Oscar Wilde’s wit and wisdom has been inspiring readers for centuries. His quotes transcend time and continue to capture the minds and hearts of people around the world.
Most inspirational Oscar Wilde quotes will provide the deeper insights on life, happiness, success, and love. Get ready to be inspired with timeless mantras of motivation you can use to live your best life.
Best Oscar Wilde Quotes
Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go. Oscar Wilde
Be yourself; everyone else is already taken. Oscar Wilde
Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes. Oscar Wilde
To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all. Oscar Wilde
Patriotism is the virtue of the vicious. Oscar Wilde
Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much. Oscar Wilde
Between men and women there is no friendship possible. There is passion, enmity, worship, love, but no friendship. Oscar Wilde
I am so clever that sometimes I don’t understand a single word of what I am saying. Oscar Wilde
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. Oscar Wilde
We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars. Oscar Wilde
To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance. Oscar Wilde
If one cannot enjoy reading a book over and over again, there is no use in reading it at all. Oscar Wilde
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. Oscar Wilde
It is what you read when you don’t have to that determines what you will be when you can’t help it. Oscar Wilde
When the gods wish to punish us they answer our prayers. Oscar Wilde
The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame. Oscar Wilde
Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught. Oscar Wilde
Never love anyone who treats you like you’re ordinary. Oscar Wilde
Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else’s opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation. Oscar Wilde
Keep love in your heart. A life without it is like a sunless garden when the flowers are dead. Oscar Wilde
You will always be fond of me. I represent to you all the sins you never had the courage to commit. Oscar Wilde
Men always want to be a woman’s first love women like to be a man’s last romance. Oscar Wilde
A good friend will always stab you in the front. Oscar Wilde
All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. No man does. That’s his. Oscar Wilde
Women are meant to be loved, not to be understood. Oscar Wilde
True friends stab you in the front. Oscar Wilde
I don’t want to go to heaven. None of my friends are there. Oscar Wilde
Ambition is the last refuge of the failure. Oscar Wilde
Anyone who lives within their means suffers from a lack of imagination. Oscar Wilde
Work is the curse of the drinking classes. Oscar Wilde
Every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future. Oscar Wilde
America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between. Oscar Wilde
I am not young enough to know everything. Oscar Wilde
By giving us the opinions of the uneducated, journalism keeps us in touch with the ignorance of the community. Oscar Wilde
Everything popular is wrong. Oscar Wilde
A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it. Oscar Wilde
The very essence of romance is uncertainty. Oscar Wilde
Beauty is the only thing that time cannot harm. Philosophies fall away like sand, creeds follow one another, but what is beautiful is a joy for all seasons, a possession for all eternity. Oscar Wilde
Those who find ugly meanings in beautiful things are corrupt without being charming. This is a fault. Those who find beautiful meanings in beautiful things are the cultivated. For these there is hope. They are the elect to whom beautiful things mean only Beauty. There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written. That is all. Oscar Wilde
No man is rich enough to buy back his past. Oscar Wilde
Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth. Oscar Wilde
The world is a stage, but the play is badly cast. Oscar Wilde
I think God, in creating man, somewhat overestimated his ability. Oscar Wilde
He has no enemies, but is intensely disliked by his friends. Oscar Wilde
I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read in the train. Oscar Wilde
A man who does not think for himself does not think at all. Oscar Wilde
With freedom, flowers, books, and the moon, who could not be perfectly happy? Oscar Wilde
A gentleman is one who never hurts anyone’s feelings unintentionally. Oscar Wilde
Death must be so beautiful. To lie in the soft brown earth, with the grasses waving above one’s head, and listen to silence. To have no yesterday, and no tomorrow. To forget time, to forgive life, to be at peace. Oscar Wilde
What is a cynic? A man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing. Oscar Wilde
A man can be happy with any woman, as long as he does not love her. Oscar Wilde
Nowadays people know the price of everything and the value of nothing. Oscar Wilde
