Oscar Wilde finished his education at Trinity College in Dublin and Magdalen College in Oxford. After he graduated, he moved to London to pursue a literary career. Being an Irish poet and playwright, Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde became one of London's most famous and successful playwrights after he wrote in different forms throughout the 1880s. May these Oscar Wilde quotes help you acquire knowledge and motivation that can be useful in your everyday life.
1. “No man is rich enough to buy back his past.” – Oscar Wilde
2. “Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.” – Oscar Wilde
3. “Whenever a man does a thoroughly stupid thing, it is always from the noblest motives.” – Oscar Wilde
4. “Nothing can cure the soul but the senses, just as nothing can cure the senses but the soul.” – Oscar Wilde
5. “The old believe everything, the middle-aged suspect everything, the young know everything.” – Oscar Wilde
6. “The public is wonderfully tolerant. It forgives everything except genius.” – Oscar Wilde
7. “Man can believe the impossible, but man can never believe the improbable.” – Oscar Wilde
8. “There is no necessity to separate the monarch from the mob; all authority is equally bad.” – Oscar Wilde
9. “The moment you think you understand a great work of art, it's dead for you.” – Oscar Wilde
-min.jpg "Famous quotes and sayings by Oscar Wilde")
10. “The well bred contradict other people. The wise contradict themselves.” – Oscar Wilde
11. “A man who does not think for himself does not think at all.” – Oscar Wilde
12. “Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes.” – Oscar Wilde
13. “No great artist ever sees things as they really are. If he did, he would cease to be an artist.” – Oscar Wilde
14. “One's real life is so often the life that one does not lead.” – Oscar Wilde
-min.jpg "Famous quotes and sayings by Oscar Wilde")
15. “It is better to be beautiful than to be good. But it is better to be good than to be ugly.” – Oscar Wilde
16. “To expect the unexpected shows a thoroughly modern intellect.” – Oscar Wilde
17. “Experience is one thing you can't get for nothing.” – Oscar Wilde
18. “It is better to have a permanent income than to be fascinating.” – Oscar Wilde
19. “Whenever people agree with me I always feel I must be wrong.” – Oscar Wilde
-min.jpg "Famous quotes and sayings by Oscar Wilde")
20. “A man's face is his autobiography. A woman's face is her work of fiction.” – Oscar Wilde
21. “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.” – Oscar Wilde
22. “We live in an age when unnecessary things are our only necessities.” – Oscar Wilde
23. “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
24. “A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal.” – Oscar Wilde
-min.jpg "Famous quotes and sayings by Oscar Wilde")
25. “When the gods wish to punish us, they answer our prayers.” – Oscar Wilde
26. “Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go.” – Oscar Wilde
27. “What is a cynic? A man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.” – Oscar Wilde
28. “The critic has to educate the public; the artist has to educate the critic.” – Oscar Wilde
29. “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
-min.jpg "Famous quotes and sayings by Oscar Wilde")
30. “If you pretend to be good, the world takes you very seriously. If you pretend to be bad, it doesn’t. Such is the astounding stupidity of optimism.” – Oscar Wilde
More Quotes by Oscar Wilde
31. “If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh, otherwise, they’ll kill you.” – Oscar Wilde
32. “Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much.” – Oscar Wilde
33. “To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.” – Oscar Wilde
34. “If one cannot enjoy reading a book over and over again, there is no use in reading it at all.” – Oscar Wilde
35. “The pure and simple truth is rarely pure and never simple.” – Oscar Wilde
36. “The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame.” – Oscar Wilde
37. “You can never be overdressed or over-educated.” – Oscar Wilde
38. “I don't want to go to heaven. None of my friends are there.” – Oscar Wilde
39. “I am so clever that sometimes I don't understand a single word of what I am saying.” – Oscar Wilde
40. “A good friend will always stab you in the front.” – Oscar Wilde
41. “Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation.” – Oscar Wilde
42. “Anyone who lives within their means suffers from a lack of imagination.” – Oscar Wilde
43. “Every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future.” – Oscar Wilde
44. “I think God, in creating man, somewhat overestimated his ability.” – Oscar Wilde
45. “Experience is merely the name men gave to their mistakes.” – Oscar Wilde
46. “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
47. “Never love anyone who treats you like you're ordinary.” – Oscar Wilde
48. “I can resist anything except temptation.” – Oscar Wilde
49. “Laughter is not at all a bad beginning for a friendship, and it is far the best ending for one.” – Oscar Wilde
