Dramatist · Irish · 1854 – 1900 · 199 quotes
Whenever a man does a thoroughly stupid thing, it is always from the noblest motives.
Oscar Wilde
Dramatist · Irish · 1854 – 1900
Art is the most intense mode of individualism that the world has known.
All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. No man does. That's his.
The man who can dominate a London dinner-table can dominate the world.
An excellent man; he has no enemies; and none of his friends like him.
I suppose society is wonderfully delightful. To be in it is merely a bore. But to be out of it is simply a tragedy.
I can stand brute force, but brute reason is quite unbearable. There is something unfair about its use. It is hitting below the intellect.
It is only an auctioneer who can equally and impartially admire all schools of art.
Success is a science; if you have the conditions, you get the result.
I like persons better than principles, and I like persons with no principles better than anything else in the world.
If one could only teach the English how to talk, and the Irish how to listen, society here would be quite civilized.
Democracy means simply the bludgeoning of the people by the people for the people.
What is a cynic? A man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.
If there was less sympathy in the world, there would be less trouble in the world.
Life is never fair, and perhaps it is a good thing for most of us that it is not.
Our ambition should be to rule ourselves, the true kingdom for each one of us; and true progress is to know more, and be more, and to do more.
Every saint has a past and every sinner has a future.
The only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it... I can resist everything but temptation.
It is better to be beautiful than to be good. But... it is better to be good than to be ugly.
I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read in the train.
Ambition is the germ from which all growth of nobleness proceeds.
I always pass on good advice. It is the only thing to do with it. It is never of any use to oneself.
If you pretend to be good, the world takes you very seriously. If you pretend to be bad, it doesn't. Such is the astounding stupidity of optimism.
In America the young are always ready to give to those who are older than themselves the full benefits of their inexperience.
The salesman knows nothing of what he is selling save that he is charging a great deal too much for it.
Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go.
Life is far too important a thing ever to talk seriously about.
The old believe everything, the middle-aged suspect everything, the young know everything.
The only thing to do with good advice is to pass it on. It is never of any use to oneself.
It is through art, and through art only, that we can realise our perfection.
To lose one parent may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness.
There is no necessity to separate the monarch from the mob; all authority is equally bad.
Everybody who is incapable of learning has taken to teaching.
One should always play fairly when one has the winning cards.
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.
Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months.
Now that the House of Commons is trying to become useful, it does a great deal of harm.
It is absurd to divide people into good and bad. People are either charming or tedious.
An idea that is not dangerous is unworthy of being called an idea at all.
The public is wonderfully tolerant. It forgives everything except genius.
Man can believe the impossible, but man can never believe the improbable.
A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal.
One of the many lessons that one learns in prison is, that things are what they are and will be what they will be.
No man is rich enough to buy back his past.
As long as war is regarded as wicked, it will always have its fascination. When it is looked upon as vulgar, it will cease to be popular.
The well bred contradict other people. The wise contradict themselves.
Morality is simply the attitude we adopt towards people whom we personally dislike.
To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance.
