Oscar Wilde 1854-1900 - Anglo-Irish playwright and poet
It is very vulgar to talk like a dentist when one isn’t a dentist. It produces a false impression.
The Importance of Being Earnest (1895) act 1
The truth is rarely pure, and never simple.
The Importance of Being Earnest (1895) act 1
In married life three is company and two none.
The Importance of Being Earnest (1895) act 1
To lose one parent, Mr Worthing, may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness.
The Importance of Being Earnest (1895) act 1
All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. No man does. That’s his.
The Importance of Being Earnest (1895) act 1 (the same words occur in dialogue form in A Woman of No Importance (1893) act 2)
I hope you have not been leading a double life, pretending to be wicked and being really good all the time. That would be hypocrisy.
mach zehnder modulatorCharity, dear Miss Prism, charity! None of us are perfect. I myself am peculiarly susceptible to draughts.
The Importance of Being Earnest (1895) act 2
CECILY: When I see a spade I call it a spade.
GWENDOLEN: I am glad to say that I have never seen a spade.
The Importance of Being Earnest (1895) act 3
Thirty-five is a very attractive age. London society is full of women of the very highest birth who have, of their own free choice, remained thirty-five for years.
The Importance of Being Earnest (1895) act 3
Every great man nowadays has his disciples, and it is always Judas who writes the biography.
Intentions (1891) -The Critic as Artist- pt. 1
The one duty we owe to history is to rewrite it.
Intentions (1891) -The Critic as Artist- pt. 1
All art is immoral.
Intentions (1891) -The Critic as Artist- pt. 2
A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal.
Intentions (1891) -The Critic as Artist- pt. 2
I can resist everything except temptation.
Lady Windermere’s Fan (1892) act 1
Many a woman has a past, but I am told that she has at least a dozen, and that they all fit.
Lady Windermere’s Fan (1892) act 1
CECIL GRAHAM: What is a cynic?
LORD DARLINGTON: A man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.
Lady Windermere’s Fan (1892) act 3
Experience is the name every one gives to their mistakes.
Lady Windermere’s Fan (1892) act 3
There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written.
The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891) preface
The moral life of man forms part of the subject matter of the
artist, but the morality of art consists in the perfect use of an imperfect medium.
There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.
The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891) ch. 1
A man cannot be too careful in the choice of his enemies.
The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891) ch. 1
It is better to be beautiful than to be good. But-it is better to be good than to be ugly.
The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891) ch. 17
As for the virtuous poor, one can pity them, of course, but one cannot possibly admire them.
Sebastian Melmoth (1891) -The Soul of Man under Socialism-
Democracy means simply the bludgeoning of the people by the people for the people.
Sebastian Melmoth (1891) -The Soul of Man under Socialism-
The English country gentleman galloping after a fox-the unspeakable in full pursuit of the uneatable.
A Woman of No Importance (1893) act 1
Children begin by loving their parents; after a time they judge them; rarely, if ever, do they forgive them.
A Woman of No Importance (1893) act 2
I have nothing to declare except my genius.
At the New York Custom House, in Frank Harris Oscar Wilde (1918) p. 7
Work is the curse of the drinking classes.
In H. Pearson Life of Oscar Wilde (1946) ch. 1
He [Bernard Shaw] hasn’t an enemy in the world, and none of his friends like him.
In Bernard Shaw Sixteen Self Sketches (1949) ch. 1
Ah, well, then, I suppose that I shall have to die beyond my means.
At the mention of a huge fee for a surgical operation, in R. H. Sherard Life of Oscar Wilde (1906) ch. 1