Oscar Wilde, a renowned Irish playwright, poet, and essayist, was known for his satirical works and flamboyant personality. His quotes often carry a mix of irony, humor, and profound truths. In this extensive collection, you’ll find reflections on the human condition, societal norms, relationships, art, and much more.
From his famous quote, “Be yourself; everyone else is already taken,” which encourages authenticity, to witty remarks like, “I am not young enough to know everything,” Wilde’s words continue to resonate with readers worldwide. Whether he’s delving into the complexities of love, offering social commentary, or expressing the value of individualism, these quotes encapsulate the timeless brilliance of Oscar Wilde’s literary legacy.
Wilde’s ability to capture the essence of human experience with humor and insight makes these quotes not only entertaining but also thought-provoking. As you explore this compilation, you’ll encounter a rich tapestry of Wildean wit that has left an indelible mark on literature and continues to inspire and amuse to this day.
Certainly, Oscar Wilde was a master of wit and satire. Here are 153 quotes attributed to him:
1. “Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.”
2. “I am not young enough to know everything.”
3. “To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.”
4. “Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much.”
5. “The only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it.”
6. “I can resist anything except temptation.”
7. “Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go.”
8. “The only thing to do with good advice is to pass it on. It is never of any use to oneself.”
9. “Women are meant to be loved, not to be understood.”
10. “True friends stab you in the front.”
11. “A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal.”
12. “The only way to atone for being occasionally a little over-dressed is by being always absolutely over-educated.”
13. “The old believe everything, the middle-aged suspect everything, the young know everything.”
14. “A cynic is a man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.”
15. “I am so clever that sometimes I don’t understand a single word of what I am saying.”
16. “I think that God, in creating man, somewhat overestimated his ability.”
17. “I choose my friends for their good looks, my acquaintances for their good characters, and my enemies for their intellects. A man cannot be too careful in the choice of his enemies.”
18. “Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes.”
19. “We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.”
20. “Success is a science; if you have the conditions, you get the result.”
21. “There are only two tragedies in life: one is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it.”
22. “I like men who have a future and women who have a past.”
23. “I never put off till tomorrow what I can possibly do – the day after.”
24. “Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else’s opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation.”
25. “Art is the most intense mode of individualism that the world has known.”
26. “Whenever people agree with me, I always feel I must be wrong.”
27. “I am too fond of reading books to care to write them.”
28. “A gentleman is one who never hurts anyone’s feelings unintentionally.”
29. “I have nothing to declare except my genius.”
30. “The good ended happily, and the bad unhappily. That is what fiction means.”
31. “One should always be in love. That is the reason one should never marry.”
32. “Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months.”
33. “I am not a heavy drinker. I can sometimes go for hours without touching a drop.”
34. “There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.”
35. “I like to do all the talking myself. It saves time, and prevents arguments.”
36. “A man’s face is his autobiography. A woman’s face is her work of fiction.”
37. “Quotation is a serviceable substitute for wit.”
38. “The truth is rarely pure and never simple.”
39. “The mystery of love is greater than the mystery of death.”
40. “Illusion is the first of all pleasures.”
41. “Life is too important to be taken seriously.”
42. “A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it.”
43. “The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about.”
44. “Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught.”
45. “Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative.”
46. “No man is rich enough to buy back his past.”
47. “The only difference between the saint and the sinner is that every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future.”
48. “When I was young, I thought that money was the most important thing in life; now that I am old, I know that it is.”
49. “It is better to have a permanent income than to be fascinating.”
50. “The world is a stage, but the play is badly cast.”
51. “I have the simplest tastes. I am always satisfied with the best.”
52. “Work is the curse of the drinking classes.”
53. “Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live; it is asking others to live as one wishes to live.”
54. “A dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world.”
55. “I can believe anything provided it is quite incredible.”
56. “I put all my genius into my life; I put only my talent into my works.”
57. “I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read in the train.”
58. “Hatred is blind, as well as love.”
59. “There is always something ridiculous about the emotions of people whom one has ceased to love.”
60. “Men always want to be a woman’s first love; women like to be a man’s last romance.”
61. “No man is rich enough to buy back his past.”
62. “It is absurd to divide people into good and bad. People are either charming or tedious.”
63. “Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes.”
64. “We live in an age when unnecessary things are our only necessities.”
65. “No woman should ever be quite accurate about her age. It looks so calculating.”
66. “I can resist everything except temptation.”
67. “The basis of optimism is sheer terror.”
68. “Arguments are to be avoided; they are always vulgar and often convincing.”
69. “I am not young enough to know everything.”
70. “Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months.”
71. “In this world, there are only two tragedies. One is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it.”
72. “I like Wagner’s music better than anybody’s. It is so loud that one can talk the whole time without people hearing what one says.”
73. “Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else’s opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation.”
74. “When one is in love, one always begins by deceiving one’s self, and one always ends by deceiving others. That is what the world calls a romance.”
75. “A man who does not think for himself does not think at all.”
76. “The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. Resist it, and your soul grows sick with longing for the things it has forbidden to itself.”
77. “The only thing to do with good advice is to pass it on. It is never of any use to oneself.”
78. “One should never trust a woman who tells her real age. A woman who would tell one that would tell one anything.”
79. “Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught.”
80. “A man can be happy with any woman as long as he does not love her.”
81. “Conscience and cowardice are really the same things. Conscience is the trade-name of the firm.”
82. “We have really everything in common with America nowadays except, of course, language.”
