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

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More quotes from: Oscar Wilde

• "A cynic is a man who knows the price of everything but the value of ..."
• "A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely ..."
• "A man can't be too careful in the choice of his enemies. "
• "A man's face is his autobiography. A woman's face is her work of fiction. "
• "A poet can survive everything but a misprint. "
• "A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it. "
• "A true friend stabs you in the front. "
• "A work of art is the unique result of a unique temperament. "
• "Ah, well, then I suppose I shall have to die beyond my means. "
• "Alas, I am dying beyond my means. "
• "All art is quite useless. "
• "All bad poetry springs from genuine feeling. "
• "All that I desire to point out is the general principle that life imitates art ..."
• "All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. No man does. That's his. "
• "Always forgive your enemies - nothing annoys them so much. "
• "Ambition is the germ from which all growth of nobleness proceeds. "
• "Ambition is the last refuge of the failure. "
• "America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between. "
• "An idea that is not dangerous is unworthy of being called an idea at all. "
• "Arguments are extremely vulgar, for everyone in good society holds exactly the same opinion. "
• "Arguments are to be avoided: they are always vulgar and often convincing. "
• "Art is the most intense mode of individualism that the world has known. "
• "As long as a woman can look ten years younger than her own daughter, she ..."
• "As long as war is regarded as wicked, it will always have its fascination. When ..."
• "As yet, Bernard Shaw hasn't become prominent enough to have any enemies, but none of ..."
• "At 46 one must be a miser; only have time for essentials. "
• "Beauty is a form of genius - is higher, indeed, than genius, as it needs ..."
• "Between men and women there is no friendship possible. There is passion, enmity, worship, love, ..."
• "Bigamy is having one wife too many. Monogamy is the same. "
• "Biography lends to death a new terror. "
• "By giving us the opinions of the uneducated, journalism keeps us in touch with the ..."
• "Charity creates a multitude of sins. "
• "Children begin by loving their parents; after a time they judge them; rarely, if ever, ..."
• "Conscience and cowardice are really the same things. Conscience is the trade-name of the firm. ..."
• "Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative. "
• "Consistency is the last resort of the unimaginative. "
• "Conversation about the weather is the last refuge of the unimaginative. "
• "Deceiving others. That is what the world calls a romance. "
• "Democracy means simply the bludgeoning of the people by the people for the people. "
• "Do you really think it is weakness that yields to temptation? I tell you that ..."
• "Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time ..."
• "Every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of ..."
• "Every saint has a past and every sinner has a future. "
• "Everything popular is wrong. "
• "Experience is one thing you can't get for nothing. "
• "Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes. "
• "Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every ..."
• "Fathers should be neither seen nor heard. That is the only proper basis for family ..."
• "Hatred is blind, as well as love. "
• "He has no enemies, but is intensely disliked by his friends. "
• "He lives the poetry that he cannot write. The others write the poetry that they ..."
• "He must have a truly romantic nature, for he weeps when there is nothing at ..."
• "He was always late on principle, his principle being that punctuality is the thief of ..."
• "How can a woman be expected to be happy with a man who insists on ..."
• "How marriage ruins a man! It is as demoralizing as cigarettes, and far more expensive. "
• "I always pass on good advice. It is the only thing to do with it. ..."
• "I am not young enough to know everything. "
• "I can resist everything except temptation. "
• "I choose my friends for their good looks, my acquaintances for their good characters, and ..."
• "I dislike arguments of any kind. They are always vulgar, and often convincing. "
• "I have nothing to declare except my genuis. "
• "I have the simplest tastes. I am always satisfied with the best. "
• "I hope you have not been leading a double life, pretending to be wicked and ..."
• "I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read in ..."
• "I put all my genius into my life; I put only my talent into my ..."
• "I regard the theatre as the greatest of all art forms, the most immediate way ..."
• "I see when men love women. They give them but a little of their lives. ..."

• "I sometimes think that God in creating man somewhat overestimated his ability. "
• "I suppose society is wonderfully delightful. To be in it is merely a bore. But ..."