Morality is simply the attitude we adopt towards people whom we personally dislike. Oscar Wilde
I don’t want to be at the mercy of my emotions. I want to use them, to enjoy them, and to dominate them. Oscar Wilde
It is through art, and through art only, that we can realize our perfection. Oscar Wilde
An excellent man; he has no enemies; and none of his friends like him. Oscar Wilde
I can resist anything except temptation. Oscar Wilde
There is only one thing in life worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about. Oscar Wilde
There are only two tragedies in life one is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it. Oscar Wilde
Behind every exquisite thing that existed, there was something tragic. Oscar Wilde
If you are not too long, I will wait here for you all my life. Oscar Wilde
I am too fond of reading books to care to write them. Oscar Wilde
I have the simplest tastes. I am always satisfied with the best. Oscar Wilde
It is absurd to divide people into good and bad. People are either charming or tedious. Oscar Wilde
The only difference between the saint and the sinner is that every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future. Oscar Wilde
Children begin by loving their parents; as they grow older they judge them; sometimes they forgive them. Oscar Wilde
Life is never fair, and perhaps it is a good thing for most of us that it is not. Oscar Wilde
Crying is for plain women. Pretty women go shopping. Oscar Wilde
Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative. Oscar Wilde
Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live. Oscar Wilde
Success is a science; if you have the conditions, you get the result. Oscar Wilde
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. Oscar Wilde
Memory is the diary that we all carry about with us. Oscar Wilde
We are each our own devil, and we make this world our hell. Oscar Wilde
To lose one parent may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness. Oscar Wilde
Never marry at all, Dorian. Men marry because they are tired, women, because they are curious both are disappointed. Oscar Wilde
Life imitates art far more than art imitates Life. Oscar Wilde
Anybody can sympathize with the sufferings of a friend, but it requires a very fine nature to sympathize with a friend’s success. Oscar Wilde
The only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it. I can resist everything but temptation. Oscar Wilde
A man’s face is his autobiography. A woman’s face is her work of fiction. Oscar Wilde
Art is the most intense mode of individualism that the world has known. Oscar Wilde
Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months. Oscar Wilde
Whenever people agree with me I always feel I must be wrong. Oscar Wilde
After a good dinner one can forgive anybody, even one’s own relations. Oscar Wilde
The old believe everything, the middle aged suspect everything, the young know everything. Oscar Wilde
The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible. Oscar Wilde
Life is far too important a thing ever to talk seriously about. Oscar Wilde
Some things are more precious because they don’t last long. Oscar Wilde
To expect the unexpected shows a thoroughly modern intellect. Oscar Wilde
Society exists only as a mental concept; in the real world there are only individuals. Oscar Wilde
Art is the only serious thing in the world. And the artist is the only person who is never serious. Oscar Wilde
One should always be in love. That is the reason one should never marry. Oscar Wilde
I choose my friends for their good looks, my acquaintances for their good characters, and my enemies for their good intellects. Oscar Wilde
Live! Live the wonderful life that is in you! Let nothing be lost upon you. Be always searching for new sensations. Be afraid of nothing. Oscar Wilde
I always pass on good advice. It is the only thing to do with it. It is never of any use to oneself. Oscar Wilde
Humanity takes itself too seriously. It is the world’s original sin. If the cave man had known how to laugh, History would have been different. Oscar Wilde
To get back my youth I would do anything in the world, except take exercise, get up early, or be respectable. Oscar Wilde
Conversation about the weather is the last refuge of the unimaginative. Oscar Wilde
A bore is someone who deprives you of solitude without providing you with company. Oscar Wilde
It is better to be beautiful than to be good. But it is better to be good than to be ugly. Oscar Wilde
Nowadays 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. Oscar Wilde
Nothing can cure the soul but the senses, just as nothing can cure the senses but the soul. Oscar Wilde
There are only two kinds of people who are really fascinating people who know absolutely everything, and people who know absolutely nothing. Oscar Wilde
One of the many lessons that one learns in prison is, that things are what they are and will be what they will be. Oscar Wilde
