Oscar Wilde

I am jealous of everything whose beauty does not die.

Philanthropic people lose all sense of humanity. It is their distinguishing characteristic.

Never trust a woman who wears mauve, whatever her age may be, or a woman over thirty-five who is fond of pink ribbons.

The only thing I cannot resist is temptation.

Ah! realize your youth while you have it. Don't squander the gold of your days, listening to the tedious, trying to improve the hopeless failure, or giving away your life to the ignorant, the common, and the vulgar. These are the sickly aims, the false ideals, of our age. Live! Live the wonderful life that is in you! Let nothing be lost upon you. Be always searching for new sensations. Be afraid of nothing.

Jack? . . . No, there is very little music in the name Jack, if any at all, indeed. It does not thrill. It produces absolutely no vibrations . . . I have known several Jacks, and they all, without exception, were more than usually plain. Besides, Jack is a notorious domesticity for John! And I pity any woman who is married to a man called John. She would probably never be allowed to know the entrancing pleasure of a single moment's solitude. The only really safe name is Ernest.

I never came across anyone in whom the moral sense was dominant who was not heartless, cruel, vindictive, log-stupid, and entirely lacking in the smallest sense of humanity. Moral people, as they are termed, are simple beasts.

The unread is always better than the unreadable.

I have pleasures, and passions, but the joy of life is gone. I am going under: the morgue yawns for me. I go and look at my zinc-bed there. After all, I had a wonderful life, which is, I fear, over.

Christ did not die to save people, but to teach people how to save each other. This is, I have no doubt, a grave heresy, but it is also a fact.

My writing has gone to bits - like my character. I am simply a self-conscious nerve in pain.

Tread Lightly, she is near Under the snow, Speak gently, she can hear The daisies grow.

I don't play accurately--any one can play accurately--but I play with wonderful expression. As far as the piano is concerned, sentiment is my forte. I keep science for Life.

A true gentleman is one who is never intentionally rude.

Whenever I'm in doubt, I ask myself, 'What would Jesus do?' And then I realize, Jesus got crucified, so maybe his decision-making isn't all that great.

To be popular I must be mediocre.

When I was young, I was no one. Now, I'm worldwilde.

No one wants to see a play called 'Lady Windermere's Fan'. It's going to be called 'Cocks in Frocks II' or I will find another publisher

A true artist takes no notice whatever of the public. The public to him are non-existent.

Nothing worth learning can ever be taught

To live in this world is a rare thing; most people just exist.

History is only gossip.

Believe me, no civilized man ever regrets a pleasure, and no uncivilized man ever knows what a pleasure is.

A man who moralizes is a hypocrite, and a woman who does so is invariably plain.

There is one thing infinitely more pathetic than to have lost the woman one is in love with, and that is to have won her and found out how shallow she is!

I drink to separate my body from my soul.

The weather is entrancing, but in my heart there is no sun.

I see that any materialism in life coarsens the soul, and that the hunger of the body and the appetites of the flesh desecrate always, and often destroy.

My desire to live is as intense as ever, and though my heart is broken, hearts are made to be broken: that is why God sends sorrow into the world.

They've promised that dreams can come true - but forgot to mention that nightmares are dreams, too.