50. “When a man has once loved a woman he will do anything for her except continue to love her.” – Oscar Wilde
51. “One can survive everything, nowadays, except death, and live down everything except a good reputation.” – Oscar Wilde
52. “Our ambition should be to rule ourselves, the true kingdom for each one of us; and true progress is to know more, and be more, and to do more.” – Oscar Wilde
53. “Society exists only as a mental concept; in the real world there are only individuals.” – Oscar Wilde
54. “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
55. “Life imitates art far more than art imitates Life.” – Oscar Wilde
56. “Man is a rational animal who always loses his temper when he is called upon to act in accordance with the dictates of reason.” – Oscar Wilde
57. “No woman should ever be quite accurate about her age. It looks so calculating.” – Oscar Wilde
58. “Women love us for our defects. If we have enough of them, they will forgive us everything, even our gigantic intellects.” – Oscar Wilde
59. “It is absurd to divide people into good and bad. People are either charming or tedious.” – Oscar Wilde
60. “Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live.” – Oscar Wilde
61. “I have the simplest tastes. I am always satisfied with the best.” – Oscar Wilde
62. “An excellent man; he has no enemies; and none of his friends like him.” – Oscar Wilde
63. “Life is far too important a thing ever to talk seriously about.” – Oscar Wilde
64. “The nicest feeling in the world is to do a good deed anonymously-and have somebody find out.” – Oscar Wilde
65. “A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it.” – Oscar Wilde
66. “The only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it.” – Oscar Wilde
67. “Morality is simply the attitude we adopt towards people we personally dislike.” – Oscar Wilde
68. “It takes great deal of courage to see the world in all its tainted glory, and still to love it.” – Oscar Wilde
69. “To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance.” – Oscar Wilde
70. “A bore is someone who deprives you of solitude without providing you with company.” – Oscar Wilde
71. “They've promised that dreams can come true - but forgot to mention that nightmares are dreams, too.” – Oscar Wilde
72. “Behind every exquisite thing that existed, there was something tragic.” – Oscar Wilde
73. “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
74. “Society often forgives the criminal; it never forgives the dreamer.” – Oscar Wilde
75. “In this world there are only two tragedies. One is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it.” – Oscar Wilde
76. “The public is wonderfully tolerant. It forgives everything except genius.” – Oscar Wilde
77. “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
78. “Life is never fair, and perhaps it is a good thing for most of us that it is not.” – Oscar Wilde
79. “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
80. “Every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of the sitter.” – Oscar Wilde
81. “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
82. “Hatred is blind, as well as love.” – Oscar Wilde
83. “The only difference between the saint and the sinner is that every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future.” – Oscar Wilde
84. “The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible.” – Oscar Wilde
85. “The good ended happily, and the bad unhappily. That is what fiction means.” – Oscar Wilde
86. “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
87. “Questions are never indiscreet, answers sometimes are.” – Oscar Wilde
88. “There are many things that we would throw away if we were not afraid that others might pick them up.” – Oscar Wilde
89. “Keep love in your heart. A life without it is like a sunless garden when the flowers are dead.” – Oscar Wilde
90. “One should always play fairly when one has the winning cards.” – Oscar Wilde
91. “Arguments are extremely vulgar, for everyone in good society holds exactly the same opinion.” – Oscar Wilde
92. “Success is a science; if you have the conditions, you get the result.” – Oscar Wilde
93. “There are only two kinds of people who are really fascinating - people who know absolutely everything, and people who know absolutely nothing.” – Oscar Wilde
94. “Ambition is the germ from which all growth of nobleness proceeds.” – Oscar Wilde
95. “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
96. “There is no sin except stupidity.” – Oscar Wilde
97. “Ordinary riches can be stolen; real riches cannot. In your soul are infinitely precious things that cannot be taken from you.” – Oscar Wilde
98. “He has no enemies, but is intensely disliked by his friends.” – Oscar Wilde
99. “I can stand brute force, but brute reason is quite unbearable. There is something unfair about its use. It is hitting below the intellect.” – Oscar Wilde
100. “Those who find ugly meanings in beautiful things are corrupt without being charming. This is a fault.” – Oscar Wilde
Share these Oscar Wilde Quotes about Life and Love with your friends, family, and loved ones to inspire them as well.
