Oscar Wilde

Ah, on what little things does happiness depend! I have read all that the wise men have written, and all the secrets of philosophy are mine, yet for want of a red rose is my life made wretched.

The true perfection of man lies not in what man has, but in what man is.

There is a fatality about good resolutions – that they are always made too late

Art finds her own perfection within, and not outside of, herself. She is not to be judged by any external standard of resemblance.

I want to be good. I can't bear the idea of my soul being hideous.

A man who is master of himself can end a sorrow as easily as he can invent a pleasure.

Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.

I never approve, or disapprove, of anything now. It is an absurd attitude to take towards life.

When I like people immensely I never tell their names to anyone. It is like surrendering a part of them. I have grown to love secrecy.

Love! What is love? It's nothing. It's just a word. It doesn't exist. Only pleasure is important.

The girl never really lived, and so she has never really died.

Dear little Swallow,’ said the Prince, ‘you tell me of marvelous things, but more marvelous than anything is the suffering of men and of women. There is no Mystery so great as Misery.

I was dominated, soul, brain, and power by you. You became to me the visible incarnation of that unseen ideal whose memory haunts us artists like an exquisite dream.

I will not bare my soul to their shallow prying eyes. My heart shall never be put under their microscope.

If people are dishonest once, they will be dishonest a second time. And honest people should keep away from them. (Lady Chiltern)

Romantic literature is in effect imaginative lying.

"There is no such thing as a good influence, Mr. Gray. All influence is immoral — immoral from the scientific point of view." "Why?" "Because to influence a person is to give him one's own soul."

I am sick to death of cleverness. Everybody is clever nowadays.

Life is not governed by will or intention. Life is a question of nerves, and fibres, and slowly built-up cells in which thought hides itself and passion has its dreams.

Is insincerity such a terrible thing? I think not. It is merely a method by which we can multiply our personalities.

How you can sit there, calmly eating muffins when we are in this horrible trouble, I can’t make out. You seem to me to be perfectly heartless." "Well, I can’t eat muffins in an agitated manner. The butter would probably get on my cuffs. One should always eat muffins quite calmly. It is the only way to eat them." "I say it’s perfectly heartless your eating muffins at all, under the circumstances.