Quotes from Oscar Wilde

The spirit of an age may be best expressed in the abstract ideal arts, for the spirit itself is abstract and ideal.

One should never make one's entrance with a scandal. One should reserve that to give an interest to one's old age.

I am afraid he has one of those terribly weak natures that are susceptible to influence.

The man who says his wife can't take a joke, forgets that she took him.

Bigamy is having one wife too many. Monogamy is the same.

Woman begins by resisting a man's advances and ends by blocking his retreat.

Dammit Sir, it's your duty to get married. You can't always be living for pleasure!

The proper basis for marriage is a mutual misunderstanding.

To speak frankly, 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.

The one charm of marriage is that it makes a life of deception absolutely necessary for both parties.

It is he who has broken the bond of marriage - not I. I only break its bondage.

One should always be in love. That's the reason one should never marry.

Two men look out a window. One sees mud, the other sees the stars.

If you cannot prove a man wrong, don't panic. You can always call him names.

Disobedience, in the eyes of any one who has read history, is man's original virtue. It is through disobedience that progress has been made, through disobedience and through rebellion.

Every great man nowadays has his disciples, and it is usually Judas who writes the biography.

A man who takes himself too seriously will find that no one else takes him seriously.

The only thing that ever consoles man for the stupid things he does is the praise he always gives himself for doing them.

To have become a deeper man is the privilege of those who have suffered.

The man who can dominate a London dinner-table can dominate the world.

And thus we rust Life's iron chain Degraded and alone: And some men curse, and some men weep, And some men make no moan: But God's eternal Laws are kind And break the heart of stone

A man who moralizes is a hypocrite, and a woman who does so is invariably plain.

Sometimes the poor are praised for being thrifty. But to recommend thrift to the poor is both grotesque and insulting. It is like advising a man who is starving to eat less.

Good resolutions are simply checks that men draw on a bank where they have no account.