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Oscar Wilde

277 quotes

“And down the long and silent street, The dawn, with silver-sandalled feet, Crept like a frightened girl.”
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) first seen 1885 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: , st. 12, in The Dramatic Review (11 April 1885)
“Be warned in time, James, and remain, as I do, incomprehensible: to be great is to be misunderstood.”
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) first seen 1885 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to James McNeill Whistler (23 February 1885)
“A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it.”
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) first seen 1889 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: , in Blackwood's Magazine (July 1889)
“The honest ratepayer and his healthy family have no doubt often mocked at the dome-like forehead of the philosopher, and laughed over the strange perspective of the landscape that lies beneath him. If they really knew who he was, they would tremble. For Chuang Tsǔ spent his life in preaching the great creed of Inaction, and in pointing out the uselessness of all things.”
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) first seen 1890 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Review of Herbert Giles translation of the works of Zhuangzi (Chuang Tsu) in The Speaker (8 February 1890)
“Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative.”
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) first seen 1885 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Relation of Dress to Art", The Pall Mall Gazette (February 28, 1885)
“A poet can survive everything but a misprint.”
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) first seen 1886 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Children of the Poets", The Pall Mall Gazette (October 14, 1886)
“Most modern calendars mar the sweet simplicity of our lives by reminding us that each day that passes is the anniversary of some perfectly uninteresting event.”
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) first seen 1887 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: A New Calendar", The Pall Mall Gazette (February 17, 1887)
“A simile committing suicide is always a depressing spectacle.”
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) first seen 1887 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Poets' Corner III", The Pall Mall Gazette (30 May 1887)
“And, after all, what is a fashion? From the artistic point of view, it is usually a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months.”
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) first seen 1885 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Philosophy of Dress", The New-York Tribune, 1885. For an analysis see Fashion a Form of Ugliness, oscarwildeinamerica.org (retrieved 9 May 2026)
“We have really everything in common with America nowadays, except, of course, language.”
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) first seen 1887 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Canterville Ghost (1887). For history and analysis of the quote see "Common Language", oscarwildeinamerica.org (retrieved 9 May 2026)
“All charming people, I fancy, are spoiled. It is the secret of their attraction.”
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) first seen 1889 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Portrait of Mr. W. H.", Blackwood's Magazine (July 1889)
“It is always a silly thing to give advice, but to give good advice is absolutely fatal.”
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) said by 1900 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The more we study Art, the less we care for Nature. What Art really reveals to us is Nature's lack of design, her curious crudities, her extraordinary monotony, her absolutely unfinished condition.”
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) first seen 1891 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Intentions (1891)
“Art finds her own perfection within, and not outside of herself. She is not to be judged by any external standard of resemblance. She is a veil, rather than a mirror.”
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) first seen 1891 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Intentions (1891)
“All art is immoral.”
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) first seen 1891 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Intentions (1891)
“He is really not so ugly after all, provided, of course, that one shuts one's eyes, and does not look at him.”
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) first seen 1892 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Birthday of the Infanta", The House of Pomegranates (1892)
“le mystère de l'amour est plus grand que le mystère de la mort.”
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) first seen 1893 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Salomé (1893)
“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.”
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) first seen 1887 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Canterville Ghost (1887)
“I put all my genius into my life; I put only my talent into my works.”
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) first seen 1869 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Conversation with André Gide in , quoted in letter by Gide to his mother (30 January 1895); popularized by Gide and often subsequently quoted in Gide's later work and in "Gide, André (1869-1951)" at Standing Ovations, m…
“[On Bernard Shaw] An excellent man: he has no enemies, and none of his friends like him.”
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) first seen 1896 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted by Shaw in a letter to Ellen Terry (25 September 1896)
“I summed up all systems in a phrase, and all existence in an epigram.”
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) first seen 1897 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Written in a letter from Reading Prison to Lord Alfred Douglas (early 1897)
“People who count their chickens before they are hatched act very wisely because chickens run about so absurdly that it's impossible to count them accurately.”
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) first seen 1898 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Written in a letter to Robert Ross from Paris (31 May 1898)
“It is better to have a permanent income than to be fascinating.”
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) said by 1900 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Model Millionaire (1912)
“Tell me, when you are alone with him [Max Beerbohm] Sphinx, does he take off his face and reveal his mask?”
