Oscar Wilde

Each of the professions means a prejudice. The necessity for a career forces every one to take sides. We live in the age of the overworked, and the under-educated; the age in which people are so industrious that they become absolutely stupid.

One should either be a work of art, or wear a work of art.

Mere color, unspoiled by meaning, and unallied with definite form, can speak to the soul in a thousand different ways.

A man's face is his autobiography. A woman's face is her work of fiction.

I am the only person in the world I should like to know thoroughly.

Charity creates a multitude of sins.

One's past is what one is. It is the only way by which people should be judged.

I always pass on good advice. It is the only thing to do with it. It is never of any use to oneself.

Beauty is a form of genius - is higher, indeed, than genius, as it needs no explanation. It is of the great facts in the world like sunlight, or springtime, or the reflection in dark water of that silver shell we call the moon.

How marriage ruins a man! It is as demoralizing as cigarettes and far more expensive.

Democracy means simply the bludgeoning of the people by the people for the people.

To expect the unexpected shows a thoroughly modern intellect.

Questions are never indiscreet, answers sometimes are.

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

Morality is simply the attitude we adopt towards people whom we personally dislike.

It is through art, and through art only, that we can realise our perfection.

The world is a stage, but the play is badly cast.

It is only an auctioneer who can equally and impartially admire all schools of art.

It is what you read when you don't have to that determines what you will be when you can't help it.

Fathers should be neither seen nor heard. That is the only proper basis for family life.