Oscar Wilde

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

“It is absurd to have a hard and fast rule about what one should read and what one shouldn't.”

“What is termed Sin is an essential element of progress. Without it the world would stagnate, or grow old, or become colourless.”

“And if life be, as it surely is, a problem to me, I am no less a problem to life.”

“Life has always poppies in her hands.”

“Sucede muchas veces que las tragedias reales de la vida ocurren de una manera poco artística.”

“Si yo hubiera leído todo esto en un libro, Henry, creo que me hubiera echado a llorar. Sin embargo, ahora que me ha ocurrido a mi realmente, parece demasiado asombroso para derramar lágrimas.”

“Thirty-five is a very attractive age. London society is full of women of the very highest birth who have, of their own free choice, remained thirty-five for years.”

“Good resolutions are useless attempts to interfere with scientific laws. Their origin is pure vanity. Their result is absolutely nil. They give us, now and then, some of those luxurious sterile emotions that have a certain charm for the weak.... They are simply cheques that men draw on a bank where they have no account.”

“Harry," said Basil Hallward, looking him straight in the face, "every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of the sitter. The sitter is merely the accident, the occasion. It is not he who is revealed by the painter; it is rather the painter who, on the coloured canvas, reveals himself. The reason I will not exhibit this picture is that I am afraid that I have shown in it the secret of my own soul.”

“Mere words.. Was there anything so real as words?”

“to marry into a cloakroom, and form an alliance with a parcel”

“I make a great difference between people. I choose my friends for their good looks, my acquaintances for their good characters, and my enemies for their good intellects. A man cannot be too careful in the choice of his enemies. I have not got one who is a fool. They are all men of some intellectual power, and consequently they all appreciate me. Is that very vain of me? I think it is rather vain.”

“Examinations consist of the foolish asking questions the wise cannot answer”

“If a man treats life artistically, his brain is his heart”

“¿Puede recordar usted algún gran error que haya cometido en su juventud, duquesa? -preguntó mirándola-Me temo que de una gran cantidad de ellos -exclamó ella.Entonces cométalos otra vez -dijo él gravemente-. Volver a la juventud es solamente repetir sus locuras.”

“La humanidad se toma a sí misma demasiado en serio. Es el pecado original del mundo. Si el hombre de las cavernas hubiera sabido reír, la historia habría sido diferente.”

“The true artist is a man who believes absolutely in himself, because he is absolutely himself.”

“Me, sir! What has it to do with me? You can hardly imagine that I and Lord Bracknell would dream of allowing our only daughter - a girl brought up with the utmost care - to marry into a cloak-room, and form an alliance with a parcel? Good morning, Mr. Worthing!”

“The Odyssey was written by Homer, or another Greek of the same name.”

“When I see a spade I call it a spade.I'm glad to say I have never seen a spade!”

“Your days are your sonnets.”

“Dabar mes klaidingai suprantam patys save, o kitų visai nesuprantam. Patirtis neturi jokios moralinės vertės. Tai tik vardas, kuriuo žmonės vadina savo klaidas.”

“It lies like a leper in purple, it sits like a dead thing smeared with gold.”

“La única manera de librarse de la tentación es ceder ante ella. Si se resiste, el alma enferma, anhelando lo que ella misma se ha prohibido, deseando lo que sus leyes monstruosas han hecho monstruoso e ilegal”

“I am afraid it is quite clear, Cecily, that neither of us is engaged to be married to any one.”

“An admirable idea! Mr. Worthing, there is just one question I would like to be permitted to put to you. Where is your brother Ernest? We are both engaged to be married to your brother Ernest, so it is a matter of some importance to us to know where your brother Ernest is at present.”

“Nie jest egoizmem ze strony czerwonej róży, że chce być czerwoną różą. Byłoby natomiast straszliwym egoizmem gdyby chciała, aby wszystkie kwiaty w ogrodzie były czerwonymi różami.”

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

“Lady Bracknell: Is this Miss Prism a female of repellent aspect, remotely connected with education?Chasuble: (Somewhat indignantly) She is the most cultivated of ladies, and the very picture of respectability.Lady Bracknell: It is obviously the same person.”

“I don't want to earn my living, I want to live.”

“My sermon on the meaning of the manna in the wilderness can be adapted to almost any occasion, joyful, or, as in the present case, distressing. [All sigh.] I have preached it at harvest celebrations, christenings, confirmations, on days of humiliation and festal days.”

“Lo menos frecuente en este mundo es vivir. La mayoría de la gente existe, eso es todo.”

“Querido Hiram - replicó mistress Otis - ¿qué podemos hacer con una mujer que se desmaya?Se lo descontaremos de su salario - respondió el Ministro-. Verás como no vuelve a desmayarse.”

“He atones for being occasionally somewhat overdressed by being always absolutely over-educated. He is a very modern type.”

“better for him that each sin of his life had brought its sure swift penalty along with it. there was purification in punishment”

“The things one feels absolutely certain about are never true. That is the fatality of faith, and the lesson of romance.”

“shallow sorrows and shallow loves live on. the loves and sorrows that are great are destroyed by their own plenitude”

“memory, like a horrible malady, was eating his soul away”

“passion makes one think in a circle”

“beautiful sins, like beautiful things, are the privilege of the rich”

“Come sono fortunati gli attori! Loro possono scegliere se recitare in una tragedia o in una commedia, se soffrire o gioire, ridere o piangere. Ma nella vita reale è diverso. Uomini e donne sono costretti per lo più a interpretare personaggi che non sono tagliati per loro. Ai nostri Guildenstern tocca il ruolo di Amleto, e i nostri Amleti devono fare i buffoni come il principe Hal. Il mondo è un palcoscenico, ma le parti sono mal distribuite.”

“Un matrimonio dovrebbe basarsi sulla reciproca incomprensione.”

“Una donna che non sappia rendere affascinanti i propri errori non sarebbe altro che una femmina.”

“And once, or twice, to throw the dice is a gentlemanly game, But he does not win who plays with Sin in the secret house of shame”

“Do you really think ... that it is weakness that yields to temptation? I tell you that there are terrible temptations that it requires strength, strength and courage, to yield to. To stake all one's life on a single moment, to risk everything on one throw, whether the stake be power or pleasure, I care not -- there is no weakness in that.”

“Sempre perdoe seus inimigos, nada os irrita tanto.”

“The only things that one can use in fiction are the things that one has ceased to use in fact.”

“Every experience is of value.”

“Talking to him was like playing upon an exquisite violin.”