Aphorisms by Oscar Wilde

"A cigarette is the perfect type of a perfect pleasure. It is exquisite, and it leaves one unsatisfied. What more can one want?"

"A cynic is one who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing."

"A dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world."

"A gentleman is one who never hurts anyone's feelings unintentionally."

"A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal."

"A man about to get married should know either everything or nothing."

"A man can be happy with any woman, so long as he does not love her."

"A man can't be too careful in the choice of his enemies."

"A man who does not think for himself does not think at all."

"A man's face is his autobiography. A woman's face is her work of fiction."

"A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it."

"A well-tied tie is the first serious step in life."

"A woman begins by resisting a man's advances and ends by blocking his retreat."

"A woman will flirt with anyone in the world, so long as other women are looking on."

"Action: the last resource of those who know not how to dream."

"All bad poetry springs from genuine feeling."

"All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. No man does. That's his."

"Always forgive your enemies - nothing annoys them so much."

"America has often been discovered before Columbus, but is was always hushed up."

"America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between."

"An idea that is not dangerous is unworthy of being called an idea at all."

"Anybody can be good in the country. There are no temptations there."

"Anybody can sympathize with the sufferings of a friend, but it requires a very fine nature to sympathize with a friend's success."

"Anyone can make history. Only a great man can write it."

"Anyone who lives within their means suffers from a lack of imagination."

"Argument's are to be avoided; they are always vulgar and often convincing."

"Art is the most intense form of individualism that the world has known."

"As for the virtuous poor, one can pity them, of course, but one cannot possibly admire them."

"As long as war is regarded as wicked it will always have its fascinations. When it is looked upon as vulgar, it will cease to be popular."

"Bad artists always admire each others work."

"Beauty reveals everything, because it expresses nothing."

"Being natural is simply a pose, and the most irritating pose I know."

"Bigamy is having one wife too many. Monogamy is the same."

"Biography lends to death a new terror."

"Children begin by loving their parents; as they grow older they judge them; sometimes they forgive them."

"Conscience and cowardice are really the same thing. Con-science is the trade-name of the firm."

"Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative."

"Crying is the refuge of plain women and the ruin of pretty ones."

"Cultivated leisure is the aim of man."

"Democracy is the bludgeoning of the people, by the people, for the people."

"Divorces are made in heaven."

"Duty is what one expects from others, it is not what one does oneself."

"Each time that one loves is the only time one has ever loved. Difference of object does not alter singleness of passion. It merely intensifies it."

"Education is an admirable thing, but nothing that is worth knowing can be taught."

"Even things that are true can be proved."

"Every great man has his disciples, but it is always Judas who writes the biography."

"Everyone who is incapable of learning has taken to teaching."

"Examinations consist of the foolish asking questions the wise cannot answer."

"Experience is one thing you can't get for nothing."

"Experience is the name everyone gives to their mistakes."

"Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months."

"Fashion is what one wears oneself; what is unfashionable is what other people wear."

"For fascinating women, sex is a challenge; for others, it is merely a defence."

"Good resolutions are simply checks that men draw on a bank where they have no account."

"History never repeats itself. The historians repeat each other."

"I adore simple pleasures. They are the last refuge of the complex."

"I always like to know everything about my new friends, and nothing about my old ones."

"I am not young enough to know everything."

"I am the only person in the world I should like to know thoroughly."

"I can believe anything, provided that it is quite incredible."

"I can resist everything except temptation."

"I can stand brute force, but brute reason is quite unbearable. There is something unfair about its use. It is hitting below the intellect."

"I can sympathise with everything, except suffering."

"I choose my friends for their good looks, my acquaintances for their good characters, and my enemies for their intellects."

"I don't like principles. I prefer prejudices."

"I have had my hand on the moon; what is the use of trying to rise a little way from the ground?"

"I have never given adoration to anyone except myself."

"I have put my genius into my life, whereas all I have put into my work is my talent."

