Oscar Wilde Quotes About Identity, Death, Education

Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 1854 – 30 November 1900) was playwright and an Irish poet. He became London’s most popular playwrights in the early 1890s. He is best remembered for his epigrams and plays. Also known for his biting wit, flamboyant dress and glittering conversational skill, Wilde became one of the best-known personalities of his day. Enjoy these motivational Oscar Wilde Quotes to live by.

Best Oscar Wilde Quotes

“When a man has once loved a woman he will do anything for her except continue to love her.”
“I am the only person in the world I should like to know thoroughly.”
“The world is divided into two classes, those who believe the incredible, and those who do the improbable.”
“I have the simplest tastes. I am always satisfied with the best.”
“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.”
“You can never be overdressed or overeducated.”
“I don’t want to go to heaven. None of my friends are there.” ,Oscar Wilde Quotes About Friends
“Women are meant to be loved, not to be understood.”
“I have nothing to declare except my genius.”
“The only difference between the saint and the sinner is that every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future.”
“It is better to be beautiful than to be good. But… it is better to be good than to be ugly.”
“The heart was made to be broken.”
“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.”
“Everything in moderation, including moderation.”
“One of the many lessons that one learns in prison is, that things are what they are and will be what they will be.”
“If one cannot enjoy reading a book over and over again, there is no use in reading it at all.”
“All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. No man does. That’s his.”
“There are only two kinds of people who are really fascinating – people who know absolutely everything, and people who know absolutely nothing.”
“Success is a science; if you have the conditions, you get the result.”
“Whenever a man does a thoroughly stupid thing, it is always from the noblest motives.”
“Life is far too important a thing ever to talk seriously about.”
“With freedom, books, flowers, and the moon, who could not be happy?”
“Deceiving others. That is what the world calls a romance.”
“Quotation is a serviceable substitute for wit.”
“If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh, otherwise they’ll kill you.”
“He has no enemies, but is intensely disliked by his friends.”
“There is only one thing in life worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.”
“If there was less sympathy in the world, there would be less trouble in the world.”
“What is a cynic? A man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.”
“Only dull people are brilliant at breakfast.”
“Pessimist: One who, when he has the choice of two evils, chooses both.”
“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.”
“One should never trust a woman who tells one her real age. A woman who would tell one that would tell one anything.”
“The nicest feeling in the world is to do a good deed anonymously-and have somebody find out.”
“The only good thing to do with good advice is pass it on; it is never of any use to oneself.”
“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.”
“Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else’s opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation.”
“Nothing can cure the soul but the senses, just as nothing can cure the senses but the soul.”
“I am not young enough to know everything.”
“There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.”
“Men always want to be a woman’s first love – women like to be a man’s last romance.”
“A man’s face is his autobiography. A woman’s face is her work of fiction.”
“To define is to limit.”
“Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative.”
“I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read in the train.”
“A work of art is the unique result of a unique temperament.” ,Oscar Wilde Quotes Art
“Life is never fair, and perhaps it is a good thing for most of us that it is not.”

“Whenever people agree with me I always feel I must be wrong.”
“Anyone who lives within their means suffers from a lack of imagination.”
“Yes: I am a dreamer. For 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.”
“Everybody who is incapable of learning has taken to teaching.”
“The world has grown suspicious of anything that looks like a happily married life.”
“There is always something ridiculous about the emotions of people whom one has ceased to love.”
“Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes.”
“As long as a woman can look ten years younger than her own daughter, she is perfectly satisfied.”
“Between men and women there is no friendship possible. There is passion, enmity, worship, love, but no friendship.”
“Women are made to be loved, not understood.”
“Those who find ugly meanings in beautiful things are corrupt without being charming. This is a fault.”
“Questions are never indiscreet, answers sometimes are.”
“I put all my genius into my life; I put only my talent into my works.”
“You will always be fond of me. I represent to you all the sins you have never had the courage to commit.”
“When the gods wish to punish us they answer our prayers.”
“I can resist everything except temptation.”
“To expect the unexpected shows a thoroughly modern intellect.”
“Romance should never begin with sentiment. It should begin with science and end with a settlement.”
“True friends stab you in the front.”
“Memory… is the diary that we all carry about with us.”
“A gentleman is one who never hurts anyone’s feelings unintentionally.”
“There is a luxury in self-reproach. When we blame ourselves we feel no one else has a right to blame us.”
“Ordinary riches can be stolen; real riches cannot. In your soul are infinitely precious things that cannot be taken from you.”
“Who, being loved, is poor?”
“Morality is simply the attitude we adopt towards people whom we personally dislike.”
“A good friend will always stab you in the front.”
“Men marry because they are tired; women, because they are curious; both are disappointed.”
“One should always be in love. That is the reason one should never marry.”
“The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame.”
“Work is the curse of the drinking classes.”
“The man who can dominate a London dinner-table can dominate the world.”
“The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible.”
“I am so clever that sometimes I don’t understand a single word of what I am saying.”
“The one charm about marriage is that it makes a life of deception absolutely necessary for both parties.”

