Oscar Wilde quotes are witty and wise and can make you see life from a different perspective.
Oscar Wilde (16 October 1854 – 30 November 1900) was an Irish poet and playwright.
After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s in the early 1890s, he became one of the most popular playwrights in London.
Wilde’s most outstanding talent was for writing plays. His first successful play was Lady Windermere’s Fan.
He produced popular comedies, including A Woman of No Importance (1893), An Ideal Husband (1895), and The Importance of Being Earnest (1895). These plays firmly established Oscar as a playwright.
Oscar Wilde is best remembered for his plays and novel, ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray.’
Oscar Wilde Quotes
“Anybody can sympathize with the sufferings of a friend, but it requires a very fine nature to sympathise with a friend’s success.”
“Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else’s opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation.”
“Anyone who lives within their means suffers from a lack of imagination.”
“We live in an age when unnecessary things are our only necessities.”
“There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.”
“Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught.”
“It is absurd to divide people into good and bad. People are either charming or tedious.”
“Only dull people are brilliant at breakfast.”
“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.”
“Experience is merely the name men gave to their mistakes.” – Oscar Wilde
“A pessimist is somebody who complains about the noise when opportunity knocks.”
“There are many things that we would throw away if we were not afraid that others might pick them up.”
Oscar Wilde Quotes on Life and People
“They’ve promised that dreams can come true – but forgot to mention that nightmares are dreams, too.”
“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 a warmth and a richness to life that nothing else can bring.”
“The only difference between the saint and the sinner is that every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future.”
“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.”
“Morality is simply the attitude we adopt towards people we personally dislike.”
“There are only two kinds of people who are really fascinating: people who know absolutely everything, and people who know absolutely nothing.”
“The nicest feeling in the world is to do a good deed anonymously-and have somebody find out.”
“Always forgive your enemies – nothing annoys them so much.” – Oscar Wilde
“If one cannot enjoy reading a book over and over again, there is no use in reading it at all.”
Insightful Oscar Wilde Quotes
“What is a cynic? A man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.”
“A work of art is the unique result of a unique temperament.”
“Whenever people agree with me I always feel I must be wrong.”
“A bore is someone who deprives you of solitude without providing you with company.”
“The world has grown suspicious of anything that looks like a happily married life.”
“Men always want to be a woman’s first love – women like to be a man’s last romance.”
“No man is rich enough to buy back his past.” – Oscar Wilde
“Those who find ugly meanings in beautiful things are corrupt without being charming. This is a fault.”
“Conversation about the weather is the last refuge of the unimaginative.”
“It is better to have a permanent income than to be fascinating.”
“Nowadays people know the price of everything and the value of nothing.”
“To expect the unexpected shows a thoroughly modern intellect.”
“Technique is really personality. That is the reason why the artist cannot teach it, why the pupil cannot learn it, and why the aesthetic critic can understand it.”
“Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go.”
“One should always play fairly when one has the winning cards.”
“Ridicule is the tribute paid to the genius by the mediocrities.”
More Quotes of Oscar Wilde
“To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.”
“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.”
“Life is far too important a thing ever to talk seriously about.”
“I have nothing to declare except my genius.”
“Yes: I am a dreamer. For 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.”
“You will always be fond of me. I represent to you all the sins you never had the courage to commit.”
“Every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of the sitter.”
“The public is wonderfully tolerant. It forgives everything except genius.”
“I choose my friends for their good looks, my acquaintances for their good characters, and my enemies for their good intellects.”
“Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.”
“The truth is rarely pure and never simple.”
“There is a luxury in self-reproach. When we blame ourselves we feel no one else has a right to blame us.”
“Men marry because they are tired; women, because they are curious; both are disappointed.”
Witty Quotes by Oscar Wilde
“Art is the most intense mode of individualism that the world has known.”
“I always pass on good advice. It is the only thing to do with it. It is never of any use to oneself.”
“There are only two tragedies in life: one is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it.”
“Experience is one thing you can’t get for nothing.”
“I can’t stand people who do not take food seriously.”
“No great artist ever sees things as they really are. If he did, he would cease to be an artist.”
“No man is rich enough to buy back his past.”
“Success is a science; if you have the conditions, you get the result.”
“Life is far too important a thing ever to talk seriously about.”
“Selfishness is not living your life as you wish to live it. Selfishness is wanting others to live their lives as you wish them to.”
“By giving us the opinions of the uneducated, journalism keeps us in touch with the ignorance of the community.”
“After a good dinner one can forgive anybody, even one’s own relations.”
Final Words on Oscar Wilde Quotes
Oscar Wilde, the renowned Irish playwright, poet, and wit of the late 19th century, is celebrated for his timeless and incisive quotes that continue to captivate and inspire people across the globe.
Wilde’s wit was as sharp as his fashion sense, and his eloquent aphorisms often carried layers of humor, irony, and profound insight.
His quotes range from humorous quips like “I can resist anything except temptation” to more thought-provoking reflections such as “To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.”
Oscar Wilde’s enduring legacy lies in his ability to distill complex ideas into succinct and memorable phrases, making him a revered figure in the world of literature and a source of enduring wisdom for generations to come.
Oscar Wilde Quotes
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