"I have the simplest tastes. I am always satisfied with the best."

"I like men who have a future, and women who have a past."

"I like persons better than principles, and I like persons with no principles better than anything else in the world."

"I like talking to a brick wall, I find it is the only thing that never contradicts me."

"I live in terror of not being misunderstood."

"I love acting. It is so much more real than life."

"I often have long conversations all by myself, and I am so clever that sometimes I don't understand a single word of what I am saying."

"I suppose publishers are untrustworthy. They certainly always look It."

"I suppose society is wonderfully delightful! To be in it is merely a bore. But to be out of it simply a tragedy."

"I think that God, in creating man, somewhat overestimated His ability."

"I was asked by the customs if I had anything to declare. I said: Yes, I'd like to declare -- I'm a genius!"

"I was working on the proof of one of my poems all the morning, and took out a comma. In the afternoon I put it back again."

"If a man is a gentleman he knows quite enough, and if he is not a gentleman, whatever he knows is likely to be bad for him."

"If a woman really repents, she never wishes to return to the society that has made or seen her ruin."

"If a woman wants to hold a man, she has merely to appeal to the worst in him."

"If I hadn't my debts I shouldn't have anything to think about."

"If one always tells the truth one is sure, sooner or later, to be found out."

"If property had simply pleasures, we could stand it; but its duties make it unbearable. In the interest of the rich we must get rid of it."

"If there was less sympathy in the world, there would be less trouble in the world."

"If you really want to know what a woman means, which is dangerous, always look at her but never listen."

"Ignorance is like a delicate exotic fruit; touch it and the bloom is gone."

"Illusion is the first of all pleasures."

"Imagination is a quality given to man to compensate for what he is not, and a sense of humour is provided to console him from what he is."

"In all matters of opinion, our adversaries are insane."

"In life, we are all in the gutter. Some of us just tend to look up at the stars."

"In married life, three is company, two is none."

"In matters of grave importance, style, not sincerity, is the vital thing."

"Intellect is in itself a mode of exaggeration, and destroys the harmony of any face."

"It is a terrible thing for a man to find out suddenly that all his life he has been speaking nothing but the truth."

"It is a very sad thing that nowadays there is so little useless information around."

"It is absurd to divide people into good or bad. People are either charming or tedious."

"It is an error to suppose that America was discovered. It was merely detected."

"It is better to be beautiful than to be good - it is better to be good than to be ugly."

"It is better to have a permanent income than to be fascinating."

"It is only an auctioneer who can equally and impartially admire all schools of art."

"It is only by not paying one's bills that one can hope to live in the memory of the commercial classes."

"It is only the shallow people who do not judge by appearances."

"It is only the unimaginative who ever invents. The true artist is known by the use he makes of what he annexes."

"It is sad. One half of the world does not believe in God, and the other half does not believe in me."

"It is the confession, not the priest, that gives us absolution."

"It is the spectator, and not life, that art really mirrors."

"Journalism justifies its own existence by the great Darwinian principle of the survival of the vulgarist."

"Life imitates Art far more than Art imitates Life."

"Life is far too important to be taken seriously."

"Like dear St Francis of Assisi I am wedded to Poverty: but in my case the marriage is not a success."

"Long engagements give people the opportunity of finding out each other's character before marriage, which is never advisable."

"Man can believe the impossible, but man can never believe the improbable."

"Man is a rational animal who always loses his temper when he is called upon to act in accordance with the dictates of reason."

"Marriage is the triumph of imagination over intelligence. Second marriage is the triumph of hope over experience."

"Marriage is the one subject on which all women agree and all men disagree."

"Men always want to be a woman's first love. Women like to be a man's last romance."

"Men become old, they never become good."

"Men marry because they are tired, women because they are curious; both are disappointed."

"Missionaries are going to reform the world whether it wants to or not."

"Moderation is a fatal thing. Nothing succeeds like excess."

"Morality, like art, means a drawing a line someplace."

