“Names are everything. I never quarrel with actions. My one quarrel is with words. That is the reason I hate vulgar realism… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
A critic should be taught to criticise a work of art without making any reference to the personality of the author. — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
Literature always anticipates life. It doesn't copy it but moulds it to it's purpose. — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
I hate vulgar realism in literature. The man who would call a spade a spade should be compelled to use one. — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
Thin-lipped wisdom spoke at her from the worn chair, hinted at prudence, quoted from that book of cowardice whose author apes the… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
If one cannot enjoy reading a book over and over again, there is no use in reading it at all. — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
The only link between Literature and the Drama left to us in England at the present moment is the bill of the… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
One should not be too severe on English novels; they are the only relaxation of the intellectually unemployed. — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
A work of art is the unique result of a unique temperament. Its beauty comes from the fact that the author is… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
“The hero, the wonderful young Parisian in whom the romantic and the scientific temperaments were so strangely blended, became to him a… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
From the point of view of literature Mr. Kipling is a genius who drops his aspirates. From the point of view of… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
Literature must rest always on a principle, and temporal considerations are no principle at all. For, to the poet, all times and… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
“Read the whole book, suffer it to tell even one of its secrets to your soul, and your soul will grow eager… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
“With slouch and swing around the ring We trod the Fools’ Parade! We did not care: we knew we were The Devils’… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
“The English novels are the only relaxation of the intellectually unemployed. But one should not be too severe on them. They show… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
“Art has no influence upon action. It annihilates the desire to act. It is superbly sterile. The books that the world calls… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
You and I will always be friends." "Yet you poisoned me with a book once. I should not forgive that. — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
“as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written. That is all. The nineteenth century” — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
“you poisoned me with a book once. I should not forgive that. Harry, promise me that you will never lend that book… — 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
The books that the world calls immoral are the books that show the world its own shame. — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
“The public is largely influenced by the look of a book. So are we all. It is the only artistic thing about… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
“Thereis no such thing as amoral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written. That is all.” — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
It is what you read when you don't have to that determines what you will be when you can't help it. — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
Anybody can write a three-volume novel. It merely requires a complete ignorance of both life and literature. — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
Literature always anticipates life. It does not copy it, but moulds it to its purpose. The nineteenth century, as we know it,… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
In old days books were written by men of letters and read by the public. Nowadays books are written by the public… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
The worst of it is that I am perpetually being punished for nothing; this governor loves to punish, and he punishes by… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
“The hero, the wonderful young Parisian in whom the romantic and the scientific temperaments were so strangely blended, became to him a… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
“I believe I am to have enough to live on for about eighteen months at any rate, so that if I may… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
“The best work in literature is always done by those who do not depend upon it for their daily bread, and the… — 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 Image
Bachelors should be heavily taxed. It is not fair that some men should be happier than others — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
“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 Image
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 Image
“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 Image
“Those who find beautiful meanings in beautiful things are the cultivated. For these there is hope.” — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
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 Image
