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The Wit & Wisdom of Oscar Wilde: A Treasury of Quotations, Anecdotes, and Observations
Wilde on "A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal." Nearly a century after his death, the wit of Oscar Wilde remains as fresh and barbed as ever. This collection of his works, letters, reviews, anecdotes and repartee is ample proof of this iconoclast's enduring place in the world of arts and letters.
224 pages, Hardcover
First published January 27, 1998
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1475 people want to read
About the author
Oscar Wilde
5,845 books39.5k followersOscar Fingal O'Fflahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular playwrights in London in the early 1890s. He is best remembered for his epigrams and plays, his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, and his criminal conviction for gross indecency for homosexual acts.
Wilde's parents were Anglo-Irish intellectuals in Dublin. In his youth, Wilde learned to speak fluent French and German. At university, he read Greats; he demonstrated himself to be an exceptional classicist, first at Trinity College Dublin, then at Magdalen College, Oxford. He became associated with the emerging philosophy of aestheticism, led by two of his tutors, Walter Pater and John Ruskin. After university, Wilde moved to London into fashionable cultural and social circles.
Wilde tried his hand at various literary activities: he wrote a play, published a book of poems, lectured in the United States and Canada on "The English Renaissance" in art and interior decoration, and then returned to London where he lectured on his American travels and wrote reviews for various periodicals. Known for his biting wit, flamboyant dress and glittering conversational skill, Wilde became one of the best-known personalities of his day. At the turn of the 1890s, he refined his ideas about the supremacy of art in a series of dialogues and essays, and incorporated themes of decadence, duplicity, and beauty into what would be his only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890). Wilde returned to drama, writing Salome (1891) in French while in Paris, but it was refused a licence for England due to an absolute prohibition on the portrayal of Biblical subjects on the English stage. Undiscouraged, Wilde produced four society comedies in the early 1890s, which made him one of the most successful playwrights of late-Victorian London.
At the height of his fame and success, while An Ideal Husband (1895) and The Importance of Being Earnest (1895) were still being performed in London, Wilde issued a civil writ against John Sholto Douglas, the 9th Marquess of Queensberry for criminal libel. The Marquess was the father of Wilde's lover, Lord Alfred Douglas. The libel hearings unearthed evidence that caused Wilde to drop his charges and led to his own arrest and criminal prosecution for gross indecency with other males. The jury was unable to reach a verdict and so a retrial was ordered. In the second trial Wilde was convicted and sentenced to two years' hard labour, the maximum penalty, and was jailed from 1895 to 1897. During his last year in prison he wrote De Profundis (published posthumously in abridged form in 1905), a long letter that discusses his spiritual journey through his trials and is a dark counterpoint to his earlier philosophy of pleasure. On the day of his release, he caught the overnight steamer to France, never to return to Britain or Ireland. In France and Italy, he wrote his last work, The Ballad of Reading Gaol (1898), a long poem commemorating the harsh rhythms of prison life.
Wilde's parents were Anglo-Irish intellectuals in Dublin. In his youth, Wilde learned to speak fluent French and German. At university, he read Greats; he demonstrated himself to be an exceptional classicist, first at Trinity College Dublin, then at Magdalen College, Oxford. He became associated with the emerging philosophy of aestheticism, led by two of his tutors, Walter Pater and John Ruskin. After university, Wilde moved to London into fashionable cultural and social circles.
Wilde tried his hand at various literary activities: he wrote a play, published a book of poems, lectured in the United States and Canada on "The English Renaissance" in art and interior decoration, and then returned to London where he lectured on his American travels and wrote reviews for various periodicals. Known for his biting wit, flamboyant dress and glittering conversational skill, Wilde became one of the best-known personalities of his day. At the turn of the 1890s, he refined his ideas about the supremacy of art in a series of dialogues and essays, and incorporated themes of decadence, duplicity, and beauty into what would be his only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890). Wilde returned to drama, writing Salome (1891) in French while in Paris, but it was refused a licence for England due to an absolute prohibition on the portrayal of Biblical subjects on the English stage. Undiscouraged, Wilde produced four society comedies in the early 1890s, which made him one of the most successful playwrights of late-Victorian London.