"Morality is simply the attitude we adopt toward people we personally dislike."

"Most modern calendars mar the sweet simplicity of our lives by reminding us that each day that passes is the anniversary of some perfectly uninteresting event."

"Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation."

"Most people die of a sort of creeping common sense, and discover when it is too late that the only things one never regrets are one's mistakes."

"Music makes one feel so romantic - at least it always gets on one's nerves - which is the same thing."

"My own business bores me to death. I prefer other people's."

"Never speak disrespectfully of Society. Only people who can't get into it do that."

"Never trust a woman who tells you her real age; a woman who tells you that would tell you anything."

"Niagara Falls is the bride's second great disappointment."

"No great artist ever sees things as they really are; if he did, he would cease to be an artist."

"No man is rich enough to buy back his past."

"No woman should ever be quite accurate about her age. It looks so calculating."

"None of us can stand other people having the faults as ourselves."

"Nothing can cure the soul but the senses, just as nothing can cure the senses but the soul."

"Nothing is so aggravating as calmness."

"Nothing makes one so vain as being told that one is a sinner."

"One can always be kind to people about whom one cares nothing."

"One can survive everything except death, and live down everything except a good reputation."

"One half of the world does not believe in God, and the other half does not believe in me."

"One must have a heart of stone to read the death of Little Nell without laughing."

"One should always be in love. That is the reason one should never marry."

"One should always play fairly when one has the winning cards."

"One's past is what one is. It is the only way by which people should be judged."

"One's real life is often the life that one does not lead."

"Only dull people are brilliant at breakfast."

"Only the shallow know themselves."

"Ordinary riches can be stolen, real riches cannot. In your soul are infinitely precious things that cannot be taken from you."

"Other people are quite dreadful. The only possible society is oneself."

"Patriotism is the virtue of the vicious."

"Pessimist: One who, when he has the choice of two evils, chooses both."

"Philanthropy is the refuge of rich people who wish to annoy their fellow creatures."

"Philosophy teaches us to bear with equanimity the misfortunes of others."

"Praise makes me humble, but when I am abused I know I have touched the stars."

"Punctuality is the thief of time."

"Questions are never indiscreet, answers sometimes are."

"Real beauty ends where an intellectual expression begins."

"Relations are simply a tedious pack of people, who haven't got the remotest knowledge of how to live, nor the smallest instinct about when to die."

"Religion is the fashionable substitute for belief."

"Romance should never begin with sentiment. It should begin with science and end with a settlement."

"Scandal is gossip made tedious by morality."

"Science is the record of dead religions."

"Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live."

"Seriousness is the only refuge of the shallow."

"Sin is the only real colour element left in modern life."

"Society often forgives the criminal but it never forgives the dreamer."

"Society produces rogues, and education makes one rogue cleverer than another."

"Some people cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go."

"Success is a science; if you have the conditions, you get the result."

"The advantage of the emotions is that they lead us astray, and the advantage of science is that it is not emotional."

"The basis of optimism is sheer terror."

"The book of life begins with a man and a woman in a garden. It ends with Revelations."

"The books that the world calls immoral are the books that show the world its own shame."

"The brotherhood of man is not a mere poet's dream: it is a most depressing and humiliating reality."

"The condition of perfection is idleness: the aim of perfection is youth."

"The difference between literature and journalism is that journalism is unreadable and literature is not read."

"The English have a miraculous power of turning wine into water."

"The form of government that is most suitable to the artist is no government at all."

"The happiness of a married man depends on the people he has not married."

"The husbands of very beautiful women usually belong to the criminal classes."

"The Ideal Man should talk to us as if we were goddesses, and treat us as if we were children."

"The mystery of love is greater than the mystery of death."

"The old believe everything, the middle-aged suspect everything, the young know everything."

"The only beautiful things are the things that do not concern us."

"The only charm of marriage is that it makes a life of deception necessary for both parties."

