“It feels instinctively that manners are of more importance than morals,” — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
It is only the superficial qualities that last. Man's deeper nature is soon found out. — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
“Moral grounds are always the last refuge of people who have no sense of beauty.” — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
The morality of art consists in the perfect use of an imperfect medium. — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
My writing has gone to bits - like my character. I am simply a self-conscious nerve in pain. — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
“Morality is simply the attitude we adopt towards people whom we personally dislike. You dislike me. I am quite aware of that.… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
The only form of fiction in which real characters do not seem out of place is history. In novels they are detestable. — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
“Experience was of no ethical value. It was merely the name men gave to their mistakes.” — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
Each class preaches the importance of those virtues it need not exercise. The rich harp on the value of thrift, the idle… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
“those renunciations that men have unwisely called virtue, as much as those natural rebellions that wise men still call sin.” — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
Women represent the triumph of matter over mind, just as men represent the triumph of mind over morals. — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
Intellectual generalities are always interesting, but generalities in morals mean absolutely nothing. — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
“I would sooner lose my best friend than my worst enemy. To have friends, you know, one need only be good-natured; but… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
We think that we are generous because we credit our neighbor with those virtues that are likely to benefit ourselves. We praise… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
I forgot that every little action of the common day makes or unmakes character, and that therefore what one has done in… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
“To influence a person is to give him one's own soul. He does not think his natural thoughts, or burn with his… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
I never came across anyone in whom the moral sense was dominant who was not heartless, cruel, vindictive, log-stupid, and entirely lacking… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
To exercise power costs effort and demands courage. That is why so many fail to assert rights to which they are perfectly… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
I choose my friends for their good looks, my acquaintances for their good characters, and my enemies for their intellects. A man… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
It is a very poor consolation to be told that the man who has given one a bad dinner, or poor wine,… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
You silly Arthur! If you knew anything about...anything, which you don't, you would know that I adore you. Everyone in London knows… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
Experience was of no ethical value. It was merely the name men gave to their mistakes. Moralists had, as a rule, regarded… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
“Society--civilized society, at least--is never very ready to believe anything to the detriment of those who are both rich and fascinating. It… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
“Thought and language are to the artist instruments of an art. Vice and virtue are the artist’s materials for an art. From… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
“There is no such thing as a good influence, Mr. Gray. All influence is immoral,—immoral from the scientific point of view.’ ‘Why?’… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
“There is no such thing as a good influence, Mr. Gray. All influence is immoral—immoral from the scientific point of view.” “Why?” “Because… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
“The majority of people spoil their lives by an unhealthy and exaggerated altruism – are forced, indeed, so to spoil them. They… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
“There is no such thing as a good influence, Mr. Gray. All influence is immoral - immoral from the scientific point of… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
“Disobedience, in the eyes of anyone who has read history, is a man's original virtue.” — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
Morality is simply the attitude we adopt towards people we personally dislike! — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
The simplicity of your character makes you exquisitely incomprehensible to me. — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
The books that the world calls immoral are the books that show the world its own shame. — Oscar Wilde Copy Share
Bachelors should be heavily taxed. It is not fair that some men should be happier than others — Oscar Wilde Copy Share
“Basil my dear boy puts everything that is charming in him into his work. The consequence is that he has nothing left for life… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share
I don't at all like knowing what people say of me behind my back. It makes me far too conceited. — Oscar Wilde Copy Share
“If these elements of beauty are real, the whole thing simply appeals to our sense of dramatic effect. Suddenly we find that we are… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share
“Those who find beautiful meanings in beautiful things are the cultivated. For these there is hope.” — Oscar Wilde Copy Share
Men always want to be a womans first love. Women have a more subtle instinct: What they like is to be a mans last… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share
Why is it that at a bachelor's establishment the servants invariably drink the champagne. — Oscar Wilde Copy Share
Moderation is a fatal thing. Enough is as bad as a meal. More than enough is as good as a feast. — Oscar Wilde Copy Share
Beauty is the only thing that time cannot harm. Philosophies fall away like sand, creeds follow one another, but what is beautiful is a… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share