At the height of his fame and success, while An Ideal Husband (1895) and The Importance of Being Earnest (1895) were still being performed in London, Wilde issued a civil writ against John Sholto Douglas, the 9th Marquess of Queensberry for criminal libel. The Marquess was the father of Wilde's lover, Lord Alfred Douglas. The libel hearings unearthed evidence that caused Wilde to drop his charges and led to his own arrest and criminal prosecution for gross indecency with other males. The jury was unable to reach a verdict and so a retrial was ordered. In the second trial Wilde was convicted and sentenced to two years' hard labour, the maximum penalty, and was jailed from 1895 to 1897. During his last year in prison he wrote De Profundis (published posthumously in abridged form in 1905), a long letter that discusses his spiritual journey through his trials and is a dark counterpoint to his earlier philosophy of pleasure. On the day of his release, he caught the overnight steamer to France, never to return to Britain or Ireland. In France and Italy, he wrote his last work, The Ballad of Reading Gaol (1898), a long poem commemorating the harsh rhythms of prison life.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 77 reviews
September 27, 2020
"Patriotism is the virtue of the vicious."
And other such witticisms which quite hold up today.
Oscar Wilde is as timeless as ever, and his books eminently quotable. Therefore, I simply must recommend cutting out the middle man as it were--and instead of reading the entirety of the the playwright's great works, simply get this book of quotes to enjoy.
Direct and to the point, as finely crafted observations on life and humanity as ever had been put from pen to paper. So why read any further?
Oscar no doubt would approve!
And other such witticisms which quite hold up today.
Oscar Wilde is as timeless as ever, and his books eminently quotable. Therefore, I simply must recommend cutting out the middle man as it were--and instead of reading the entirety of the the playwright's great works, simply get this book of quotes to enjoy.
Direct and to the point, as finely crafted observations on life and humanity as ever had been put from pen to paper. So why read any further?
Oscar no doubt would approve!
November 11, 2018
This was a quick read. I started and finished it while waiting in the bank the other day. There were some funny and insightful quotes and here are some of my favorites.
“To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.”
“When I am in trouble, eating is the only thing that consoles me. Indeed, when I am in really great trouble, as anyone who knows me intimately will tell you, I refuse everything except food and drink. At the present moment I am eating muffins because I am unhappy. Besides, I am particularly fond of muffins.”
“I don’t desire to change anything in England except the weather.”
“I only care to see doctors when I am in perfect health; then they comfort one, but when one is ill they are most depressing.”
“You believe good of everyone, Jane. It is a great fault.”
“It is only about things that do not interest one that one can give a really unbiased opinion, which is, no doubt, the reason why an unbiased opinion is always absolutely valueless. The man who sees both sides of a question is a man who sees absolutely nothing at all.”
“Thinking is the most unhealthy thing in the world, and people die of it just as they die of any other disease. Fortunately, in England at any rate, thought is not catching.”
“To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.”
“When I am in trouble, eating is the only thing that consoles me. Indeed, when I am in really great trouble, as anyone who knows me intimately will tell you, I refuse everything except food and drink. At the present moment I am eating muffins because I am unhappy. Besides, I am particularly fond of muffins.”
“I don’t desire to change anything in England except the weather.”
“I only care to see doctors when I am in perfect health; then they comfort one, but when one is ill they are most depressing.”
“You believe good of everyone, Jane. It is a great fault.”
“It is only about things that do not interest one that one can give a really unbiased opinion, which is, no doubt, the reason why an unbiased opinion is always absolutely valueless. The man who sees both sides of a question is a man who sees absolutely nothing at all.”
“Thinking is the most unhealthy thing in the world, and people die of it just as they die of any other disease. Fortunately, in England at any rate, thought is not catching.”
February 23, 2016
I adore Oscar Wilde, he had the most brilliant mind of his age! I love this book... all this beautiful quotes gathered in one place! Love it!
“Yes: I am a dreamer. For a dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world.”
Oscar Wilde
“Yes: I am a dreamer. For a dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world.”
Oscar Wilde
May 28, 2016
~To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist__ that is all.
Irrespective of the fact, whether I agree with all his thoughts or not. But I love his writing style and
He's the wittiest writer of all times. :')
Irrespective of the fact, whether I agree with all his thoughts or not. But I love his writing style and
He's the wittiest writer of all times. :')
November 25, 2022
Researching a quote, I stumbled over this one 5 years after first reading it. Wine glass in one hand, book in the other, this had me chuckling way more than during the first read. Had to raise the rating and would like to take a bit more of Mr Wilde's advice and wisdom into everyday life now.
May 4, 2026
“It is only the superficial qualities that last. Man's deeper nature is soon found out.”
“To love oneself is the beginning of a life
long romance.”
“The truth is rarely pure and never simple. Modern life would be very tedious if it were either, and modern literature a complete impossibility.”
“There is some flaw in each one of us.”
“Morality is simply the attitude we adopt towards people whom we personally dislike.”
