Oscar Wilde (1854 – 1900)
Irish essayist, novelist, playwright and poet.
All authority is quite degrading. It degrades those who exercise it, and degrades those over whom it is exercised.
We have really everything in common with America nowadays, except, of course, language.
The English are always degrading truths into facts. When a truth becomes a fact it loses all its intellectual value.
Even you are not rich enough, Sir Robert, to buy back your past. No man is.
The things people say of a man do not alter a man. He is what he is. Public opinion is of no value whatsoever.
It is through art, and through art only, that we can realize our perfection; through art and art only that we can shield ourselves from the sordid perils of actual existence.
In examinations the foolish ask questions that the wise cannot answer.
In old days books were written by men of letters and read by the public. Nowadays books are written by the public and read by nobody.
Only the shallow know themselves.
I have said to you to speak the truth is a painful thing. To be forced to tell lies is much worse.
Time is a waste of money.
When a voice behind me whispered low,
"That fellow's got to swing."
I have invented an invaluable permanent invalid called Bunbury, in order that I may be able to go down into the country whenever I choose.
I always pass on good advice. It is the only thing to do with it. It is never of any use to oneself.
Those whom the gods love grow young.
An engagement should come on a young girl as a surprise, pleasant or unpleasant as the case may be.
And down the long and silent street,
The dawn, with silver-sandalled feet,
Crept like a frightened girl.
From the beginning Wilde performed his life and continued to do so even after fate had taken the plot out of his hands.
There is no sin except stupidity.