Oscar Wilde

Seriousness is the only refuge of the shallow.

While we look to the dramatist to give romance to realism, we ask of the actor to give realism to romance.

The whole theory of modern education is radically unsound. Fortunately in England, at any rate, education produces no effect whatsoever. If it did, it would prove a serious danger to the upper classes, and probably lead to acts of violence.

No great artist ever sees things as they really are, if he did he would cease to be an artist.

Modern pictures are, no doubt, delightful to look at. At least, some of them are. But they are quite impossible to live with; they are too clever, too assertive, too intellectual. Their meaning is too obvious, and their method too clearly defined. One

In a very ugly and sensible age, the arts borrow, not from life, but from each other.

We can forgive a man for making a useful thing as long as he does not admire it. The only excuse for making a useless thing is that one admires it intensely.

Talk to a woman as if you loved her, and to a man as if he bored you.

Nothing spoils a romance so much as a sense of humor in the woman.

The only thing that ever consoles man for the stupid things he does is the praise he always gives himself for doing them.

Punctuality is the thief of time. Wilde I never travel without my diary. One should always have Something sensational to read in the train.

The sick do not ask if the hand that smoothes their pillow is pure, nor the dying care if the lips that touch their brow have known the kiss of sin.

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

He was always late on principle, his principle being that punctuality is the thief of time.

Thinking is the most unhealthy thing in the world, and people die of it just as they die of any other disease. Fortunately, in England at any rate, thought is not catching. Our splendid physique as a people is entirely due to our national stupidity.

To have the reputation of possessing the most perfect social tact, talk to every woman as if you loved her, and to every man as if he bored you.

Where there is sorrow there is holy ground.

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

I can sympathize with everything, except suffering.

Man is a rational animal who always loses his temper when called upon to act according with the dictates of reason.

The greatest of all sins is stupidity.

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

Religions die when they are proved to be true. Science is the record of dead religions.

One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed, but by the punishments that the good have inflicted; and a community is infinitely more brutalized by the habitual employment of punishment than it is by the occasional occurrence of crime.

A sentimentalist is simply one who desires to have the luxury of an emotion without paying for it.

He must have a truly romantic nature, for he weeps when there is nothing at all to weep about.

Anybody can be good in the country. There are no temptations there.

Do you really think, Arthur, that it is weakness that yields to temptation? I tell you that there are terrible temptations that it requires strength, strength and courage, to yield to.

The State is to make what is useful. The individual is to make what is beautiful.

Life is too important to be taken seriously.