“Loveless marriages are horrible. But there is one thing worse than an absolutely loveless marriage, a marriage in which there is love, but on one side only.”
“I am not quite sure that I quite know what pessimism really means. All I do know is that life cannot be understood without much charity, cannot be lived without much charity. It is love that is the explanation of this world, whatever may be the explanation of the next.”
“Nothing should be out of reach of hope.
Life is hope.”
“One should sympathise with the joy, the beauty, the colour of life. The less said about life's sores the better.”
“The soul is born old, but grows young.
That is the comedy of life. The body is born young, and grows old. That is life's tragedy.”
“When a man is old enough to do wrong he should be old enough to do right also.”
“The Book of Life begins with a man and a woman in a garden. It ends with Revelations.”
“I adore simple pleasures. They are the
last refuge of the complex.”
“There are moments when one has to choose between living one's own life, fully, entirely, completely, or dragging out some false, shallow, degrading existence that the world in its hypocrisy demands.”
“Experience is a question of instinct
about life.”
“Nowadays, to be intelligible is to be
found out.”
“We are all in the gutter, but some of us
are looking at the stars.”
“The criminal classes are so close to us that even the policeman can see them. They are so far away from us that only the poet can understand them.”
“There is nothing that art cannot express.”
“Poets are not scrupulous. They know how useful passion is for publication.
Nowadays a broken heart will run to many editions.”
“A cigarette is the perfect type of a perfect pleasure. It is exquisite, and it leaves one unsatisfied.”
“Life is not governed by will or intention.
Life is a question of the nerves and fibres and slowly built up cells in which thought hides itself and passion has its dreams.”
“Punctuality is the thief of time.”
“Youth! There is nothing like it. It is absurd to talk of the ignorance of youth.
The only people to whose opinions I listen now with any respect are persons much younger than myself. They seem in front of me. Life has revealed to them her latest wonder.”
“It is a mistake to think that the passion one feels in creation is ever really shown in the work one creates. Art is always more abstract than we fancy. Form and colour tell us of form and colour, that is all.”
“To become the spectator of one's own life is to escape its suffering.”
“Most people become bankrupt through having invested too heavily in the prose of life. To have ruined oneself over its poetry is an honour.”
“The way of paradoxes is the way of truth.
To test reality we must see it on the tight rope. When the verities become acrobats we can judge them.”
“Nothing can cure the soul but the senses, just as nothing can cure the senses but the soul.”
“The aim of life is self-development. To realise one's nature perfectly, that is what each of us is here for.”
“The essence of thought, as the essence of
life, is growth.”
“Music creates for one a past of which one has been ignorant, and fills one with a sense of sorrows that have been hidden from one's tears. I can fancy a man who has led a perfectly common place life, hearing by chance some curious piece of music, and suddenly discovering that his soul, without his being conscious of it, had passed through terrible experiences, and known fearful joys, or wild romantic loves, or great renunciations.”
“No real artist ever sees things as they really are.”
“Art finds her own perfection within, and not outside of, herself. She is not to be judged by any external standard of resem blance. She is a veil rather than a mirror.
She has flowers that no forests know of, birds that no woodland possesses. She makes and unmakes many worlds, and can draw the moon from heaven with a scarlet thread. Hers are the 'forms more real than living man,' and hers the great archetypes, of which things that have existence are but unfinished copies. Nature has, in her eyes, no laws, no uniformity. She can work miracles at her will, and when she calls monsters from the deep they come. She can bid the almond tree to blossom in winter and send the snow upon the ripe cornfield. At her word the frost lays its silver finger on the burning mouth of June, and the winged lions creep out from the hollows of the Lydian hills. The dryads peer from the thicket as she passes by, and the brown fauns smile strangely at her when she comes near them. She has hawk-faced gods that worship her, and the centaurs gallop at her side.”
“Better to take pleasure in a rose than to
put its root under a microscope.”
“Art is to a certain degree a mode of acting, an attempt to realise one's own personality on some imaginative plane out of the reach of the trammelling accidents and limitations of real life.”
“True romance is not killed by reality.”
“Actors are so fortunate. They can choose whether they will appear in tragedy or in comedy, whether they will suffer or make merry, laugh or shed tears. But in real life it is different. Most men and women are forced to perform parts for which they have no qualifications. The world is a stage, but the play is badly cast.”
“To live is the rarest thing in the world.
Most people exist, that is all.”
“To reject one's own experiences is to arrest one's own development. To deny one's own experiences is to put a lie into the lips of one's own life. It is no less than a denial of the Soul.”
“We call ourselves a utilitarian age, and we do not know the uses of any single thing.
