In this world there are only two tragedies. One is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it. — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
The truth is rarely pure and never simple. Modern life would be very tedious if it were either, and modern literature a… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
I have grown to love secrecy. It seems to be the one thing that can make modern life mysterious or marvelous to… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
The people who have adored me-- there have not been very many, but there have been some-- have always insisted on living… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
All that I desire to point out is the general principle that life imitates art far more than art imitates life. — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
“was the living death of his own soul that troubled him. Basil had painted the portrait that had marred his” — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
“Ah! I have talked quite enough for today," said Lord Henry, smiling. "All I want now is to look at life. You… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
The supreme object of life is to live. Few people live. It is true life only to realize one's own perfection, to… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
“Yes, death. Death must be so beautiful. To lie in the soft brown earth, with the grasses waving above one's head, and… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
Perhaps one of the most difficult things for us to do is to choose a notable and joyous dress for men. There… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
Life! Life! Don't let us go to life for our fulfillment or our experience. It is a thing narrowed by circumstances, incoherent… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
“The people who love only once in their lives are really the shallow people. (...) Faithfulness is to the emotional life what… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
To be born, or at any rate bred, in a hand-bag, whether it had handles or not, seems to me to display… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
“That is one of the secrets of life - to cure the soul by means of the senses, and the senses by… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
God knows; I won't be an Oxford don anyhow. I'll be a poet, a writer, a dramatist. Somehow or other I'll be… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
Human life--that appeared to him the one thing worth investigating. Compared to it there was nothing else of any value. It was… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
I hope you have not been leading a double life, pretending to be wicked and being really good all the time. That… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
The American father is never seen in London. He passes his life entirely in Wall Street and communicates with his family once… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
Would you like to know the great drama of my life? It is that I have put my genius into my life...I… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
“Of course, married life is merely a habit, a bad habit. But then one regrets the loss even of one's worst habits.… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
“The only real people are the people who never existed, and if a novelist is base enough to go to life for… — 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
