Quotes from Oscar Wilde
Knowledge would be fatal. It is the uncertainty that charms one. A mist makes things wonderful.
— Oscar Wilde
If they know nothing of victory, they are at least spared the knowledge of defeat.
— Oscar Wilde
The English novels are the only relaxation of the intellectually unemployed. But one should not be too severe on them. They show a want of knowledge that must be the result of years of study.
— Oscar Wilde
Everybody who is incapable of learning has taken to teaching.
— Oscar Wilde
Is it thy will that I should wax and wane, Barter my cloth of gold for hodden grey, And at thy pleasure weave that web of pain Whose brightest threads are each a wasted day?
— Oscar Wilde
A simile committing suicide is always a depressing spectacle.
— Oscar Wilde
Society often forgives the criminal; it never forgives the dreamer.
— Oscar Wilde
Society exists only as a mental concept; in the real world there are only individuals.
— Oscar Wilde
To believe is very dull. To doubt is intensely engrossing. To be on the alert is to live, to be lulled into security is to die.
— Oscar Wilde
Whenever a man does a thoroughly stupid thing, it is always from the noblest motives.
— Oscar Wilde
Oh, I love London Society! It is entirely composed now of beautiful idiots and brilliant lunatics. Just what Society should be.
— Oscar Wilde
He thinks like a Tory, and talks like a Radical, and that's so important nowadays.
— Oscar Wilde