We have forgotten that water can cleanse, and fire purify, and that the Earth is mother to us all. As a consequence our art is of the moon and plays with shadows. I feel sure that in elemental forces there is purification, and I want to go back to them and live in their presence.
No one can possibly shut the doors against Love for ever. There is no prison in the world into which Love cannot force an entrance.
Do not be afraid of the past. The past, the present and the future are but one moment in the sight of God, in whose sight we should try to live. Time and space, succession and extension, are merely accidental conditions of Thought. The Imagination can transcend them, and move in a free sphere of ideal existences. Things are, in their essence, what we choose to make them.”
“To love oneself is the beginning of a life
long romance.”
“The truth is rarely pure and never simple. Modern life would be very tedious if it were either, and modern literature a complete impossibility.”
“There is some flaw in each one of us.”
“Morality is simply the attitude we adopt towards people whom we personally dislike.”
“Loveless marriages are horrible. But there is one thing worse than an absolutely loveless marriage, a marriage in which there is love, but on one side only.”
“I am not quite sure that I quite know what pessimism really means. All I do know is that life cannot be understood without much charity, cannot be lived without much charity. It is love that is the explanation of this world, whatever may be the explanation of the next.”
“Nothing should be out of reach of hope.
Life is hope.”
“One should sympathise with the joy, the beauty, the colour of life. The less said about life's sores the better.”
“The soul is born old, but grows young.
That is the comedy of life. The body is born young, and grows old. That is life's tragedy.”
“When a man is old enough to do wrong he should be old enough to do right also.”
“The Book of Life begins with a man and a woman in a garden. It ends with Revelations.”
“I adore simple pleasures. They are the
last refuge of the complex.”
“There are moments when one has to choose between living one's own life, fully, entirely, completely, or dragging out some false, shallow, degrading existence that the world in its hypocrisy demands.”
“Experience is a question of instinct
about life.”
“Nowadays, to be intelligible is to be
found out.”
“We are all in the gutter, but some of us
are looking at the stars.”
“The criminal classes are so close to us that even the policeman can see them. They are so far away from us that only the poet can understand them.”
“There is nothing that art cannot express.”
“Poets are not scrupulous. They know how useful passion is for publication.
Nowadays a broken heart will run to many editions.”
“A cigarette is the perfect type of a perfect pleasure. It is exquisite, and it leaves one unsatisfied.”
“Life is not governed by will or intention.
Life is a question of the nerves and fibres and slowly built up cells in which thought hides itself and passion has its dreams.”
“Punctuality is the thief of time.”
“Youth! There is nothing like it. It is absurd to talk of the ignorance of youth.
The only people to whose opinions I listen now with any respect are persons much younger than myself. They seem in front of me. Life has revealed to them her latest wonder.”
“It is a mistake to think that the passion one feels in creation is ever really shown in the work one creates. Art is always more abstract than we fancy. Form and colour tell us of form and colour, that is all.”
“To become the spectator of one's own life is to escape its suffering.”
“Most people become bankrupt through having invested too heavily in the prose of life. To have ruined oneself over its poetry is an honour.”
“The way of paradoxes is the way of truth.
To test reality we must see it on the tight rope. When the verities become acrobats we can judge them.”
“Nothing can cure the soul but the senses, just as nothing can cure the senses but the soul.”
“The aim of life is self-development. To realise one's nature perfectly, that is what each of us is here for.”
“The essence of thought, as the essence of
life, is growth.”
“Music creates for one a past of which one has been ignorant, and fills one with a sense of sorrows that have been hidden from one's tears. I can fancy a man who has led a perfectly common place life, hearing by chance some curious piece of music, and suddenly discovering that his soul, without his being conscious of it, had passed through terrible experiences, and known fearful joys, or wild romantic loves, or great renunciations.”
“No real artist ever sees things as they really are.”
“Art finds her own perfection within, and not outside of, herself. She is not to be judged by any external standard of resem blance. She is a veil rather than a mirror.
She has flowers that no forests know of, birds that no woodland possesses. She makes and unmakes many worlds, and can draw the moon from heaven with a scarlet thread. Hers are the 'forms more real than living man,' and hers the great archetypes, of which things that have existence are but unfinished copies. Nature has, in her eyes, no laws, no uniformity. She can work miracles at her will, and when she calls monsters from the deep they come. She can bid the almond tree to blossom in winter and send the snow upon the ripe cornfield. At her word the frost lays its silver finger on the burning mouth of June, and the winged lions creep out from the hollows of the Lydian hills. The dryads peer from the thicket as she passes by, and the brown fauns smile strangely at her when she comes near them. She has hawk-faced gods that worship her, and the centaurs gallop at her side.”
