Quotes from Oscar Wilde

Women spoil every romance by trying to make it last forever.

All I want now is to look at life. You may come and look at it with me, if you care to

He loves first editions, especially of women: little girls are his passion.

The girl laughed again. The joy of a caged bird was in her voice.

Stop, Basil! I won't hear it! cried Dorian, leaping to his feet. You must not tell me about things. What is done is done. What is past is past. You call yesterday the past? What has the actual lapse of time got to do with it? It is only shallow people who require years to get rid of an emotion. A man who is master of himself can end a sorrow as easily as he can invent a pleasure. I don't want to be at the mercy of my emotions. I want to use them, to enjoy them, and to dominate them.

To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people just exist.

Cecily: Oh, yes. Dr. Chasuble is a most learned man. He has never written a single book, so you can imagine how much he knows.

Starvation, and not sin, is the parent of modern crime'.

They spoil every romance by trying to make it last for ever. It is a meaningless word, too. The only difference between a caprice and a lifelong passion is that the caprice lasts a little longer.

She has the fascinating tyranny of youth, and the astonishing courage of innocence. 

They walked softly, as men do instinctively at night. The lamp cast fantastic shadows on the wall and staircase. A rising wind made some of the windows rattle.

Shall Joy wear what Grief has fashioned?

Never marry at all, Dorian. Men marry because they are tired; women, because they are curious: both are disappointed.

I am dying beyond my means

The more the public is interested in artists, the less it is interested in art. The personality of the artist is not a thing the public should know about. It is too accidental.

I have forgotten all about my school days. I have a vague impression that they were detestable.

Intellect is in itself an exaggeration, and destroys the harmony of any face. The moment one sits down to think, one becomes all nose, or all forehead, or something horrid.

What you read when you don't have to will determine what you will be when you can't help it.

Alas, I'm dying beyond my means

One is sure to be disappointed if one tries to get romance out of modern life.

All art is immortal. For emotion for the sake of emotion is the aim of art, and emotion for the sake of action is the aim of life.

Sono così intelligente che a volte non capisco una sola parola di quel che sto dicendo.

And now, let us go out on the terrace where 'droops the milk-white peacock like a ghost,' while the evening star 'washes the dusk with silver.' At twilight nature becomes a wonderfully suggestive effect, and is not without loveliness, though perhaps its chief use is to illustrate quotations from the poets.

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. That is all that can be said for them. They are simply cheques that men draw on a bank where they have no account.