2. “Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.” – Oscar Wilde
3. “Whenever a man does a thoroughly stupid thing, it is always from the noblest motives.” – Oscar Wilde
4. “Nothing can cure the soul but the senses, just as nothing can cure the senses but the soul.” – Oscar Wilde
5. “The old believe everything, the middle-aged suspect everything, the young know everything.” – Oscar Wilde
6. “The public is wonderfully tolerant. It forgives everything except genius.” – Oscar Wilde
7. “Man can believe the impossible, but man can never believe the improbable.” – Oscar Wilde
8. “There is no necessity to separate the monarch from the mob; all authority is equally bad.” – Oscar Wilde
9. “The moment you think you understand a great work of art, it's dead for you.” – Oscar Wilde
11. “A man who does not think for himself does not think at all.” – Oscar Wilde
12. “Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes.” – Oscar Wilde
13. “No great artist ever sees things as they really are. If he did, he would cease to be an artist.” – Oscar Wilde
14. “One's real life is so often the life that one does not lead.” – Oscar Wilde
16. “To expect the unexpected shows a thoroughly modern intellect.” – Oscar Wilde
17. “Experience is one thing you can't get for nothing.” – Oscar Wilde
18. “It is better to have a permanent income than to be fascinating.” – Oscar Wilde
19. “Whenever people agree with me I always feel I must be wrong.” – Oscar Wilde
21. “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.” – Oscar Wilde
22. “We live in an age when unnecessary things are our only necessities.” – Oscar Wilde
23. “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
24. “A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal.” – Oscar Wilde
26. “Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go.” – Oscar Wilde
27. “What is a cynic? A man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.” – Oscar Wilde
28. “The critic has to educate the public; the artist has to educate the critic.” – Oscar Wilde
29. “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
More Quotes by Oscar Wilde
31. “If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh, otherwise, they’ll kill you.” – Oscar Wilde
32. “Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much.” – Oscar Wilde
33. “To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.” – Oscar Wilde
34. “If one cannot enjoy reading a book over and over again, there is no use in reading it at all.” – Oscar Wilde
35. “The pure and simple truth is rarely pure and never simple.” – Oscar Wilde
36. “The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame.” – Oscar Wilde
37. “You can never be overdressed or over-educated.” – Oscar Wilde
38. “I don't want to go to heaven. None of my friends are there.” – Oscar Wilde
39. “I am so clever that sometimes I don't understand a single word of what I am saying.” – Oscar Wilde
40. “A good friend will always stab you in the front.” – Oscar Wilde
41. “Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation.” – Oscar Wilde
42. “Anyone who lives within their means suffers from a lack of imagination.” – Oscar Wilde
43. “Every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future.” – Oscar Wilde
44. “I think God, in creating man, somewhat overestimated his ability.” – Oscar Wilde
45. “Experience is merely the name men gave to their mistakes.” – Oscar Wilde
46. “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
47. “Never love anyone who treats you like you're ordinary.” – Oscar Wilde
48. “I can resist anything except temptation.” – Oscar Wilde
49. “Laughter is not at all a bad beginning for a friendship, and it is far the best ending for one.” – Oscar Wilde
50. “When a man has once loved a woman he will do anything for her except continue to love her.” – Oscar Wilde
51. “One can survive everything, nowadays, except death, and live down everything except a good reputation.” – Oscar Wilde
52. “Our ambition should be to rule ourselves, the true kingdom for each one of us; and true progress is to know more, and be more, and to do more.” – Oscar Wilde
53. “Society exists only as a mental concept; in the real world there are only individuals.” – Oscar Wilde
54. “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
55. “Life imitates art far more than art imitates Life.” – Oscar Wilde