“Better to take pleasure in a rose than to
put its root under a microscope.”
“Art is to a certain degree a mode of acting, an attempt to realise one's own personality on some imaginative plane out of the reach of the trammelling accidents and limitations of real life.”
“True romance is not killed by reality.”
“Actors are so fortunate. They can choose whether they will appear in tragedy or in comedy, whether they will suffer or make merry, laugh or shed tears. But in real life it is different. Most men and women are forced to perform parts for which they have no qualifications. The world is a stage, but the play is badly cast.”
“To live is the rarest thing in the world.
Most people exist, that is all.”
“To reject one's own experiences is to arrest one's own development. To deny one's own experiences is to put a lie into the lips of one's own life. It is no less than a denial of the Soul.”
“We call ourselves a utilitarian age, and we do not know the uses of any single thing.
We have forgotten that water can cleanse, and fire purify, and that the Earth is mother to us all. As a consequence our art is of the moon and plays with shadows. I feel sure that in elemental forces there is purification, and I want to go back to them and live in their presence.
No one can possibly shut the doors against Love for ever. There is no prison in the world into which Love cannot force an entrance.
Do not be afraid of the past. The past, the present and the future are but one moment in the sight of God, in whose sight we should try to live. Time and space, succession and extension, are merely accidental conditions of Thought. The Imagination can transcend them, and move in a free sphere of ideal existences. Things are, in their essence, what we choose to make them.”
July 8, 2016
An absolute genius! I love this man! His extremely wise words miraculously work in today's societies. I will always re-read this handy little book. Granted, not all of his quotes are in this book, but a whole lot of them are. I do adore books, and love to keep them crease-free and in pristine condition, but perhaps with this one I will highlight the quotes I simply adore the most. And ones that I feel are relevant in my life. Oscar Wilde; I'm so glad I have discovered your genius, and only regret not finding out about you sooner. Having already read Dorian Gray (which I've removed from my Goodreads 'read' list as I want to re-visit it) I can't wait to read the rest of his works.
September 20, 2008
i may not always agree with his statements, but i'll be damned if he isn't the wittiest man i've ever read.
May 5, 2011
This is my guide to life.
April 21, 2019
Oscar Wilde was an incredibly witty individual and this is a great collection of his sayings and witticisms. I don't know if it really gives us a great view of his character. Quite often he contradicts himself in these sayings and it's clear that he was striving for an effect. Many of the sayings probably can't be completely understood outside of the context in which he spoke them. One theme that runs through the collection is Wilde's stated service to "style" in everything he did.
November 7, 2024
Wit & Wisdom is a collection of Quotations by Oscar Wilde.
Oscar Wilde's writing is just brilliant. This is a great book to have because it takes all of the brilliant quotes from Wilde's career and puts them into one place.
The quotations are split into categories which is great for if you want to pick the book up and take inspiration from a certain topic.
I hight recommend this book to Oscar Wilde fans.
Oscar Wilde's writing is just brilliant. This is a great book to have because it takes all of the brilliant quotes from Wilde's career and puts them into one place.
The quotations are split into categories which is great for if you want to pick the book up and take inspiration from a certain topic.
I hight recommend this book to Oscar Wilde fans.
September 24, 2022
" Yes: I am a dreamer. For the dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world. "
4,25⭐
4,25⭐
June 10, 2023
Citaten är förstklassiga, Wilde är ett litterärt geni, utan dess like.
August 15, 2017
Some examples:
Good taste is the excuse I've always given for leading such a bad life.
I am always astonishing myself. It is the only thing that makes life worth living.
Life cannot be written. Life can only be lived.
People who count their chickens before they are hatched, act very wisely, because chickens run about so absurdly that it is impossible to count them accurately.
It is absurd to divide people into good or bad. People are either charming or tedious.
I like men who have a future and women who have a past.
To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance.
Being natural is simply a pose, and the most irritating pose I know.
Experience is the name everyone gives to their mistakes.
He hasn't a single redeeming vice.
I can resist everything except temptation.
Starvation, and not sin, is the parent of modern crime.
It is the confession, not the priest that gives us absolution.
Most religious teachers spend their time trying to prove the unproven by the unprovable.
The true artist is a man who believes absolutely in himself, because he is absolutely himself.
To reveal art and conceal the artist is art's aim.
No great artist sees things as they really are. If he did he would cease to be an artist.
The only portraits in which one believes are portraits where there is very little of the sitter and a very great deal of the artist.
Only the great masters of style ever succeed in being obscure.
