39 Oscar Wilde Quotes To Inspire

Oscar Wilde, renowned for his sharp wit and profound insights, remains an enduring figure in literature, captivating readers with his eloquent expressions and thought-provoking ideas. His words, as vibrant and evocative today as they were in the 19th century, offer wisdom and inspiration across generations. In this collection, we've curated 39 of Wilde's most memorable quotes, each a testament to his ability to capture the complexities of human nature and society with both humor and grace. Whether you're in need of motivation, reflection, or simply a moment of literary beauty, these quotes provide a timeless source of inspiration. Join us as we delve into the brilliance of Oscar Wilde's legacy, where every phrase invites you to see the world through a lens of creativity and introspection.

1. “America has never quite forgiven Europe for having been discovered somewhat earlier in history than itself.” - Oscar Wilde

2. “She...can talk brillantly upon any subject provided she knows nothing about it.” - Oscar Wilde

3. “Hearts Live By Being Wounded” - Oscar Wilde

4. “The public is wonderfully tolerant. It forgives everything except genius.” - Oscar Wilde

5. “Oscar Wilde: "I wish I had said that." Whistler: "You will, Oscar; you will.” - James McNeill Whistler

6. “It is the stupid and the ugly who have the best of it in this world” - Oscar Wilde

7. “It is perfectly monstrous,' he said, at last, 'the way people go about nowadays saying things against one behind one's back that are absolutely and entirely true.” - Oscar Wilde

8. “A man who does not think for himself does not think at all.” - Oscar Wilde

9. “Si no podéis disfrutar leyendo un libro repetidas veces, de nada sirve leerlo ni una sola vez.” - Oscar Wilde

10. “[On Oscar Wilde:]"If, with the literate, I amImpelled to try an epigram,I never seek to take the credit;We all assume that Oscar said it.[Life Magazine, June 2, 1927]” - Dorothy Parker

11. “Anybody can make history; only a great man can write it.” - Oscar Wilde

12. “When in Reading Gaol he told me that the warders in the dock had been gentle and kind, but the visit of the chaplain in his first prison began with these words:'Mr. Wilde, did you have morning prayers in your house?''I am sorry... I fear not.''You see where you are now!” - Charles Ricketts

13. “Those who pay their bills on time are soon forgotten. It is only by not paying one's bills that one can hope to live in the memory of the commercial classes.” - Gyles Brandreth

14. “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.” - Oscar Wilde

15. “Poor Aubrey: I hope he will get all right. He brought a strangely new personality to English art, and was a master in his way of fantastic grace, and the charm of the unreal. His muse had moods of terrible laughter. Behind his grotesques there seemed to lurk some curious philosophy…” - Oscar Wilde

16. “So with curious eyes and sick surmiseWe watched him day by day,And wondered if each one of usWould end the self-same way,For none can tell to what red HellHis sightless soul may stray.” - Oscar Wilde

17. “My wallpaper and I are fighting a duel to the death. One or the other of us has to go.” - Oscar Wilde

18. “A man's life is of more value than a woman's. It has larger issues, wider scope, greater ambitions. Our lives revolve in curves of emotions. It is upon lines of intellect that a man's life progresses. I have just learnt this, and much else with it, from Lord Goring. And I will not spoil your life for you, nor see you spoil it as a sacrifice to me, a useless sacrifice.” - Oscar Wilde

19. “Well, I don't like your clothes. You look perfectly ridiculous in them. Why on earth don't you go up and change? It's perfectly childish to be in mourning for a man who is actually staying a whole week with you in your house as a guest. I call it grotesque.” - Oscar Wilde

20. “So he was queer, E.M. Forster. It wasn't his middle name (that would be 'Morgan'), but it was his orientation, his romping pleasure, his half-secret, his romantic passion. In the long-suppressed novel Maurice the title character blurts out his truth, 'I'm an unspeakable of the Oscar Wilde sort.' It must have felt that way when Forster came of sexual age in the last years of the 19th century: seriously risky and dangerously blurt-able. The public cry had caught Wilde, exposed and arrested him, broken him in prison. He was one face of anxiety to Forster; his mother was another. As long as she lived (and they lived together until she died, when he was 66), he couldn't let her know.” - Michael Levenson

21. “Appearance blinds, whereas words reveal.” - Oscar Wilde

22. “I'm a man of simple tastes. I'm always satisfied with the best.” - Oscar Wilde

23. “Now, I have always wanted to agree with Lady Bracknell that there is no earthly use for the upper and lower classes unless they set each other a good example. But I shouldn't pretend that the consensus itself was any of my concern. It was absurd and slightly despicable, in the first decade of Thatcher and Reagan, to hear former and actual radicals intone piously against 'the politics of confrontation.' I suppose that, if this collection has a point, it is the desire of one individual to see the idea of confrontation kept alive.” - Christopher Hitchens

24. “I want to be good. I can't bear the idea of my soul being hideous.” - Oscar Wilde

25. “I asked the question for the best reason possible, for the only reason, indeed, that excuses anyone for asking any question - simple curiosity.” - Oscar Wilde

26. “As for believing things, I can believe anything, provided that it is quite incredible.” - Oscar Wilde

27. “The ugly and stupid have the best of it in this world. They can sit at their ease and gape at the play. If they know nothing of victory, they are at least spared the knowledge of defeat. They live as we all should live-- undisturbed, indifferent, and without disquiet. They never bring ruin upon others, nor ever receive it from alien hands. Your rank and wealth, Henry; my brains, such as they are-- my art, whatever it may be worth; Dorian Gray's good looks-- we shall all suffer for what the gods have given us, suffer terribly.” - Oscar Wilde

28. “I find him in the curves of certain lines, in the loveliness and subtleties of certain colours.” - Oscar Wilde

29. “You told me you had destroyed it." "I was wrong. It has destroyed me.” - Oscar Wilde

30. “I am an unspeakable of the Oscar Wilde sort.” - E.M. Forster

31. “My Salome is a mystic the sister of Salammbô a Saint Thérèse who worships the moon.” - Oscar Wilde

32. “Some believe that as an icon the image of Oscar Wilde is too old and notorious--all right, not an icon, let him be our oriflamme.” - Lara Biyuts

33. “Yet ruled he not long, so great had been his suffering, and so bitter the fire of his testing, for after the space of three years he died. And he who came after him ruled evilly.” - Oscar Wilde

34. “She lives the poetry she cannot write.” - Oscar Wilde

35. “I can now recreate life in a way that was hidden from me, before.'A dream of form in days of thought:” - Oscar Wilde

36. “this woman is a genius in the day time and a beauty at night” - Oscar Wilde

37. “Those who find beautiful meanings in beautiful things are the cultivated. For these there is hope.” - Oscar Wilde

38. “... Likewise, Oscar Wilde asked an English journalist to look over 'The Picture of Dorian Gray' before publication: "Will you also look after my 'wills' and 'shalls' in proof. I am Celtic in my use of these words, not English." Wilde's novel upset virtually every code of late Victorian respectability, but he had to get his modal auxiliaries just right.” - Andrew Elfenbein

39. “Fashion is what one wears oneself. What is unfashionable is what other people wear.Just as vulgarity is simply the conduct of other people.And falsehoods the truths of other people.Other people are quite dreadful. The only possible society is oneself.To love oneself is the beginning of a life-long romance.” - Oscar Wilde