Oscar Wilde
"The public make use of the classics of a country as a means of checking the progress of Art. They degrade the classics into authorities... A fresh mode of Beauty is absolutely distasteful to them, and whenever it appears they get so angry and bewildered that they always use two stupid expressions--one is that the work of art is grossly unintelligible; the other, that the work of art is grossly immoral. What they mean by these words seems to me to be this. When they say a work is grossly unintelligible, they mean that the artist has said or made a beautiful thing that is new; when they describe a work as grossly immoral, they mean that the artist has said or made a beautiful thing that is true."
494 Quotes
"The public make use of the classics of a country as a means of checking the progress of Art. They degrade the classics into authorities... A fresh mode of Beauty is absolutely distasteful to them, and whenever it appears they get so angry and bewildered that they always use two stupid expressions--one is that the work of art is grossly unintelligible; the other, that the work of art is grossly immoral. What they mean by these words seems to me to be this. When they say a work is grossly unintelligible, they mean that the artist has said or made a beautiful thing that is new; when they describe a work as grossly immoral, they mean that the artist has said or made a beautiful thing that is true."
Oscar Wilde
"She wore far too much rouge last night and not quite enough clothes. That is always a sign of despair in a woman."
Oscar Wilde
"One should never trust a woman who tells one her real age. A woman who would tell one that would tell one anything."
Oscar Wilde
"A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it."
Oscar Wilde
"Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth."
Oscar Wilde
"We live in an age when unnecessary things are our only necessities."
Oscar Wilde
"What a silly thing love is!' said the student as he walked away. 'It is not half as useful as logic, for it does not prove anything, and it is always telling one of things that are not going to happen, and making one believe things that are not true. In fact, it is quite unpractical, and, as in this age to be practical is everything, I shall go back to philosophy and study metaphysics.' So he returned to his room and pulled out a great dusty book, and began to read."
Oscar Wilde
"The world has become sad because a puppet was once melancholy. The nihilist, that strange martyr who has no faith, who goes to the stake without enthusiasm, and dies for what he does not believe in, is a purely literary product. He was invented by Turgenev, and completed by Dostoevsky. Robespierre came out of the pages of Rousseau as surely as the People's Palace rose out debris of a novel. Literature always anticipates life. It does not copy it, but moulds it to its purpose."
Oscar Wilde
"The only way a woman can ever reform a man is by boring him so completely that he loses all possible interest in life."
Oscar Wilde
"If you don't get everything you want, think of the things you don't get that you don't want."
Oscar Wilde
"Between men and women there is no friendship possible. There is passion, enmity, worship, love, but no friendship."
Oscar Wilde
"There are only two kinds of people who are really fascinating: people who know absolutely everything, and people who know absolutely nothing."
Oscar Wilde
"I like men who have a future and women who have a past."
Oscar Wilde
"The world is a stage and the play is badly cast."
Oscar Wilde
"I have the simplest tastes. I am always satisfied with the best."
Oscar Wilde
"I have nothing to declare except my genius."
Oscar Wilde
"No good deed goes unpunished."
Oscar Wilde
"I think God, in creating man, somewhat overestimated his ability."
Oscar Wilde
"A man who does not think for himself does not think at all."
Oscar Wilde
"The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible."
Oscar Wilde
✉️
Get more quotes like Oscar Wilde's — every morning.
Join thousands of wisdom seekers getting daily quotes from 300,000+ curated sources.
Free forever. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
🎉 Check your inbox to confirm your subscription!