There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written or badly written. That is all.
There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.
I hate people who talk about themselves, as you do, when one wants to talk about oneself, as I do.
I was working on the proof of one of my poems all the morning, and took out a comma. In the afternoon I put it back again.
Good taste is the excuse I've always given for leading such a bad life.
I am always astonishing myself. It is the only thing that makes life worth living.
Life cannot be written. Life can only be lived.
People who count their chickens before they are hatched, act very wisely, because chickens run about so absurdly that it is impossible to count them accurately.
It is absurd to divide people into good or bad. People are either charming or tedious.
I like men who have a future and women who have a past.
To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance.
Being natural is simply a pose, and the most irritating pose I know.
Experience is the name everyone gives to their mistakes.
He hasn't a single redeeming vice.
I can resist everything except temptation.
Starvation, and not sin, is the parent of modern crime.
It is the confession, not the priest that gives us absolution.
Most religious teachers spend their time trying to prove the unproven by the unprovable.
The true artist is a man who believes absolutely in himself, because he is absolutely himself.
To reveal art and conceal the artist is art's aim.
No great artist sees things as they really are. If he did he would cease to be an artist.
The only portraits in which one believes are portraits where there is very little of the sitter and a very great deal of the artist.
Only the great masters of style ever succeed in being obscure.
There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written or badly written. That is all.
There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.
I hate people who talk about themselves, as you do, when one wants to talk about oneself, as I do.
I was working on the proof of one of my poems all the morning, and took out a comma. In the afternoon I put it back again.
July 10, 2008
More than the messages that some of the quotations convey, is the genius behind their structure that appeals me.
September 18, 2009
Brittany bought this for me! Best present ever.
August 22, 2011
A wonderful collection of some of the best aphorisms ever spoken from one of the wittiest men who ever lived. I can't get enough of Oscar's quotations.
October 25, 2014
A must-read for all Oscar Wilde fans.
January 17, 2013
Oscar Wilde is always my inspiration. He must have been witty, funny and wise back then. And I will re-read this again, and again :))
March 15, 2014
charming and wise
October 14, 2018
我滿喜歡Wilde的誠實不過他的想法有時候有一點無恥、讓我覺得很刺激、可能是因為他面對現實。
February 3, 2008
Oscar is the quintessential wit-clever, biting, and wise. His wit can never be over-rated. A must.
November 6, 2012
A short and sweet sample of one of my favorite authors. I'll definitely be reading this again.
August 13, 2021
Wit and Wisdom: A Book of Quotations, by Oscar Wilde
“Yes: I am a dreamer. For a dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world.”
“To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.”
“When I am in trouble, eating is the only thing that consoles me. Indeed, when I am in really great trouble, as anyone who knows me intimately will tell you, I refuse everything except food and drink. At the present moment I am eating muffins because I am unhappy. Besides, I am particularly fond of muffins.”
“I don’t desire to change anything in England except the weather.”
“I only care to see doctors when I am in perfect health; then they comfort one, but when one is ill they are most depressing.”
“You believe good of everyone, Jane. It is a great fault.”
“It is only about things that do not interest one that one can give a really unbiased opinion, which is, no doubt, the reason why an unbiased opinion is always absolutely valueless. The man who sees both sides of a question is a man who sees absolutely nothing at all.”
“Thinking is the most unhealthy thing in the world, and people die of it just as they die of any other disease. Fortunately, in England at any rate, thought is not catching.”
"Patriotism is the virtue of the vicious."
Other examples:
Good taste is the excuse I've always given for leading such a bad life.
I am always astonishing myself. It is the only thing that makes life worth living.
Life cannot be written. Life can only be lived.
People who count their chickens before they are hatched, act very wisely, because chickens run about so absurdly that it is impossible to count them accurately.
It is absurd to divide people into good or bad. People are either charming or tedious.
I like men who have a future and women who have a past.
To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance.
Being natural is simply a pose, and the most irritating pose I know.
Experience is the name everyone gives to their mistakes.
He hasn't a single redeeming vice.
I can resist everything except temptation.
Starvation, and not sin, is the parent of modern crime.
It is the confession, not the priest that gives us absolution.
Most religious teachers spend their time trying to prove the unproven by the unprovable.
The true artist is a man who believes absolutely in himself, because he is absolutely himself.
To reveal art and conceal the artist is art's aim.
No great artist sees things as they really are. If he did he would cease to be an artist.
The only portraits in which one believes are portraits where there is very little of the sitter and a very great deal of the artist.
Only the great masters of style ever succeed in being obscure.
There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written or badly written. That is all.
