Oscar Wilde
224 quotations
No great artist ever sees things as they really are, if he did he would cease to be an artist.
Bad art is a great deal worse than no art at all.
All art is quite useless.
Art, like Nature, has her monsters, things of bestial shape and with hideous voices.
Seriousness is the only refuge of the shallow.
The basis of optimism is sheer terror.
Nowadays, all the married men live like bachelors, and all the bachelors like married men.
I adore political parties. They are the only place left to us where people don't talk politics.
He thinks like a Tory, and talks like a Radical, and that's so important nowadays.
Popularity is the only insult that has not yet been offered to Mr. Whistler.
Popularity is the crown of laurel which the world puts on bad art. Whatever is popular is wrong.
Who, being loved, is poor?
In going to America one learns that poverty is not a necessary accompaniment to civilization.
When the gods wish to punish us they answer our prayers.
In America, the President reigns for four years, and journalism governs for ever and ever.
Yes; the public is wonderfully tolerant. It forgives everything except genius.
He was always late on principle, his principle being that punctuality is the thief of time.
To love oneself is the beginning of a life long romance.
Romance should never begin with sentiment. It should begin with science and end with a settlement.
He must have a truly romantic nature, for he weeps when there is nothing at all to weep about.
Nothing spoils a romance so much as a sense of humor in the woman.
Religions die when they are proved to be true. Science is the record of dead religions.
Yes, I am a thorough republican. No other form of government is so favorable to the growth of art.
One can survive everything nowadays, except death, and live down anything except a good reputation.
The old-fashioned respect for the young is fast dying out.