“One’s real life is so often the life that one does not lead.” ,Oscar Wilde Quotes On Life
“Art is the most intense mode of individualism that the world has known.”
“One should always play fairly when one has the winning cards.”
“The mystery of love is greater than the mystery of death.”
“It takes great deal of courage to see the world in all its tainted glory, and still to love it.”
“A poet can survive everything but a misprint.”

More Oscar Wilde Quotes
“Laughter is not at all a bad beginning for a friendship, and it is far the best ending for one.”
“It is better to have a permanent income than to be fascinating.”
“Nowadays people know the price of everything and the value of nothing.”
“Behind every exquisite thing that existed, there was something tragic.”
“We live in an age when unnecessary things are our only necessities.”
“Society often forgives the criminal; it never forgives the dreamer.”
“The advantage of the emotions is that they lead us astray.”
“Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go.” ,Oscar Wilde Quotes About Happiness

“A cynic is a man who knows the price of everything, and the value of nothing.”
“Man is a rational animal who always loses his temper when he is called upon to act in accordance with the dictates of reason.”
“Women love us for our defects. If we have enough of them, they will forgive us everything, even our gigantic intellects.”
“A man can’t be too careful in the choice of his enemies.”
“It is always the unreadable that occurs.”
“An excellent man; he has no enemies; and none of his friends like him.”
“Society exists only as a mental concept; in the real world there are only individuals.”
“Experience is one thing you can’t get for nothing.”
“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.”
“The old believe everything, the middle-aged suspect everything, the young know everything.”
“The only thing to do with good advice is to pass it on. It is never of any use to oneself.”
“The truth is rarely pure and never simple.”
“Always forgive your enemies – nothing annoys them so much.”
“There are only two tragedies in life: one is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it.”
“There is no sin except stupidity.”
“No woman should ever be quite accurate about her age. It looks so calculating.”
“The moment you think you understand a great work of art, it’s dead for you.”
“I have never given adoration to any body except myself.”
“A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it.”
“Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.”
“Experience is merely the name men gave to their mistakes.”
“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.”
“Everything in the world is about sex except sex. Sex is about power.”
“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.”
“The very essence of romance is uncertainty.”
“Anybody can sympathise with the sufferings of a friend, but it requires a very fine nature to sympathise with a friend’s success.”
“The world is a stage and the play is badly cast.”
“I am too fond of reading books to care to write them.”
“We are each our own devil, and we make this world our hell.”
“One can survive everything, nowadays, except death, and live down everything except a good reputation.” ,Oscar Wilde Quotes Death
“You don’t love someone for their looks, or their clothes, or for their fancy car, but because they sing a song only you can hear.”
“There is nothing so difficult to marry as a large nose.”
“No great artist ever sees things as they really are. If he did, he would cease to be an artist.”
“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 Quotes About Education
“It is absurd to divide people into good and bad. People are either charming or tedious.”
“A man can be happy with any woman, as long as he does not love her.”
“The public is wonderfully tolerant. It forgives everything except genius.”
“No good deed goes unpunished.”
“I don’t want to be at the mercy of my emotions. I want to use them, to enjoy them, and to dominate them.”
“Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live.”