• "I think that God, in creating man, somewhat overestimated his ability. "
• "I want my food dead. Not sick, not dying, dead. "
• "If one cannot enjoy reading a book over and over again, there is no use ..."
• "If one could only teach the English how to talk, and the Irish how to ..."
• "If one plays good music, people don't listen and if one plays bad music people ..."
• "If there was less sympathy in the world, there would be less trouble in the ..."
• "If you are not too long, I will wait here for you all my life. "
• "If you pretend to be good, the world takes you very seriously. If you pretend ..."
• "Illusion is the first of all pleasures. "
• "In all matters of opinion, our adversaries are insane. "
• "In America the President reigns for four years, and Journalism governs forever and ever. "
• "In America the young are always ready to give to those who are older than ..."
• "In England people actually try to be brilliant at breakfast. That is so dreadful of ..."
• "In every first novel the hero is the author as Christ or Faust. "
• "In married life three is company and two none. "
• "It is a very sad thing that nowadays there is so little useless information. "
• "It is absurd to divide people into good and bad. People are either charming or ..."
• "It is an odd thing, but every one who disappears is said to be seen ..."
• "It is better to be beautiful than to be good. But... it is better to ..."
• "It is better to have a permanent income than to be fascinating. "
• "It is only an auctioneer who can equally and impartially admire all schools of art. "
• "It is perfectly monstrous the way people go about, nowadays, saying things against one behind ..."
• "It is through art, and through art only, that we can realise our perfection. "
• "Its failings notwithstanding, there is much to be said in favor of journalism in that ..."
• "Keep love in your heart. A life without it is like a sunless garden when ..."
• "Laughter is not at all a bad beginning for a friendship, and it is far ..."
• "Life imitates art far more than art imitates Life. "
• "Life is far too important a thing ever to talk seriously about. "
• "Life is never fair, and perhaps it is a good thing for most of us ..."
• "Life is too important to be taken seriously. "
• "Man is a rational animal who always loses his temper when he is called upon ..."
• "Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, ..."
• "Memory... is the diary that we all carry about with us. "
• "Men always want to be a woman's first love - women like to be a ..."
• "Moderation is a fatal thing. Nothing succeeds like excess. "
• "Morality is simply the attitude we adopt towards people whom we personally dislike. "
• "Most modern calendars mar the sweet simplicity of our lives by reminding us that each ..."
• "Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, ..."
• "Most people die of a sort of creeping common sense, and discover when it is ..."
• "Mrs. Allonby: No man does. That is his. "
• "Music is the art which is most nigh to tears and memory. "
• "Music makes one feel so romantic - at least it always gets on one's nerves ..."
• "My great mistake, the fault for which I can't forgive myself, is that one day ..."
• "No great artist ever sees things as they really are. If he did, he would ..."
• "No man is rich enough to buy back his past. "
• "No object is so beautiful that, under certain conditions, it will not look ugly. "
• "No woman should ever be quite accurate about her age. It looks so calculating. "
• "Nothing can cure the soul but the senses, just as nothing can cure the senses ..."
• "Nothing is so aggravating than calmness. "
• "Nothing makes one so vain as being told one is a sinner. Conscience makes egotists ..."
• "Now that the House of Commons is trying to become useful, it does a great ..."
• "Nowadays to be intelligible is to be found out. "
• "Of course America had often been discovered before Columbus, but it had always been hushed ..."
• "Of course I have played outdoor games. I once played dominoes in an open air ..."
• "One can survive everything, nowadays, except death, and live down everything except a good reputation. "
• "One of the many lessons that one learns in prison is, that things are what ..."
• "One should always be in love. That is the reason one should never marry. "
• "One should always play fairly when one has the winning cards. "
• "One's past is what one is. It is the only way by which people should ..."
• "Only the shallow know themselves. "
• "Ordinary riches can be stolen; real riches cannot. In your soul are infinitely precious things ..."
