Oscar Wilde

The Book of Life begins with a man and a woman in a garden. It ends with Revelations.

This ghastly state of things is what you call Bunburying, I suppose? Algernon. Yes, and a perfectly wonderful Bunbury it is. The most wonderful Bunbury I have ever had in my life. Jack. Well, you've no right whatsoever to Bunbury here. Algernon. That is absurd. One has a right to Bunbury anywhere one chooses. Every serious Bunburyist knows that.

I never change, except in my affections.

My dear fellow, the truth isn’t quite the sort of thing one tells to a nice, sweet, refined girl. What extraordinary ideas you have about the way to behave to a woman!

A good friend will always stab you in the front.

Oh, brothers! I don't care for brothers. My elder brother won't die, and my younger brothers seem never to do anything else.

America has never quite forgiven Europe for having been discovered somewhat earlier in history than itself.

To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.

I can believe anything provided it is quite incredible.

One has a right to judge a man by the effect he has over his friends.

The aim of life is self-development. To realize one's nature perfectly - that is what each of us is here for.

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

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

Do you really think it is weakness that yields to temptation? I tell you that there are terrible temptations which it requires strength, strength and courage to yield to.

There is something terribly morbid in the modern sympathy with pain. One should sympathise with the colour, the beauty, the joy of life. The less said about life's sores the better.

Mr. Henry James writes fiction as if it were a painful duty.

America had often been discovered before Columbus, but it had always been hushed up.

The salesman knows nothing of what he is selling save that he is charging a great deal too much for it.

In modern life nothing produces such an effect as a good platitude. It makes the whole world kin.

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

Now that the House of Commons is trying to become useful, it does a great deal of harm.