56. “Man is a rational animal who always loses his temper when he is called upon to act in accordance with the dictates of reason.” – Oscar Wilde
57. “No woman should ever be quite accurate about her age. It looks so calculating.” – Oscar Wilde
58. “Women love us for our defects. If we have enough of them, they will forgive us everything, even our gigantic intellects.” – Oscar Wilde
59. “It is absurd to divide people into good and bad. People are either charming or tedious.” – Oscar Wilde
60. “Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live.” – Oscar Wilde
61. “I have the simplest tastes. I am always satisfied with the best.” – Oscar Wilde
62. “An excellent man; he has no enemies; and none of his friends like him.” – Oscar Wilde
63. “Life is far too important a thing ever to talk seriously about.” – Oscar Wilde
64. “The nicest feeling in the world is to do a good deed anonymously-and have somebody find out.” – Oscar Wilde
65. “A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it.” – Oscar Wilde
66. “The only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it.” – Oscar Wilde
67. “Morality is simply the attitude we adopt towards people we personally dislike.” – Oscar Wilde
68. “It takes great deal of courage to see the world in all its tainted glory, and still to love it.” – Oscar Wilde
69. “To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance.” – Oscar Wilde
70. “A bore is someone who deprives you of solitude without providing you with company.” – Oscar Wilde
71. “They've promised that dreams can come true - but forgot to mention that nightmares are dreams, too.” – Oscar Wilde
72. “Behind every exquisite thing that existed, there was something tragic.” – Oscar Wilde
73. “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
74. “Society often forgives the criminal; it never forgives the dreamer.” – Oscar Wilde
75. “In this world there are only two tragedies. One is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it.” – Oscar Wilde
76. “The public is wonderfully tolerant. It forgives everything except genius.” – Oscar Wilde
77. “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
78. “Life is never fair, and perhaps it is a good thing for most of us that it is not.” – Oscar Wilde
79. “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
80. “Every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of the sitter.” – Oscar Wilde
81. “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
82. “Hatred is blind, as well as love.” – Oscar Wilde
83. “The only difference between the saint and the sinner is that every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future.” – Oscar Wilde
84. “The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible.” – Oscar Wilde
85. “The good ended happily, and the bad unhappily. That is what fiction means.” – Oscar Wilde
86. “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
87. “Questions are never indiscreet, answers sometimes are.” – Oscar Wilde
88. “There are many things that we would throw away if we were not afraid that others might pick them up.” – Oscar Wilde
89. “Keep love in your heart. A life without it is like a sunless garden when the flowers are dead.” – Oscar Wilde
90. “One should always play fairly when one has the winning cards.” – Oscar Wilde
91. “Arguments are extremely vulgar, for everyone in good society holds exactly the same opinion.” – Oscar Wilde
92. “Success is a science; if you have the conditions, you get the result.” – Oscar Wilde
93. “There are only two kinds of people who are really fascinating - people who know absolutely everything, and people who know absolutely nothing.” – Oscar Wilde
94. “Ambition is the germ from which all growth of nobleness proceeds.” – Oscar Wilde
95. “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
96. “There is no sin except stupidity.” – Oscar Wilde
97. “Ordinary riches can be stolen; real riches cannot. In your soul are infinitely precious things that cannot be taken from you.” – Oscar Wilde
98. “He has no enemies, but is intensely disliked by his friends.” – Oscar Wilde
99. “I can stand brute force, but brute reason is quite unbearable. There is something unfair about its use. It is hitting below the intellect.” – Oscar Wilde
100. “Those who find ugly meanings in beautiful things are corrupt without being charming. This is a fault.” – Oscar Wilde
Share these Oscar Wilde Quotes about Life and Love with your friends, family, and loved ones to inspire them as well.