Oscar Wilde Quotes

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Oscar Wilde
Born: October 16, 1854 – Dublin
Died: November 30, 1900 – Paris
Profession: Author, Poet wiki

Oscar Wilde was a successful poet, playwrite and author. He was born and raised in Ireland and become well known for his writing ability and philosophical stance. Wilde promoted The Aesthetic Movement (emphasis on values, art, music, love) and decided to move to London to attend Oxford University.

There is some secrecy about Wilde’s personal life. He was imprisoned for two years for “indecency”. Still, Wilde is most known for his writing. Including; The Importance of Being Earnest and De Profundis.

30 Classic Oscar Wilde Quotes

oscar wilde

1. A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal.

2. A man can be happy with any woman as long as he does not love her.

3. Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much.

4. America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between.

5. Anyone who lives within their means suffers from a lack of imagination.

6. Arguments are to be avoided; they are always vulgar and often convincing.

7. Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.

8. I am so clever that sometimes I don’t understand a single word of what I am saying.

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

10. The pure and simple truth is rarely pure and never simple.

11. To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.

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

13. When people agree with me I always feel I must be wrong.

14. Women are made to be loved, not understood.

15. Women are never disarmed by compliments. Men always are. That is the difference between the sexes.

16. Work is the curse of the drinking classes.

17. Yet each man kills the thing he loves, by each let this be heard, some do it with a bitter look, some with a flattering word. The coward does it with a kiss, the brave man with a sword.

18. Young men want to be faithful and are not; old men want to be faithless and cannot.

19. Art never expresses anything but itself.

20. Democracy means simply the bludgeoning of the people by the people for the people.

21. Everything is dangerous, my dear fellow. If it wasn’t so, life wouldn’t be worth living.

22. Experience is the name everyone gives to their mistakes.

23. Men marry because they are tired; women because they are curious. Both are disappointed.

24. The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it.

25. Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months.

26. Genius is born–not paid.

27. I always like to know everything about my new friends, and nothing about my old ones.

28. I am not young enough to know everything.

29. I think that God in creating Man somewhat overestimated his ability.

30. Illusion is the first of all pleasures.

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