Inspirational Quotations by Oscar Wilde

  • To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance.
    From Issue 10
  • Religion is the fashionable substitute for belief.
    From Issue 15
  • The old believe everything;
    the middle aged suspect everything:
    the young know everything.
    Topic: Aging
    From Issue 17
  • No man is rich enough to buy back his past.
    From Issue 89
  • To live is the rarest thing in the world.
    Most people exist, that is all.
    Topic: Living
    From Issue 129
  • Life's tragedy is that we get old too soon and wise too late.
    From Issue 197
  • The only thing to do with good advice is
    pass it on. It is never any use to oneself.
    From Issue 212
  • Who, being loved, is poor?
    From Issue 220
  • All great ideas are dangerous.
    From Issue 236
  • There are only two tragedies in life:
    one is not getting what one wants,
    and the other is getting it.
    From Issue 237
  • A man can't be too careful in the choice of his enemies.
    From Issue 252
  • Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative.
    From Issue 260
  • Some cause happiness wherever they go;
    others, whenever they go.
    From Issue 303
  • The one charm of the past is that it is the past.
    Topic: Past
    From Issue 326
  • Misfortunes one can endure - they come from outside, they are accidents. But to suffer for one's own faults - ah! there is the sting of life.
    Topic: Self-discovery
    From Issue 336
  • I hope you have not been leading a double life, pretending to be wicked, and being really good all the time. That would be hypocrisy.
    Topic: Deception
    From Issue 341
  • In this world there are only two tragedies. One is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it.
    From Issue 346
  • Pleasure is Nature's test, her sign of approval. When man is happy, he is in harmony with himself and with his environment.
    From Issue 346
  • The only things one never regrets are one's mistakes.
    From Issue 346
  • When one is in love, one always begins by deceiving oneself; and one always ends by deceiving others. That is what the world calls a romance.
    From Issue 346
  • The only form of lying that is absolutely beyond reproach is lying for its own sake.
    From Issue 346
  • True friends stab you in the front.
    From Issue 346
  • Discontent is the first step in the progress of a man or a nation.
    From Issue 346
  • A sentimentalist is a man who sees an absurd value in everything and doesn't know the market price of a single thing.
    From Issue 346
  • Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months.
    From Issue 346
  • Every saint has a past and every sinner has a future.
    From Issue 346
  • Fathers should be neither seen nor heard. That is the only proper basis for family life.
    From Issue 346
  • I forgot that every little action of the common day makes or unmakes character, and that therefore what one has done in the secret chamber one has some day to cry aloud on the house-tops.
    From Issue 346
  • The only difference between a caprice and a lifelong passion is that the caprice lasts a little longer.
    From Issue 346
  • I always pass on good advice. It's the only thing to do with it. It is never any use to oneself.
    From Issue 346

A design by Nagesh Belludi • 10-Oct-2011 • Protected under a Creative Commons License