Quill / Authors / Oscar Wilde quotes
Oscar Wilde quotes
Oscar Wilde (1854 to 1900) was born in Dublin and became the most talked-about wit in London, until a conviction for gross indecency sent him to prison from 1895 to 1897. He wrote the long letter later published as De Profundis from his cell at Reading. Quill quotes it alongside Dorian Gray, The Soul of Man under Socialism and the plays.
A great many lines credited to him online have no source at all, so the source under each line here is worth a look. Read the epigrams and the prison letter together, since each changes how the other sounds.
All 42 of the lines in Quill. Only lines checked against a public-domain text appear on this page.
Miscellaneous Aphorisms; The Soul of Man
Read Miscellaneous Aphorisms; The Soul of Man on Project Gutenberg
Ordinary riches can be stolen from a man, real riches cannot.
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Jesus said to man: You have a wonderful personality. Develop it. Be yourself. Don't imagine that your perfection lies in accumulating or possessing external things. Your perfection is inside of you. If only you could realise that you would not want to be rich. Ordinary riches can be stolen from a man, real riches cannot. In the treasury-house of your soul there are infinitely precious things that may not be taken from you. Try to so shape your life that external things will not harm you, and try also to get rid of personal property. It involves sordid preoccupation, endless industry, continual …
What a man really has is what is in him.
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Nothing should be able to harm a man except himself. Nothing should be able to rob a man at all. What a man really has is what is in him. What is outside of him should be a matter of no importance.
If one intends to be good one must take it up as a profession.
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If one intends to be good one must take it up as a profession. It is quite the most engrossing one in the world.
To be good is to be in harmony with oneself.
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To be good is to be in harmony with oneself. Discord is to be forced to be in harmony with others.
A man who does not think for himself does not think at all.
The essence of thought, as the essence of life, is growth.
The moods of one's life are life's beauties.
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If we live for aims we blunt our emotions. If we live for aims we live for one minute, for one day, for one year, instead of for every minute, every day, every year. The moods of one's life are life's beauties. To yield to all one's moods is to really live.
To live is the rarest thing in the world.
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To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist—that is all.
In the treasury-house of your soul there are infinitely precious things that may not be taken from you.
The soul is born old, but grows young.
Your perfection is inside of you.
All imitation in morals and in life is wrong.
Find expression for a sorrow and it will become dear to you.
Find expression for a joy and you intensify its ecstasy.
De Profundis
Read De Profundis on Project Gutenberg
One sometimes feels that it is only with a front of brass and a lip of scorn that one can get through the day at all.
Most people are other people.
Suffering is one very long moment.
Nothing seems to me of the smallest value except what one gets out of oneself.
At every single moment of one's life one is what one is going to be no less than what one has been.
The final mystery is oneself.
To regret one's own experiences is to arrest one's own development.
With freedom, flowers, books, and the moon, who could not be perfectly happy?
Where there is sorrow there is holy ground.
The supreme vice is shallowness.
The Soul of Man under Socialism
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The things people say of a man do not alter a man.
A red rose is not selfish because it wants to be a red rose.
The true artist is a man who believes absolutely in himself, because he is absolutely himself.
The note of the perfect personality is not rebellion, but peace.
Public opinion is of no value whatsoever.
Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live.
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Read The Picture of Dorian Gray on Project Gutenberg
To be in love is to surpass one’s self.
One’s own life—that is the important thing.
Live the wonderful life that is in you!
Let nothing be lost upon you.
The aim of life is self-development.
An Ideal Husband
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Circumstances should never alter principles!
Love is the great thing in the world.
Nothing ages like happiness.
Intentions
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Thought is wonderful, but adventure is more wonderful still.
To know the truth one must imagine myriads of falsehoods.
Essays and Lectures
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Do not wait for life to be picturesque, but try and see life under picturesque conditions.
Lady Windermere's Fan
Read Lady Windermere's Fan on Project Gutenberg
Don’t lose your temper; you have only got one.
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