Oscar Wilde

There is no country in the world where machinery is so lovely as in America.

Women are a decorative sex. They never have anything to say, but they say it charmingly

Every thing to be true must become a religion.

The essence of thought, as the essence of life, is growth.

Clergymen and people who use phrases without wisdom sometimes talk of suffering as a mystery. It is really a revelation.

Taking sides is the beginning of sincerity, and earnestness follows shortly afterwards, and the human being becomes a bore.

The only things one never regrets are one's mistakes.

Good resolutions are useless attempts to interfere with scientific laws.

Perhaps one never seems so much at ones ease as when one has to play a part.

A great poet, a really great poet, is the most unpoetical of all creatures. But inferior poets are absolutely fascinating.

Every prison that men build Is built with bricks of shame, And bound with bars lest Christ should see How men their brothers maim.

Those who try to lead the people can only do so by following the mob. It is through the voice of one crying in the wilderness that the ways of the gods must be prepared.

Life under a good government is rarely dramatic; life under a bad government is always so.

When I went to America I had two secretaries, one for autographs, one for locks of hair. Within six months the one had died of writer's cramp, the other was completely bald.

We live in the age of the overworked and the undereducated.

Children have a natural antipathy to books- handicraft should be the basis of education. Boys and girls should be taught to use their hands to make something, and they would be less apt to destroy and be mischievous.

Action is limited and relative. Unlimited and absolute is the vision of him who sits at ease and watches, who walks in loneliness and dreams.

Artists reproduce themselves or each other, with wearisome iteration. But criticism is always moving on, and the critic is always developing.

A beggar hates his benefactor as much as he hates himself for begging.

Never buy a thing you don't want merely because it is dear.

They are the elect to whom beautiful things mean only Beauty.

What is beautiful is a joy for all seasons ...

If art is to have a special train, the critic must keep some seats reserved on it.

The morality of art consists in the perfect use of an imperfect medium.

The greatest of all sins is stupidity.

Lots of people act well, but few people talk well. This shows that talking is the more difficult of the two.

The old-fashioned respect for the young is fast dying out.

Yes, I am a thorough republican. No other form of government is so favorable to the growth of art.

What between the duties expected of one during one's lifetime, and the duties exacted from one after one's death, land has ceased to be either a profit or a pleasure. It gives one position, and prevents one from keeping it up. That's all that can be said about land.

Only mediocrities progress. An artist revolves in a cycle of masterpieces, the first of which is no less perfect than the last.