I cannot choose one hundred best books because I have only written five — 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
The books that the world calls immoral are the books that show the world its own shame. — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
“The only things that one can use in fiction are the things that one has ceased to use in fact.” — 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
“the good end happily, the bad end unhappily -- that is what 'fiction' means.” — 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
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
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
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
I write because it gives me the greatest possible artistic pleasure to write. If my work pleases the few I am gratified.… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
“I wish i could write them down, these little coloured parables or poems that live for a moment in some cell of… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
I dislike modern memoirs. They are generally written by people who have either entirely lost their memories, or have never done anything… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
“To tell people what to read is, as a rule, either useless or harmful; for the appreciation of literature is a question… — 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
Do you really keep a diary? I'd give anything to look at it. May I? Oh, no. You see, it is simply… — 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 world has become sad because a puppet was once melancholy. The nihilist, that strange martyr who has no faith, who goes… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
“If they know nothing of death, it is because they know little of life, for the secrets of life and death belong… — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
“Do you really keep a diary? I'd give anything to look at it. May I? CECILY: Oh no. [Puts her hand over… — 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 difference between literature and journalism is that journalism is unreadable and literature is not read. — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
The good ended happily, and the bad unhappily. That is what fiction means. — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
Cheap editions of great books may be delightful, but cheap editions of great men are absolutely detestable — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
“There is no such thing as a moral or immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written. That is all.” — Oscar Wilde Copy Share Image
I was working on the proof of one of my poems all the morning, and took out a comma. In the afternoon… — 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