"The only difference between a caprice and a lifelong passion is that the caprice lasts a little longer."

"The only duty we owe history is to rewrite it."

"The only excuse for making a useless thing is that one admires it intensely. All art is quite useless."

"The only possible form of exercise is to talk, not to walk."

"The only real tragedy in a woman's life is that her past is always her lover, and the future is invariably her husband."

"The only thing that men and women have in common, is that they both prefer the company of men."

"The only thing to do with good advice is pass it on; it is never of any use to oneself."

"The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about."

"The only way a woman can ever reform her husband is by boring him so completely that he loses all possible interest in life."

"The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it."

"The progress is the accomplishment of the utopias."

"The proper basis for marriage is a mutual misunderstanding."

"The public is wonderfully tolerant. It forgives everything except genius."

"The pure and simple truth is rarely pure and never simple."

"The soul is born old but grows young. That is the comedy of life. And the body is born young and grows old. That is life's tragedy."

"The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible."

"The very essence of romance is uncertainty."

"The world is divided into two classes, those who believe the incredible, and those who do the improbable."

"The youth of America is their oldest tradition; it has been going on now for three hundred years."

"There are many things that we would throw away if we were not afraid that others might pick them up."

"There are only two tragedies in life: one is not getting what one wants, the other is getting it."

"There is a luxury in self-reproach. When we blame ourselves, we feel that no one else has a right to blame us."

"There is no sin except stupidity."

"There is no such thing as a moral book or an immoral book. Books are well written or badly written. That is all."

"There is nothing in the world like the devotion of a married woman; it's a thing that no married man knows anything about."

"Those who are faithful know only the trivial side of love: it is the faithless who know love's tragedies."

"Those who find ugly meanings in beautiful things are corrupt without being charming."

"Those whom the gods love grow young."

"Time is a waste of money."

"To expect the unexpected shows a thoroughly modern intellect."

"To get back one's youth, one has merely to repeat one's follies."

"To give an accurate description of what has never occurred is the proper occupation of the historian."

"To lose one parent may be regarded as a misfortune, to lose both looks like carelessness."

"To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance."

"To make men Socialists is nothing, but to make Socialism human is a great thing."

"To regain my youth I wold do anything in the world, except take exercise, get up early, or become respectable."

"True friends stab you in the front."

"Truth, in matters of religion, is simply the opinion that has survived."

"Twenty years of romance makes a woman look like a ruin; twenty years of marriage makes her look like a public building."

"We have really everything in common with America, except, of course, language."

"We teach people how to remember, we never teach them how to grow."

"What is mind but motion in the intellectual sphere?"

"What people call insincerity is simply a method by which we can multiply our personalities."

"When a man has once loved a woman he will do anything for her except continue to love her."

"When a woman marries again it is because she detested her first husband. When a man marries again, it is because he adored his first wife. Women try their luck; men risk theirs."

"When critics disagree the artist is in accord with himself."

"When I was young I used to think that money was the most important thing in life. Now that I am old, I know it is."

"When the gods wish to punish us they answer our prayers."

"When we are happy we are always good, but when we are good we are not always happy."

"Whenever a man does a thoroughly stupid thing, it is always from the noblest motives."

"Whenever people agree with me I always feel I must be wrong."

"Women are meant to be loved, not understood."

"Women are never disarmed by compliments. Men always are."

"Women are sphinxes without secrets."

"Women give to men the very gold of their lives; but they always want it back in small change."

"Women have a much better time than men in this world. There are far more things forbidden to them."

"Women have a wonderful instinct about things. They can discover everything except the obvious."

"Women love us for our defects. If we have enough of them, they will forgive us everything, even our intellects."

"Women represent the triumph of matter over mind, just as men represent the triumph of mind over morals."

"Work is the curse of the drinking classes."

"You should always say much more than you mean, and always mean much more than you say."

"Young men want to be faithful and are not, old men want to be faithless and cannot."