Oscar Wilde — Quotes from Author's Books

We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.

It is perfectly monstrous the way people go about nowadays saying things against one behind one`s back that are absolutely and entirely true.

But youth smiles without any reason. It is one of its chiefest charms.

Each of us has Heaven and Hell in him.

It is only shallow people who require years to get rid of an emotion. A man who is master of himself can end a sorrow as easily as he can invent a pleasure. I don't want to be at the mercy of my emotions. I want to use them, to enjoy them, and to dominate them.

You like everyone; that is to say, you are indifferent to everyone.

The tragedy of old age is not that one is old, but that one is young.

There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.

No man came across two ideal things. Few come across one.

"But I didn't say he was married. I said he was engaged to be married. There is a great difference. I have a distinct remembrance of being married, but I have no recollection at all of being engaged. I am inclined to think that I never was engaged.

The life that was to make his soul would mar his body.

I am sick of women who love one. Women who hate one are much more interesting.

I can't help detesting my relations. I suppose it comes from the fact that none of us can stand other people having the same faults as ourselves.

They know how useful passion is for publication. Nowadays a broken heart will run to many editions.

Life has been your art.

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!