After a good dinner one can forgive anybody, even one’s own relations.
Oscar Wilde
- Life
- 1854-1900
- Occupations
- poet, playwright, short story writer
- Notable works
- The Importance of Being Earnest, The Picture of Dorian Gray, The Canterville Ghost
Facts: Wikidata (CC0), as of 2026-07-09
Wilde is quotation's other great magnet after Twain -- any sufficiently elegant paradox eventually gets his name attached. 'Be yourself; everyone else is already taken' is nowhere in his works. The authentic epigrams come from the plays, The Picture of Dorian Gray, and courtroom testimony; Wilde workshopped his best lines socially before committing them to print, which is why several appear in multiple works in slightly different forms.
ALGERNON. The truth is rarely pure and never simple. Modern life would be very tedious if it were either, and modern literature a complete impossibility! JACK. That wouldn’t be at all a bad thing.
Oscar Wilde
A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal.
Oscar Wilde
A man cannot be too careful in his choice of enemies.
Oscar Wilde
A man cannot be too careful in the choice of his enemies.
Oscar Wilde
Appearance blinds, whereas words reveal.
Oscar Wilde
A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it.
Oscar Wilde
CECIL GRAHAM. What is a cynic?
Oscar Wilde
CECIL GRAHAM. What is a cynic? LORD DARLINGTON. A man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.
Oscar Wilde
CECILY. I have never met any really wicked person before. I feel rather frightened. I am so afraid he will look just like every one else.
Oscar Wilde
Disobedience is man's original virtue. It is through disobedience that progress has been made, through disobedience and through rebellion.
Oscar Wilde
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
Good resolutions are simply checks that men draw on a bank where they have no account.
Oscar Wilde
I can’t help detesting my relations. I suppose it comes from the fact that none of us can stand other people having the same faults as ourselves.
Oscar Wilde
I didn't recognize you. I've changed a lot.
Oscar Wilde
I have the simplest tastes. I am always satisfied with the best.
Oscar Wilde
In married life affection comes when people thoroughly dislike each other.
Oscar Wilde
LORD DARLINGTON. No, we are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.
Oscar Wilde
Men marry because they are tired; women because they are curious; both are disappointed.
Oscar Wilde
Nobody of any real culture, for instance, ever talks nowadays about the beauty of sunset. Sunsets are quite old fashioned…. To admire them is a distinct sign of provincialism of temperament. Upon the other hand they go on.
Oscar Wilde
Nobody of any real culture, for instance, ever talks nowadays about the beauty of sunset. Sunsets are quite old fashioned.... To admire them is a distinct sign of provincialism of temperament. Upon the other hand they go on. The Decay of Lying
Oscar Wilde
Over the piano was printed a notice: Please do not shoot the pianist. He is doing his best.
Oscar Wilde
Relations are simply a tedious pack of people who haven't got the remotest knowledge of how to live, nor the smallest instinct about when to die.
Oscar Wilde
Seriousness is the only refuge of the shallow.
Oscar Wilde
Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go.
Oscar Wilde
Such idle dreams belong To souls of lesser depth than mine; I feel that I am half devine; I know that I am great and strong.
Oscar Wilde
Such idle dreams belong To souls of lesser depth than mine; I feel that I am half devine; I know that I am great and strong. Lotus Leaves (poem)
Oscar Wilde
To be good is to be in harmony with oneself. Discord is to be forced to be in harmony with others.
Oscar Wilde
To be great is to be misunderstood.
Oscar Wilde
To love oneself is the beginning of a life long romance.
Oscar Wilde
When a woman marries again it is because she detested her first husband. When a man marries again it is because he adored his first wife. Women try their luck; men risk theirs.
Oscar Wilde
Yet each man kills the thing he loves,
Oscar Wilde
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 koward does it with a kiss, The brave man with a sword!
Oscar Wilde
The old believe everything, the middle-aged suspect everything, the young know everything.
Oscar Wilde
Work is the curse of the drinking classes.
Oscar Wilde