Quotes from Oscar Wilde

Now and then, however, he is horribly thoughtless, and seems to take a real delight in giving me pain. Then I feel, Harry, that I have given away my whole soul to some one who treats it as if it were a flower to put in his coat, a bit of decoration to charm his vanity, an ornament for a summer's day.

I don't play accurately--any one can play accurately--but I play with wonderful expression. As far as the piano is concerned, sentiment is my forte. I keep science for Life.

Even before I met you I was far from indifferent to you.

It's tragic how few people ever 'possess their souls' before they die. 'Nothing is more rare in any man', says Emerson, 'than an act of his own.' It is quite true. Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their life is a mimicry, their passions a quotation.

Hesitation of any kind is a sign of mental decay in the young, of physical weakness in the old.

Basil Hallward is what I think I am: Lord Henry what the world thinks me: Dorian what I would like to be—in other ages, perhaps.

Truth, in matters of religion, is simply the opinion that has survived.

In war, the strong make slaves of the weak, and in peace the rich makes slaves of the poor.

True friends stab you in the front

I dislike arguments of any kind. They are always vulgar and often convincing.

Pray don't talk to me about the weather, Mr. Worthing. Whenever people talk to me about the weather, I always feel quite certain that they mean something else. And that makes me quite nervous.

An artist should create beautiful things, but should put nothing of his own life into them.