137 Best Oscar Wilde Quotes and Views (Be Yourself)
Discover the wit and wisdom of Oscar Wilde through a curated collection of his quotes that span love, life, and laughter.
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- Best Oscar Wilde Quotes (Be Yourself)
- Oscar Wilde’s Quotes on Life and Wisdom
- Oscar Wilde’s Timeless Quotes
- Oscar Wilde’s Views on Society: Quotes on Culture
Best Oscar Wilde Quotes (Be Yourself)
Be yourself; everyone else is already taken. Oscar Wilde
A man who does not think for himself, does not think at all. Oscar Wilde
Anybody can sympathize with the sufferings of a friend, but it requires a very fine nature to sympathize with a friend’s success. Oscar Wilde
Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else’s opinions, their lives a mimicry. Oscar Wilde
Man is a rational animal who always loses his patience when he is called upon to act in accordance with the dictates of reason. Oscar Wilde
Humanity takes itself too seriously. It is the world’s original sin. If the cave-man had known how to laugh, history would have been different. Oscar Wilde
How can a woman be expected to be happy with a man who insists on treating her as if she were a very normal human being. Oscar Wilde
Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes. Oscar Wilde
Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live. Oscar Wilde
Today we know the price of everything, but not their value. Oscar Wilde
The only thing to do with good advice is to pass it on. It is never of any use to oneself. Oscar Wilde
I really want to talk about nothing. It’s the only issue I know anything about. Oscar Wilde
I like people more than principles, and I like people without principles more than anything else in the world. Oscar Wilde
The nicest feeling in the world is to do a good deed anonymously-and have somebody find out. Oscar Wilde
If one cannot enjoy reading a book again and again, there is no point in reading it at all. Oscar Wilde
Men always want to be a woman’s first love – women want to be a man’s last romance. Oscar Wilde
There are many things that we would throw away if we were not afraid that others might pick them up. Oscar Wilde
Society often forgives the criminal; it never forgives the dreamer. Oscar Wilde
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. Oscar Wilde
The moment you think you understand a great work of art, it’s dead for you. Oscar Wilde
In this world there are only two tragedies. One is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it. Oscar Wilde
I can sympathize with everything except suffering. I cannot sympathize with that. It is too ugly, too horrible, too distressing. Oscar Wilde
There is something terribly morbid in the modern sympathy with pain. One should sympathize with the color, the beauty, the joy of life. The less said about life’s sores, the better. Oscar Wilde
Man can believe the impossible, but man can never believe the improbable. Oscar Wilde
A good friend will always stab you in the front. Oscar Wilde
Behind every exquisite thing that existed, there was something tragic. Oscar Wilde
Ambition is the germ from which all growth of nobleness proceeds. Oscar Wilde
I am so clever that sometimes I don’t understand a single word of what I am saying. Oscar Wilde
I can resist anything except temptation. Oscar Wilde
He who does not know how to learn, gives advice. Oscar Wilde
To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all. Oscar Wilde
The real life is very often the life that one does not live. Oscar Wilde
Experience is one thing you can’t get for nothing. Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde’s Quotes on Life and Wisdom
He has no enemies, but is intensely disliked by his friends. Oscar Wilde
All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. No man does. That’s his. Oscar Wilde
The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about. Oscar Wilde
They’ve promised that dreams can come true – but forgot to mention that nightmares are dreams, too. Oscar Wilde
An excellent man; he has no enemies; and none of his friends like him. Oscar Wilde
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. Oscar Wilde
It is absurd to divide people into good and bad. People are either charming or stale. Oscar Wilde
Ordinary riches can be stolen; real riches cannot. In your soul are infinitely precious things that cannot be taken from you. Oscar Wilde
When one is in love, one always begins by deceiving one’s self, and one always ends by deceiving others. That is what the world calls a romance. Oscar Wilde
A man’s face is his autobiography. A woman’s face is her work of art. Oscar Wilde
Questions are never indiscreet, answers sometimes are. Oscar Wilde
Keep love in your heart. A life without it is like a sunless garden when the flowers are dead. Oscar Wilde
Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much. Oscar Wilde
No great artist ever sees things as they really are. If he did, he would cease to be an artist. Oscar Wilde
One can survive everything, nowadays, except death, and live down everything except a good reputation. Oscar Wilde
The world is a stage, but the drama is badly played. Oscar Wilde
A cynic is a man who knows the price of everything, and the value of nothing. Oscar Wilde
Anyone who lives within their means suffers from a lack of imagination. Oscar Wilde
Moderation is something fatal. Nothing is more successful than excess. Oscar Wilde
True friends don’t stick the knife in the back, but in front. Oscar Wilde
Deceiving others. This is what the world calls a romance. Oscar Wilde
The first task in this life is to be as superficial as possible. What is the second task, no one has been able to find out yet. Oscar Wilde
Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months. Oscar Wilde
The well-bred contradict other people. The wise contradict themselves. Oscar Wilde
I can believe anything, provided that it is quite incredible. Oscar Wilde
A gentleman is one who never hurts anyone’s feelings unintentionally. Oscar Wilde
Women are made to be loved, not to be understood. Oscar Wilde
I think that when one has finished reading a book, one likes to find someone else who has read it, to whom one can say, ‘What did you think of it?’ Oscar Wilde
One’s real life is so often the life that one does not lead. Oscar Wilde
Women are not disarmed by compliments. Men always are. This is the difference between the sexes. Oscar Wilde
Society exists only as a mental concept; in the real world there are only individuals. Oscar Wilde
There is no sin except stupidity. Oscar Wilde
The critic has to educate the public; the artist has to educate the critic. Oscar Wilde