• "Our ambition should be to rule ourselves, the true kingdom for each one of us; ..."
• "Patriotism is the virtue of the vicious. "
• "Perhaps, after all, America never has been discovered. I myself would say that it had ..."

• "Pessimist: One who, when he has the choice of two evils, chooses both. "
• "Please do not shoot the pianist. He is doing his best. "
• "Questions are never indiscreet, answers sometimes are. "
• "Self-denial is the shining sore on the leprous body of Christianity. "
• "Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live ..."
• "Seriousness is the only refuge of the shallow. "
• "She wore far too much rouge last night and not quite enough clothes. That is ..."
• "Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go. "
• "Some of these people need ten years of therapy -ten sentences of mine do not ..."
• "Success is a science; if you have the conditions, you get the result. "
• "The basis of optimism is sheer terror. "
• "The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own ..."
• "The cynic knows the price of everything and the value of nothing. "
• "The difference between literature and journalism is that journalism is unreadable and literature is not ..."
• "The English country gentleman galloping after a fox - The unspeakable in full pursuit of ..."
• "The General was essentially a man of peace, except of course in his domestic affairs. "
• "The good ended happily, and the bad unhappily. That is what fiction means. "
• "The imagination imitates. It is the critical spirit that creates. "
• "The man who can dominate a London dinner-table can dominate the world. "
• "The moment you think you understand a great work of art, it's dead for you. "
• "The old believe everything, the middle-aged suspect everything, the young know everything. "
• "The one charm about marriage is that it makes a life of deception absolutely necessary ..."
• "The only thing to do with good advice is to pass it on. It is ..."
• "The only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it... I can ..."
• "The past is of no importance. The present is of no importance. It is with ..."
• "The public have an insatiable curiosity to know everything. Except what is worth knowing. Journalism, ..."
• "The public is wonderfully tolerant. It forgives everything except genius. "
• "The pure and simple truth is rarely pure and never simple. "
• "The salesman knows nothing of what he is selling save that he is charging a ..."
• "The security of Society lies in custom and unconscious instinct, and the basis of the ..."
• "The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible. "
• "The truth is rarely pure and never simple. "
• "The typewriting machine, when played with expression, is no more annoying than the piano when ..."
• "The world has grown suspicious of anything that looks like a happily married life. "
• "The world is divided into two classes, those who believe the incredible, and those who ..."
• "There are only two kinds of people who are really fascinating - people who know ..."
• "There are only two tragedies in life: one is not getting what one wants, and ..."
• "There is no sin except stupidity. "
• "There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well ..."
• "There is no such thing as an omen. Destiny does not send us heralds. She ..."
• "There is nothing in the world like the devotion of a married woman. It is ..."
• "There is nothing so difficult to marry as a large nose. "
• "There is only one thing in life worse than being talked about, and that is ..."
• "These days man knows the price of everything, but the value of nothing. "
• "This suspense is terrible. I hope it will last. "
• "Those whom the gods love grow young. "
• "To expect the unexpected shows a thoroughly modern intellect. "
• "To lose one parent may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like ..."
• "To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance. "
• "To regret one's own experiences is to arrest one's own development. To deny one's own ..."
• "True friends stab you in the front. "
• "We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars. "
• "What we have to do, what at any rate it is our duty to do, ..."
• "When a man has once loved a woman he will do anything for her except ..."
• "When a woman marries again it is because she detested her first husband. When a ..."
• "When good Americans die they go to Paris. "
• "When I was young I thought that money was the most important thing in life; ..."
• "When the gods wish to punish us they answer our prayers. "
• "Whenever people agree with me I always feel I must be wrong. "
• "Who, being loved, is poor? "
• "Why was I born with such contemporaries? "
• "Woman begins by resisting a man's advances and ends by blocking his retreat. "
• "Women are made to be loved, not understood. "
• "Women are never disarmed by compliments. Men always are. That is the difference between the ..."
• "Work is the curse of the drinking classes. "
• "Yet each man kills the thing he loves, by each let this be heard, some ..."