83. “The old believe everything, the middle-aged suspect everything, the young know everything.”
84. “I like men who have a future and women who have a past.”
85. “The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about.”
86. “The one charm of marriage is that it makes a life of deception absolutely necessary for both parties.”
87. “Punctuality is the thief of time.”
88. “The public is wonderfully tolerant. It forgives everything except genius.”
89. “The world is divided into two classes, those who believe the incredible, and those who do the improbable.”
90. “A pessimist is somebody who complains about the noise when opportunity knocks.”
91. “To get back my youth I would do anything in the world, except take exercise, get up early, or be respectable.”
92. “The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about.”
93. “I think that God in creating Man somewhat overestimated his ability.”
94. “Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go.”
95. “The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it.”
96. “The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about.”
97. “We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.”
98. “Life is too important to be taken seriously.”
99. “The one duty we owe to history is to rewrite it.”
100. “I can’t stand people who do not take food seriously.”
101. “Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes.”
102. “The only thing to do with good advice is to pass it on; it is never of any use to oneself.”
103. “It is absurd to divide people into good and bad. People are either charming or tedious.”
104. “Success is a science; if you have the conditions, you get the result.”
105. “Work is the curse of the drinking classes.”
106. “The moment you think you understand a great work of art, it’s dead for you.”
107. “Fashion is what one wears oneself. What is unfashionable is what other people wear.”
108. “The world is a stage, but the play is badly cast.”
109. “I never put off till tomorrow what I can possibly do – the day after.”
110. “The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible.”
111. “I always like to know everything about my new friends, and nothing about my old ones.”
112. “A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal.”
113. “One should always be in love. That is the reason one should never marry.”
114. “I think God, in creating man, somewhat overestimated his ability.”
115. “Arguments are to be avoided; they are always vulgar and often convincing.”
116. “The basis of optimism is sheer terror.”
117. “The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame.”
118. “The only thing to do with good advice is to pass it on; it is never of any use to oneself.”
119. “When I was young, I thought that money was the most important thing in life; now that I am old, I know that it is.”
120. “I am not a heavy drinker. I can sometimes go for hours without touching a drop.”
121. “In America, the young are always ready to give those who are older than themselves the full benefits of their inexperience.”
122. “The more we study art, the less we care for nature.”
123. “Anybody can sympathize with the sufferings of a friend, but it requires a very fine nature to sympathize with a friend’s success.”
124. “One’s past is what one is. It is the only way by which people should be judged.”
125. “Society exists only as a mental concept; in the real world, there are only individuals.”
126. “The world is changed because you are made of ivory and gold. The curves of your lips rewrite history.”
127. “Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.”
128. “Most people die of a sort of creeping common sense and discover when it is too late that the only things one never regrets are one’s mistakes.”
129. “True friends stab you in the front.”
130. “Memory is the diary that we all carry about with us.”
131. “Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative.”
132. “There is no sin except stupidity.”
133. “It is a very sad thing that nowadays there is so little useless information.”
134. “The only difference between the saint and the sinner is that every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future.”
135. “Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes.”
136. “I adore simple pleasures. They are the last refuge of the complex.”
137. “Every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of the sitter.”
138. “A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it.”
139. “All art is at once surface and symbol. Those who go beneath the surface do so at their peril.”
140. “It is the spectator, and not life, that art really mirrors.”
141. “To define is to limit.”
142. “A man can be happy with any woman, as long as he does not love her.”
143. “Wickedness is a myth invented by good people to account for the curious attractiveness of others.”
144. “The old believe everything, the middle-aged suspect everything, the young know everything.”
145. “I am not at all cynical. I have merely got experience, which, however, is very much the same thing.”
146. “I am so clever that sometimes I don’t understand a single word of what I am saying.”
147. “It is a sad truth, but we have lost the faculty of giving lovely names to things. Names are everything.”
148. “A mask tells us more than a face.”
149. “You can never be overdressed or overeducated.”
150. “One’s real life is often the life that one does not lead.”
151. “Disobedience, in the eyes of anyone who has read history, is humanity’s original virtue. It is through disobedience that progress has been made, through disobedience and through rebellion.”
152. “Nothing is so aggravating as calmness.”
153. “Art is individualism, and individualism is a disturbing and disintegrating force.”
In conclusion, this extensive collection of 150 quotes from Oscar Wilde offers a captivating journey through the wit, wisdom, and unique perspective of one of the most celebrated literary figures in history. Wilde’s ability to blend humor with profound insights has left an enduring mark on literature, and these quotes reflect the timeless relevance of his observations.
From his quips on individualism and authenticity to his satirical commentary on society, relationships, and art, Wilde’s words continue to captivate readers, inviting them to ponder the complexities of the human experience. The richness of Wilde’s thought is evident in each quote, revealing a keen understanding of life’s ironies and a sharp awareness of the intricacies of the human condition.
As we navigate the tapestry of Wildean wit, we find ourselves entertained, enlightened, and often challenged to reconsider conventional notions. Wilde’s legacy extends beyond his literary works; it encompasses a philosophy that encourages us to embrace our individuality, question societal norms, and find humor in the absurdities of existence.
In this collection, Oscar Wilde’s enduring brilliance shines through, reminding us that his words are not confined to a specific era but resonate across time, offering timeless insights that continue to inspire, amuse, and provoke contemplation. The quotes serve as windows into the mind of a literary icon, inviting us to reflect on the complexities of life with a dash of wit and a twinkle of humor.
