in public

No married man is ever attractive except to his wife.