There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.
I hate people who talk about themselves, as you do, when one wants to talk about oneself, as I do.
I was working on the proof of one of my poems all the morning, and took out a comma. In the afternoon I put it back again.
…
“Yes: I am a dreamer. For a dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world.”
“To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.”
“When I am in trouble, eating is the only thing that consoles me. Indeed, when I am in really great trouble, as anyone who knows me intimately will tell you, I refuse everything except food and drink. At the present moment I am eating muffins because I am unhappy. Besides, I am particularly fond of muffins.”
“I don’t desire to change anything in England except the weather.”
“I only care to see doctors when I am in perfect health; then they comfort one, but when one is ill they are most depressing.”
“You believe good of everyone, Jane. It is a great fault.”
“It is only about things that do not interest one that one can give a really unbiased opinion, which is, no doubt, the reason why an unbiased opinion is always absolutely valueless. The man who sees both sides of a question is a man who sees absolutely nothing at all.”
“Thinking is the most unhealthy thing in the world, and people die of it just as they die of any other disease. Fortunately, in England at any rate, thought is not catching.”
"Patriotism is the virtue of the vicious."
Other examples:
Good taste is the excuse I've always given for leading such a bad life.
I am always astonishing myself. It is the only thing that makes life worth living.
Life cannot be written. Life can only be lived.
People who count their chickens before they are hatched, act very wisely, because chickens run about so absurdly that it is impossible to count them accurately.
It is absurd to divide people into good or bad. People are either charming or tedious.
I like men who have a future and women who have a past.
To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance.
Being natural is simply a pose, and the most irritating pose I know.
Experience is the name everyone gives to their mistakes.
He hasn't a single redeeming vice.
I can resist everything except temptation.
Starvation, and not sin, is the parent of modern crime.
It is the confession, not the priest that gives us absolution.
Most religious teachers spend their time trying to prove the unproven by the unprovable.
The true artist is a man who believes absolutely in himself, because he is absolutely himself.
To reveal art and conceal the artist is art's aim.
No great artist sees things as they really are. If he did he would cease to be an artist.
The only portraits in which one believes are portraits where there is very little of the sitter and a very great deal of the artist.
Only the great masters of style ever succeed in being obscure.
There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written or badly written. That is all.
There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.
I hate people who talk about themselves, as you do, when one wants to talk about oneself, as I do.
I was working on the proof of one of my poems all the morning, and took out a comma. In the afternoon I put it back again.
…
January 23, 2025
Before Oscar Wilde became a literary personality he was known, particularly when at Magdalen College, Oxford, was widely recognised as a conversationalist who could entertain for hours with his witticisms, anecdotes and epigrams. He was always in demand so it is no surprise to find many books containing selections of his views, comments, axioms etc and this is one of them.
Even before his fame he was in great demand as a conversationalist and this book contains any number of witticisms noted 'In Conversation' - good job someone noted them down at the time!! The other sources for the book are lines from his works that he was very adept at encompassing in his writings. Now whether he truly believed in everything he expounded is perhaps uncertain, or did he write these things for the effect he knew the statements would have on readers? Who knows ... only Oscar.
Whatever the answer to that little conundrum is, many of his statements are most entertaining such as in 'An Ideal Husband' with 'Questions are never indiscreet. Answers sometimes are.' And in conversation he is reported to have said, 'The value of the telephone is what two people have to say.' One can't argue with that!
And he can be quite amusing as in 'The Importance of Being Earnest' when the view was 'I am not in favour of long engagements. They give people the opportunity of finding out each other's character before marriage, which I think is never advisable.' I can't speak from experience but there could be a lot of truth in that statement! And once again in conversation he said, 'Oh, I am so glad you've come. There are a hundred things I want not to say to you.' I wonder if a quiet time followed?!
In 'The Picture of Dorian Gray' it was said, 'I always like to know everything about my new friends, and nothing about my old ones.' That could make sense once one has established the difference between new and old as far as friendship goes.
There are plenty of such aphorisms in Oscar's life and work and his verbal virtuosity and mental agility to trot them out ensured that they were recorded, one way or another, and can readily be gathered together for readers to enjoy in books such as this one.
Even before his fame he was in great demand as a conversationalist and this book contains any number of witticisms noted 'In Conversation' - good job someone noted them down at the time!! The other sources for the book are lines from his works that he was very adept at encompassing in his writings. Now whether he truly believed in everything he expounded is perhaps uncertain, or did he write these things for the effect he knew the statements would have on readers? Who knows ... only Oscar.