I never put off till tomorrow what I can possibly do the day after. Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde’s Timeless Quotes
After the first glass, you see things as you would like them to be. After the second glass, you see things as they are not. In the end, you see things as they really are, and that is the ugliest thing in the world. Oscar Wilde
We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars. 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
Only superficial people do not judge by appearance. Oscar Wilde
You can never be overdressed or over-educated. Oscar Wilde
Experience has no ethical value: it is simply the name people give to their mistakes. Oscar Wilde
The good ended happily, and the bad unhappily. That is what fiction means. Oscar Wilde
The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. Oscar Wilde
One of the many lessons that one learns in prison is, that things are what they are and will be what they will be. Oscar Wilde
Hate is blind, like love. Oscar Wilde
Charity creates a multitude of sins. Oscar Wilde
One should always play fairly when one has the winning cards. Oscar Wilde
Everything popular is wrong. Oscar Wilde
Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught. Oscar Wilde
It is better to have a permanent income than to be fascinating. Oscar Wilde
I have simple tastes. I am always satisfied with the best. Oscar Wilde
The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible. Oscar Wilde
No one is rich enough to buy his past. Oscar Wilde
Every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of the sitter. Oscar Wilde
I put all my genius into my life, I put only my talent into my works. Oscar Wilde
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. Oscar Wilde
Life imitates art far more than art imitates Life. Oscar Wilde
The elderly believe they know, the middle-aged doubt they know, the young think they know everything. Oscar Wilde
A bore is someone who deprives you of solitude without providing you with company. Oscar Wilde
I can stand brute force, but brute reason is quite unbearable. There is something unfair about its use. It is hitting below the intellect. Oscar Wilde
Whenever people agree with me, I always feel I must be wrong. Oscar Wilde
There is nothing more dangerous than being too modern. You risk going out of fashion at any moment. Oscar Wilde
Whenever a man does a thoroughly stupid thing, it is always from the noblest motives. Oscar Wilde
Success is a science; if you have the conditions, you get the result. Oscar Wilde
Life is never fair, and perhaps it is a good thing for most of us that it is not. Oscar Wilde
I have nothing to declare except my genius. Oscar Wilde
The pure and simple truth is rarely pure and never simple. Oscar Wilde
I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read in the train. Oscar Wilde
If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh, otherwise, they’ll kill you. Oscar Wilde
A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it. Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde’s Views on Society: Quotes on Culture
Arguments are extremely vulgar, for everyone in good society holds exactly the same opinion. Oscar Wilde
Most people die of a sort of creeping common sense, and discover when it is too late that the only things one never regrets are one’s mistakes. Oscar Wilde
I see when men love women. They give them only a little of their life.But women, when they love you, give you everything. Oscar Wilde
Nothing can cure the soul but the senses, just as nothing can cure the senses but the soul. Oscar Wilde
To gain popularity you have to be mediocre. Oscar Wilde
By giving us the opinions of the uneducated, journalism keeps us in touch with the ignorance of the community. Oscar Wilde
Never love anyone who treats you like you’re ordinary. Oscar Wilde
The difference between literature and journalism is that journalism is unreadable and literature is not read. Oscar Wilde
Pessimist: One who, when he has the choice of two evils, chooses both. Oscar Wilde
I choose my friends for their good looks, my acquaintances for their good characters, and my enemies for their good intellects. Oscar Wilde
Only by not paying the bills can we hope to live in the memory of the commercial classes. Oscar Wilde
Man is very little himself when he talks about himself. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth. Oscar Wilde
Ridicule is the tribute that the mediocre pay to the genius. Oscar Wilde
The public is extremely tolerant; forgive everything but genius. Oscar Wilde
Some cause happiness wherever they go, others whenever they go. Oscar Wilde
Memory… It is the diary that we all keep for ourselves. Oscar Wilde
Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative. Oscar Wilde
I am not young enough to know everything. Oscar Wilde
Art is the most intense mode of individualism that the world has known. Oscar Wilde
When I was young I thought that money was the most important thing in life; now that I am old I know that it is. Oscar Wilde
A poet can survive anything, but not a typo. Oscar Wilde
You can steal ordinary possessions; real riches can never be stolen. In your soul are infinitely precious things that no one can take away from you. Oscar Wilde
The best career advice you can give to young people is: Find out what you like to do the most and then find someone to pay you for it. Oscar Wilde
We live in an age when unnecessary things are our only necessities. Oscar Wilde
Every saint has a past and every sinner has a future. Oscar Wilde
Laughter is not at all a bad beginning for a friendship, and it is far the best ending for one. Oscar Wilde
Morality is simply the attitude we adopt towards people we personally dislike. Oscar Wilde
To expect the unexpected shows a thoroughly modern intellect. Oscar Wilde
It takes great deal of courage to see the world in all its tainted glory, and still to love it. Oscar Wilde
Life is far too important a thing ever to talk seriously about. Oscar Wilde
The advantage of emotions is that they lead us to loss. Oscar Wilde
A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal. Oscar Wilde
To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance. Oscar Wilde
What is a cynic? A man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing. Oscar Wilde
There is no necessity to separate the monarch from the mob; all authority is equally bad. Oscar Wilde
I don’t want to be at the mercy of my emotions. I want to use them, to enjoy them, and to dominate them. Oscar Wilde
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