50 Famous Oscar Wilde Quotes for Inspiration
Oscar Wilde, a literary genius of the Victorian era, is celebrated for his wit, wisdom, and timeless insight into human nature. His quotes continue to resonate with readers, offering perspectives on love, life, art, and society. In this collection of famous Oscar Wilde quotes, you’ll discover words that inspire, entertain, and provoke thought—perfect for anyone seeking Wilde’s brilliance and wit.
- “Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.”
- “To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.”
- “We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.”
- “The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it.”
- “Experience is merely the name men give to their mistakes.”
- “A dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight.”
- “You can never be overdressed or overeducated.”
- “I can resist everything except temptation.”
- “Art is the most intense mode of individualism the world has known.”
- “Every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future.”
- “The truth is rarely pure and never simple.”
- “It is what you read when you don’t have to that determines what you will be when you can’t help it.”
- “Life is far too important a thing ever to talk seriously about.”
- “To define is to limit.”
- “No good deed goes unpunished.”
- “The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame.”
- “Some things are more precious because they don’t last long.”
- “The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about.”
- “A man who does not think for himself does not think at all.”
- “I have nothing to declare except my genius.”
- “Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative.”
- “Laughter is not at all a bad beginning for a friendship, and it is far the best ending for one.”
- “Ambition is the last refuge of the failure.”
- “A gentleman is one who never hurts anyone’s feelings unintentionally.”
- “When the gods wish to punish us, they answer our prayers.”
- “Illusion is the first of all pleasures.”
- “Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.”
- “The only thing to do with good advice is to pass it on.”
- “The heart was made to be broken.”
- “I am not young enough to know everything.”
- “Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months.”
- “He has no enemies, but is intensely disliked by his friends.”
- “Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live.”
- “An idea that is not dangerous is unworthy of being called an idea at all.”
- “The world is a stage, but the play is badly cast.”
- “We live in an age when unnecessary things are our only necessities.”
- “Whenever people agree with me, I always feel I must be wrong.”
- “The only difference between the saint and the sinner is that every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future.”
- “The truth is entirely and absolutely a matter of style.”
- “Society often forgives the criminal; it never forgives the dreamer.”
- “Morality is simply the attitude we adopt towards people we personally dislike.”
- “The one duty we owe to history is to rewrite it.”
- “To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance.”
- “Life imitates art far more than art imitates life.”
- “Success is a science; if you have the conditions, you get the result.”
- “Only dull people are brilliant at breakfast.”
- “Every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of the sitter.”
- “Arguments are to be avoided; they are always vulgar and often convincing.”
- “We are each our own devil, and we make this world our hell.”
- “Nothing can cure the soul but the senses, just as nothing can cure the senses but the soul.”