Oscar Wilde

In this world there are two tragedies. One is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it. The last is much the worst.

To make men Socialists is nothing, but to make Socialism human is a great thing.

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

A pessimist is one who, when he has the choice of two evils, chooses both.

There is only one class in the community that thinks more about money than the rich, and that is the poor. The poor can think of nothing else.

When I was young I used to think that money was the most important thing in life; now that I am old, I know it is.

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

If a man needs an elaborate tombstone in order to remain in the memory of his country, it is clear that his living at all was an act of absolute superfluity.

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

I never approve, or disapprove, of anything now. It is an absurd attitude to take towards life. We are not sent into the world to air our moral prejudices. I never take any notice of what common people say, and I never interfere with what charming people do.

It is absurd to divide people into good and bad. People are either charming or tedious.

There is no such thing as morality or immorality in thought. There is immoral emotion.

The sign of a Philistine age is the cry of immorality against art.

The true perfection of man lies not in what man has, but in what man is.

Lord Illingworth: All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. Mrs. Allonby: No man does. That is his.

Nothing succeeds like success.

Morality is the attitude we adopt toward people whom we personally dislike.

Women love us for our defects. If we have enough of them, they will forgive us everything, even our gigantic intellects.

The condition of perfection is idleness: the aim of perfection is youth.

Between men and women there is no friendship possible. There is passion, enmity, worship, love, but no friendship.

A man can be happy with any woman, as long as he does not love her.

Literature always anticipates life. It does not copy it, but moulds it to its purpose. The nineteenth century, as we know it, is largely an invention of Balzac.

The way of paradoxes is the way of truth. To test Reality we must see it on the tight-rope. When the Verities become acrobats we can judge them.

Imagination is a quality given a man to compensate him for what he is not, and a sense of humor was provided to console him for what he is.

It is only the modern that ever becomes old-fashioned.

Who, being loved, is poor?

Cultivated leisure is the aim of man.

Every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of the sitter.

The only thing that one really knows about human nature is that it changes. Change is the one quality we can predicate of it. The systems that fail are those that rely on the permanency of human nature, and not on its growth and development. The error of Louis XIV was that he thought human nature would always be the same. The result of his error was the French Revolution. It was an admirable result.

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.