Words! Mere words! How terrible they were! How clear, and vivid, and cruel! One could not escape from them. And yet what a subtle magic there was in them! They seemed to be able to give a plastic form to formless things, and to have a music of their own as sweet as that of viol or of lute. Mere words! Was there anything so real as words? Oscar Wilde
Moderation is a fatal thing. Nothing succeeds like excess. Oscar Wilde
Every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of the sitter. Oscar Wilde
The world is changed because you are made of ivory and gold. The curves of your lips rewrite history. Oscar Wilde
The critic has to educate the public; the artist has to educate the critic. Oscar Wilde
How can a woman be expected to be happy with a man who insists on treating her as if she were a perfectly normal human being. Oscar Wilde
Sometimes the poor are praised for being thrifty. But to recommend thrift to the poor is both grotesque and insulting. It is like advising a man who is starving to eat less. Oscar Wilde
There are moments when one has to choose between living one’s own life, fully, entirely, completely or dragging out some false, shallow, degrading existence that the world in its hypocrisy demands. Oscar Wilde
Fathers should be neither seen nor heard. That is the only proper basis for family life. Oscar Wilde
The public have an insatiable curiosity to know everything, except what is worth knowing. Oscar Wilde
An idea that is not dangerous is unworthy of being called an idea at all. Oscar Wilde
The truth is rarely pure and never simple. Oscar Wilde
I may not agree with you, but I will defend to the death your right to make an ass of yourself. Oscar Wilde
Democracy means simply the bludgeoning of the people by the people for the people. Oscar Wilde
Laughter is not at all a bad beginning for a friendship, and it is by far the best ending for one. Oscar Wilde
It is better to have a permanent income than to be fascinating. Oscar Wilde
There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written. That is all. Oscar Wilde
A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal. Oscar Wilde
Paradoxically though it may seem, it is none the less true that life imitates art far more than art imitates life. Oscar Wilde
Everybody who is incapable of learning has taken to teaching. Oscar Wilde
Indeed I have always been of the opinion that hard work is simply the refuge of people who have nothing to do. Oscar Wilde
I sometimes think that God in creating man somewhat overestimated his ability. Oscar Wilde
I have grown to love secrecy. It seems to be the one thing that can make modern life mysterious or marvelous to us. The commonest thing is delightful if only one hides it. Oscar Wilde
This suspense is terrible. I hope it will last. Oscar Wilde
The nicest feeling in the world is to do a good deed anonymously-and have somebody find out. Oscar Wilde
One should never trust a woman who tells one her real age. A woman who would tell one that would tell one anything. Oscar Wilde
Women have a much better time than men in this world; there are far more things forbidden to them. Oscar Wilde
Ordinary riches can be stolen; real riches cannot. In your soul are infinitely precious things that cannot be taken from you. Oscar Wilde
It takes great deal of courage to see the world in all its tainted glory, and still to love it. Oscar Wilde
It is a very sad thing that nowadays there is so little useless information. Oscar Wilde
They’ve promised that dreams can come true but forgot to mention that nightmares are dreams, too. Oscar Wilde
No great artist ever sees things as they really are. If he did, he would cease to be an artist. Oscar Wilde
You must have a cigarette. A cigarette is the perfect type of a perfect pleasure. It is exquisite, and it leaves one unsatisfied. What more can one want? Oscar Wilde
A man can’t be too careful in the choice of his enemies. Oscar Wilde
There are many things that we would throw away if we were not afraid that others might pick them up. Oscar Wilde
Those whom the gods love grow young. Oscar Wilde
Yes, death. Death must be so beautiful. To lie in the soft brown earth, with the grasses waving above one’s head, and listen to silence. To have no yesterday, and no tomorrow. To forget time, to forget life, to be at peace. You can help me. You can open for me the portals of death’s house, for love is always with you, and love is stronger than death is. Oscar Wilde
Nothing is so aggravating than calmness. Oscar Wilde
Biography lends to death a new terror. Oscar Wilde
She is all the great heroines of the world in one. She is more than an individual. I love her, and I must make her love me. I want to make Romeo jealous. I want the dead lovers of the world to hear our laughter and grow sad. I want a breath of our passion to stir dust into consciousness, to wake their ashes into pain. Oscar Wilde