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Men Quotes by Oscar Wilde

222 Men quotes by Oscar Wilde

All Men quotes Oscar Wilde’s page

Bachelors should be heavily taxed, a line that shows the quote’s concern with fairness. Another quote says that just because a man died for an idea, it doesn’t make the idea true. The collection also treats art as philosophy, turning imagination into a tool that reshapes thought. These points blend satire with deeper reflection.

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In the old days men had the rack. Now they have the Press.

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Experience is merely the name men gave to their mistakes.

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Anybody can make history; only a great man can write it.

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What is said of man is nothing; the point is, who says it.

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Bore: a man who is never unintentionally rude.

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Disobedience is man's original virtue.

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Discontent is the first step in the progress of a man or a nation.

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The man with a clear conscience probably has a poor memory.

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The value of an idea has nothing whatever to do with the sincerity of the man who expresses it.

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Well, in the first place girls never marry the men they flirt with. Girls don't think it right.

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To have friends, you know, one need only be good-natured; but when a man has no enemy left there must be something…

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Men know life too early. Women know life too late. That is the difference between men and women.

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Every great man nowadays has his disciples, and it is usually Judas who writes the biography.

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I hate vulgar realism in literature. The man who would call a spade a spade should be compelled to use one.

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Talk to a woman as if you loved her, and to a man as if he bored you.

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One has a right to judge a man by the effect he has over his friends.

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To give an accurate description of what has never occurred is not merely the proper occupation of the historian, but the inalienable…

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It is only shallow people who require years to get rid of an emotion. A man who is master of himself can…

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Gwendolen, it is a terrible thing for a man to find out suddenly that all his life he has been speaking nothing…

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Humanity takes itself too seriously. It is the world's original sin. If the cave-man had known how to laugh, History would have…

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Indeed, as any one who has ever worked among the poor knows only too well, the brotherhood of man is no mere…

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It is a sad truth, but we have lost the faculty of giving lovely names to things. Names are everything. I never…

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A method of procuring sensations? Do you think then, that a man who has once committed a murder could possibly do the…

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The past is of no importance. The present is of no importance. It is with the future that we have to deal.…

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If you meet at dinner a man who has spent his life in educating himself - a rare type in our time…

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[T]he recognition of private property has really harmed Individualism, and obscured it, by confusing a man with what he possesses. It has…

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The mere mechanical technique of acting can be taught, but the spirit that is to give life to lifeless forms must be…

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With subtle and finely-wrought temperaments it is always so. Their strong passions must either bruise or bend. They either slay the man,…

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It is quite true that I have worshipped you with far more romance of feeling than a man usually gives to a…

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Now it seems to me that love of some kind is the only possible explanation of the extraordinary amount of suffering that…

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A beautiful woman risking everything for a mad passion. A few wild weeks of happiness cut short by a hideous, treacherous crime.…

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No publisher should ever express an opinion on the value of what he publishes. That is a matter entirely for the literary…

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Yet each man kills the thing he loves, By each let this be heard, Some do it with a bitter look, Some…

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Experience was of no ethical value. It was merely the name men gave to their mistakes. Moralists had, as a rule, regarded…

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It is a sad thing to think of, but there is no doubt that genius lasts longer than beauty. That accounts for…

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The only artists I have ever known who are personally delightful are bad artists. Good artists exist simply in what they make,…

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If a man treats life artistically, his brain is his heart.

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Cultivated leisure is the aim of man.

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Man is many things, but he is not rational.

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Men of thoughts should have nothing to do with action

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More by Oscar Wilde

How else but through a broken heart may Lord Christ enter in?

The books that the world calls immoral are the books that show the world its own shame.

Bachelors should be heavily taxed. It is not fair that some men should be happier than others

Who, being loved, is poor?

“Basil my dear boy puts everything that is charming in him into his work. The consequence is that he has nothing left for life…

Anybody can be good in the country

I don't at all like knowing what people say of me behind my back. It makes me far too conceited.

“Alles Populäre ist falsch.”

“If these elements of beauty are real, the whole thing simply appeals to our sense of dramatic effect. Suddenly we find that we are…

To love one's self is the beginning of a life-long romance

“Those who find beautiful meanings in beautiful things are the cultivated. For these there is hope.”

Men always want to be a womans first love. Women have a more subtle instinct: What they like is to be a mans last…

Why is it that at a bachelor's establishment the servants invariably drink the champagne.

Moderation is a fatal thing. Enough is as bad as a meal. More than enough is as good as a feast.

Beauty is the only thing that time cannot harm. Philosophies fall away like sand, creeds follow one another, but what is beautiful is a…