Oscar Wilde

One must have a heart of stone to read the death of little Nell without laughing.

The gods are strange. It is not our vices only they make instruments to scourge us. They bring us to ruin through what in us is good, gentle, humane, loving.

It would leave no room for developments and I intend to develop in many directions.

There are few of us who have not sometimes wakened before dawn, either after one of those dreamless nights that make one almost enamoured of death, or one of those nights of horror and misshapen joy, when through the chambers of the brain sweep phantoms more terrible than reality itself, and instinct with that vivid life that lurks in all grotesques, and that lends to Gothic art its enduring vitality, this art being, one might fancy, especially the art of those whose minds have been troubled with the malady of reverie.

To define is to limit.

Truth is independent of facts always.

Every great man nowadays has his disciples, and it is usually Judas who writes the biography.

Everything in moderation, including moderation.

Other people are quite dreadful. The only possible society is oneself.

The world was my oyster but I used the wrong fork.

A passion for pleasure is the secret of remaining young.

Hearts Live By Being Wounded

The basis of action is lack of imagination. It is the last resource of those who know not how to dream.

The fact is, the public make use of the classics of a country as a means of checking the progress of Art. They degrade the classics into authorities. They use them as bludgeons for preventing the free expression of Beauty in new forms.

I like men who have a future and women who have a past.

I know. In fact, I am never wrong.

The sky was pure opal now.

She behaves as if she was beautiful. Most American women do. It is the secret of their charm.

The world is changed because you are made of ivory and gold. The curves of your lips rewrite history.

Disobedience, in the eyes of any one who has read history, is [hu]man's original virtue. It is through disobedience that progress has been made, through disobedience and through rebellion.

Public Opinion... an attempt to organize the ignorance of the community, and to elevate it to the dignity of physical force.

Nothing is so dangerous as being too modern; one is apt to grow old fashioned quite suddenly.

Private information is practically the source of every large modern fortune.

In the old times men carried out their rights for themselves as they lived, but nowadays every baby seems born with a social manifesto in its mouth much bigger than itself.

The best revenge is to live well.

And let me touch those curving claws of yellow ivory; and grasp the tail that like a monstrous asp coils round your heavy velvet paws.

Everyone is born a king, and most people die in exile.

Some things are too important to be taken seriously.

I don't want to go to heaven. None of my friends are there.

If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh, otherwise they'll kill you.