Whatever the answer to that little conundrum is, many of his statements are most entertaining such as in 'An Ideal Husband' with 'Questions are never indiscreet. Answers sometimes are.' And in conversation he is reported to have said, 'The value of the telephone is what two people have to say.' One can't argue with that!
And he can be quite amusing as in 'The Importance of Being Earnest' when the view was 'I am not in favour of long engagements. They give people the opportunity of finding out each other's character before marriage, which I think is never advisable.' I can't speak from experience but there could be a lot of truth in that statement! And once again in conversation he said, 'Oh, I am so glad you've come. There are a hundred things I want not to say to you.' I wonder if a quiet time followed?!
In 'The Picture of Dorian Gray' it was said, 'I always like to know everything about my new friends, and nothing about my old ones.' That could make sense once one has established the difference between new and old as far as friendship goes.
There are plenty of such aphorisms in Oscar's life and work and his verbal virtuosity and mental agility to trot them out ensured that they were recorded, one way or another, and can readily be gathered together for readers to enjoy in books such as this one.
January 31, 2018
This was a fun book to dip into to pick up Wilde's witticisms. Some of my favorites:
On Literature:
"There is a great deal to be said in favor of reading a novel backwards. The last page is, as a rule, the most interesting and when one begins with the catastrophe or denouement one feels on pleasant terms of equality with the author."
"To know the vintage and quality of a wine one need not drink the whole cask. It must be perfectly easy in half an hour to say whether a book is worth anything or worth reading. Ten minutes are really sufficient, if one has an instinct for form. Who wants to wade through a full volume? One tastes it, and that is quite enough."
Quips:
"When I am in trouble, eating is the only thing that consoles me. Indeed, when I am in really great trouble...I refuse everything except food and drink."
On Literature:
"There is a great deal to be said in favor of reading a novel backwards. The last page is, as a rule, the most interesting and when one begins with the catastrophe or denouement one feels on pleasant terms of equality with the author."
"To know the vintage and quality of a wine one need not drink the whole cask. It must be perfectly easy in half an hour to say whether a book is worth anything or worth reading. Ten minutes are really sufficient, if one has an instinct for form. Who wants to wade through a full volume? One tastes it, and that is quite enough."
Quips:
"When I am in trouble, eating is the only thing that consoles me. Indeed, when I am in really great trouble...I refuse everything except food and drink."
February 18, 2022
One of my favorite stories about Oscar Wilde concerned his visit to the rough mining town of Leadville Colorado. This was not exactly the ideal audience for a effite, flamboyant gay man. No surprisingly, his first night's audience was sparse, but his performance was so compelling, he won over the crowd, and on his second night, the performance hall was packed. It must have been quite a performance.
Wilde was, of course, one of the sharpest and wittiest contrarians in literary history. Unfortunately, compiling all his witty remarks in one book is not the way to make a person appreciate the quickness of his tongue and his constant challenge of convention. Instead, it makes him sound repetative and even boorish. I doubt that this is an accurate impression.
Better to read his best works and sample his witty remarks in small doses.
Wilde was, of course, one of the sharpest and wittiest contrarians in literary history. Unfortunately, compiling all his witty remarks in one book is not the way to make a person appreciate the quickness of his tongue and his constant challenge of convention. Instead, it makes him sound repetative and even boorish. I doubt that this is an accurate impression.
Better to read his best works and sample his witty remarks in small doses.
December 4, 2022
This is a fun little collection of various quips taken from Wilde's fiction, essays and personal conversations. The reader needs to understand that these lines are not necessarily what Wilde himself actually thought about art, culture or society--given that they're often delivered by fictional characters crafted by Wilde. The characters found in "The Importance Of Being Earnest", for instance, were vain hypocrites. Wilde himself was vain, of course, but was using these characters to poke fun at society.
Each of the quotations are attributed to the works from which they were drawn, and the works are listed at the end. Of course now I have to get ahold of those works so I can read them...which I'll do. How can I not, having read this?
Each of the quotations are attributed to the works from which they were drawn, and the works are listed at the end. Of course now I have to get ahold of those works so I can read them...which I'll do. How can I not, having read this?
October 18, 2025
A sharp little collection that shows just how quick and witty Oscar Wilde’s mind was. The quotes are pulled from different works and moments in his life, so it’s no surprise that some of them clash with each other. A few only make full sense if you know the original context, but browsing by theme makes it easy to dip in and find something that fits your mood. It’s also handy having so many of his best lines gathered in one place. I don't agree with many quotes, but they are interesting nevertheless. Some quotes haven’t aged well, especially when it comes to women, but considering when they were written and in what context, I can overlook that.
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