“The basis of optimism is sheer terror. We think that we are generous because we credit our neighbour with the possession 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
On an occasion of this kind it becomes more than a moral duty to speak one's mind. It becomes a pleasure. — 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
It is only the superficial qualities that last. Man's deeper nature is soon found out. — 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
“It feels instinctively that manners are of more importance than morals,” — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
“I choose my friends for their good looks, my acquaintances for their good characters, and my enemies for their good intellects. A” — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
There is no such thing as morality or immorality in thought. There is immoral emotion. — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
“I would sooner have fifty unnatural vices than one unnatural virtue. It is unnatural virtue that makes the world, for those who… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
The simplicity of your character makes you exquisitely incomprehensible to me. — 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
What is termed Sin is an essential element of progress. Without it the world would stagnate, or grow old, or become colorless.… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
“Speak frankly, I am not in favour of long engagements. They give people the opportunity of finding out each other’s character before… — 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
Just as the philanthropist is the nuisance of the ethical sphere, so the nuisance of the intellectual sphere is the man who… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
“For the various spiritual forms of the imagination have a natural affinity with certain sensuous forms of art - and to discern… — 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
“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 to the artist materials for an art.” — 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
