Oscar Wilde's Best-Known Quotes
Epigrams About Love, Marriage, and Resisting Temptation
© Kat Long
Nov 16, 2008
Among Oscar Wilde's many literary talents, he is arguably best known for his way with a witty turn of phrase. Wilde was a sought-after guest at London's poshest dinner parties in the 1880s and early 1890s, and delighted attendees with his quips about love, marriage, fashion, and art. His epigrams often revealed the hypocrisy and absurdity of Victorian upper-class mores, while emphasizing the importance of beauty in a society that valued industry, piety, and propriety.
Below is a selection of Wilde's most famous and witty quotes.
“We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.” –Lady Windermere’s Fan
“In this world there are only two tragedies. One is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it.” –Lady Windermere’s Fan
“I can resist everything except temptation.” –Lady Windermere’s Fan
“All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. No man does. That’s his.” –The Importance of Being Earnest
“To lose one parent, Mr. Worthing, may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness.” –The Importance of Being Earnest
“Men marry because they are tired; women, because they are curious; both are disappointed.” –The Picture of Dorian Gray
“To get back my youth I would do anything in the world, except take exercise, get up early, or be respectable.” –The Picture of Dorian Gray
“There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.” –The Picture of Dorian Gray
“Education is an admirable thing. But it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught.” –A Few Maxims for the Instruction of the Over-Educated
“To be really medieval one should have no body. To be really modern one should have no soul. To be really Greek one should have no clothes.” –A Few Maxims for the Instruction of the Over-Educated
“To love oneself is the beginning of a life-long romance.” –Phrases and Philosophies for the Use of the Young
“One should either be a work of art, or wear a work of art.” –Phrases and Philosophies for the Use of the Young
“I put all my genius into my life; I put only my talent into my works.” –quoted in Andre Gide’s ‘In Memoriam’
Yet each man kills the thing he loves,
By each let this be heard,
Some do it with a bitter look,
Some with a flattering word.
The coward does it with a kiss,
The brave man with a sword! --The Ballad of Reading Gaol
