70 Oscar Wilde Quotes with Wit and Wisdom

Oscar Wilde, the master of wit and an unrivaled wordsmith of the 19th century, remains one of literature’s most captivating figures. His quotes sparkle with sharp wit and clever insight, revealing a deep understanding of human nature and society. Whether he’s offering a playful jab or a profound observation, Wilde’s words continue to charm and amuse readers, even today. Join us as we dive into some of his most delightful and memorable Oscar Wilde Quotes, each one a testament to his unparalleled talent for making us smile and think.

Oscar Wilde Quotes

1. “Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.” ~ Oscar Wilde

2. “Experience is merely the name men gave to their mistakes.” ~ Oscar Wilde

3. “You can never be overdressed or overeducated.” ~ Oscar Wilde

4. “Everything in moderation, including moderation.” ~ Oscar Wilde

5. “To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance.” ~ Oscar Wilde

6. “I can never travel without my diary, one should always have something sensational to read on the train.” ~ Oscar Wilde
7. “Nothing can cure the soul but the senses, just as nothing can cure the senses but the soul.” ~ Oscar Wilde
8. “The truth is rarely pure and never simple.” ~ Oscar Wilde
9. “I am so clever that sometimes I don’t understand a single word of what I am saying.” ~ Oscar Wilde
10. “I am not young enough to know everything.” ~ Oscar Wilde
11. “I have the simplest of tastes. I am always satisfied with the best.” ~ Oscar Wilde
12. “To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.” ~ Oscar Wilde
13. “You don’t love someone for their looks, or their clothes or their fancy car, but because they sing a song only you can hear.” ~ Oscar Wilde
14. “There is only one thing in life worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.” ~ Oscar Wilde
15. “Morality is simply the attitude we adopt towards people whom we personally dislike.” ~ Oscar Wilde
16. “He has no enemies, but is intensely disliked by his friends.” ~ Oscar Wilde
17. “The world is a stage, but the play is badly cast.” ~ Oscar Wilde
18. “Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go.” ~ Oscar Wilde
19. “There are only two tragedies in life: one is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it.” ~ Oscar Wilde
20. “We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.” ~ Oscar Wilde
21. “Success is a science; if you have the conditions, you get the result.” ~ Oscar Wilde
22. “The only difference between the saint and the sinner is that every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future.” ~ Oscar Wilde
23. “Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative.” ~ Oscar Wilde
24. “No man is rich enough to buy back his past.” ~ Oscar Wilde
25. “By giving us the opinions of the uneducated, journalism keeps us in touch with the ignorance of the community.” ~ Oscar Wilde
26. “Children begin by loving their parents; after a time they judge them; rarely, if ever, do they forgive them.” ~ Oscar Wilde
27. “Art is the most intense mode of individualism that the world has known.” ~ Oscar Wilde
28. “Men always want to be a woman’s first love. Women like to be a man’s last romance.” ~ Oscar Wilde
29. “If you are not too long, I will wait here for you all my life.” ~ Oscar Wilde
30. “Keep love in your heart. A life without it is like a sunless garden when the flowers are dead.” ~ Oscar Wilde
31. “An excellent man; he has no enemies; and none of his friends like him.” ~ Oscar Wilde
32. “Life imitates art far more than art imitates life.” ~ Oscar Wilde
33. “Between men and women there is no friendship possible. There is passion, enmity, worship, love, but no friendship.” ~ Oscar Wilde
34. “It is absurd to divide people into good and bad. People are either charming or tedious.” ~ Oscar Wilde
35. “True friends stab you in the front.” ~ Oscar Wilde
36. “Ambition is the last refuge of the failure.” ~ Oscar Wilde
37. “Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught.” ~ Oscar Wilde
38. “Women are made to be loved, not understood.” ~ Oscar Wilde
39. “It is through art, and through art only, that we can realize our perfection.” ~ Oscar Wilde
40. “It is better to be beautiful than to be good. But, it is better to be good than to be ugly.” ~ Oscar Wilde
41. “A man who does not think for himself does not think at all.” ~ Oscar Wilde
42. “Patriotism is the virtue of the vicious.” ~ Oscar Wilde
43. “Life is never fair, and perhaps it is a good thing for most of us that it is not.” ~ Oscar Wilde
44. “Work is the curse of the drinking classes.” ~ Oscar Wilde
45. “Everything popular is wrong.” ~ Oscar Wilde
46. “I have the simplest tastes. I am always satisfied with the best.” ~ Oscar Wilde
47. “Always forgive your enemies, nothing annoys them so much.” ~ Oscar Wilde
48. “When the gods wish to punish us they answer our prayers.” ~ Oscar Wilde
49. “Anyone who lives within their means suffers from a lack of imagination.” ~ Oscar Wilde
50. “I always pass on good advice. It is the only thing to do with it. It is never of any use to oneself.” ~ Oscar Wilde
51. “Experience is one thing you can’t get for nothing.” ~ Oscar Wilde
52. “A man’s face is his autobiography. A woman’s face is her work of fiction.” ~ Oscar Wilde
53. “Life is far too important a thing ever to talk seriously about.” ~ Oscar Wilde
54. “When I was young I thought that money was the most important thing in life; now that I am old I know that it is.” ~ Oscar Wilde
55. “All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. No man does. That’s his.” ~ Oscar Wilde
56. “A man can be happy with any woman, as long as he does not love her.” ~ Oscar Wilde
57. “Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.” ~ Oscar Wilde
58. “One should always be in love. That is the reason one should never marry.” ~ Oscar Wilde
59. “To lose one parent may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness.” ~ Oscar Wilde
60. “Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else’s opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation.” ~ Oscar Wilde
61. “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
62. “To expect the unexpected shows a thoroughly modern intellect.” ~ Oscar Wilde
63. “I can resist everything except temptation.” ~ Oscar Wilde
64. “The only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it. I can resist everything but temptation.” ~ Oscar Wilde
65. “If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh, otherwise they’ll kill you.” ~ Oscar Wilde
66. “The public is wonderfully tolerant. It forgives everything except genius.” ~ Oscar Wilde
67. “Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live.” ~ Oscar Wilde
68. “The mystery of love is greater than the mystery of death.” ~ Oscar Wilde
69. “We are each our own devil, and we make this world our hell.” ~ Oscar Wilde
70. “I don’t want to go to heaven. None of my friends are there.” ~ Oscar Wilde