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) said by 1900 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In a letter to Ada Leverson [Sphinx] recorded in her book Letters To The Sphinx From Oscar Wilde and Reminiscences of the Author (1930)
“He to whom the present is the only thing that is present, knows nothing of the age in which he lives.”
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) said by 1900 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Oscariana" (1907), Complete Works, p. 32
“Psychology is in its infancy, as a science. I hope in the interests of Art, it will always remain so.”
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) first seen 1897 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Oscar Wilde (1897), | Hart-Davis, ed., Letters of Wilde, p. 173
“I have the kiss of Walt Whitman still on my lip.”
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) first seen 1900 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In a journal or later note by George Cecil Ives recording a meeting with Wilde in 1900, Oscar Wilde: Myths, Miracles and Imitations (Cambridge University Press,1996), John Stokes
“Prayer must never be answered: if it is, it ceases to be prayer and becomes correspondence.”
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) said by 1900 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Epigrams of Oscar Wilde, edited by Alvin Redman (1952)
“Keep love in your heart. A life without it is like a sunless garden when the flowers are dead. The consciousness of loving and being loved brings warmth and richness to life that nothing else can bring.”
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) said by 1900 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Epigrams of Oscar Wilde, edited by Alvin Redman (1952)
“An idea that is not dangerous is unworthy of being called an idea at all.”
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) said by 1900 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Epigrams of Oscar Wilde, edited by Alvin Redman (1954)
“Starvation, and not sin, is the parent of modern crime.”
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) said by 1900 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Epigrams of Oscar Wilde, edited by Alvin Redman (1954)
“After the first glass you see things as you wish they were. After the second glass you see things as they are not. Finally, you see things as they really are, and that is the most horrible thing in the world.”
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) said by 1900 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Said about Absinthe. Quoted in Ada Leverson, Letters to the Sphinx from Oscar Wilde: With Reminiscences of the Author (London: Duckworth, 1930)
“She is not a subject.”
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) said by 1900 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in The Reminiscences of Lady Randolph Churchill (1908)
“For to disagree with three-fourths of the British public on all points is one of the first elements of sanity, one of the deepest consolations in all moments of spiritual doubt.”
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) first seen 1882 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The English Renaissance of Art (1882)
“And he related also, with much gusto, how in a country-house he had told his host one evening that he had spent the day in hard literary work, and that, when asked what he had done, he had said, "I was working on the proof of one of my poems all the morning and took out a comma." "And in the afternoon?" "In the afternoon–well, I put it back again.”
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) said by 1900 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in "Oscar Wilde: The Story of an Unhappy Friendship" (1905) by Robert Harborough Sherard,. Greening & Company, London. Quote Page 72. (The original edition was privately printed; the author's note from Robert She…
“Fool, nothing is impossible in Russia but reform.”
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) said by 1900 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Reforms in Russia are very tragic, but they always end in a farce.”
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) said by 1900 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“To make a good salad is to be a brilliant diplomatist – the problem is so entirely the same in both cases. To know exactly how much oil one must put with one's vinegar.”
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) said by 1900 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Life is much too important a thing ever to talk seriously about it.”
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) said by 1900 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There is always more brass than brains in an aristocracy.”
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) said by 1900 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Good kings are the enemies of democracy.”
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) said by 1900 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Heaven is a despotism. I shall be at home there.”
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) said by 1900 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There are few things easier than to live badly and to die well.”
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) said by 1900 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Experience, the name men give to their mistakes.”
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) said by 1900 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Indifference is the revenge the world takes on mediocrities.”
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) said by 1900 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When a man has no enemy left there must be something mean about him.”
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) said by 1900 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I cannot understand your nature. If my nature had been made to suit your comprehension rather than my own requirements, I am afraid I would have made a very poor figure in the world.”
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) said by 1900 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Tread Lightly, she is near Under the snow, Speak gently, she can hear The daisies grow.”
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) said by 1900 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Lo! with a little rod I did but touch the honey of romance — And must I lose a soul's inheritance?”
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) said by 1900 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“To drift with every passion till my soul Is a stringed lute on which all winds can play, Is it for this that I have given away Mine ancient wisdom, and austere control? Methinks my life is a twice-written scroll Scrawled over on some boyish holiday With idle songs for pipe and virelay, Which do but mar the secret of the whole.”
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) said by 1900 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source