The Wisdom of Oscar Wilde Read Online Free

story: as an artist he is everything, except articulate.
    “The Decay of Lying”
    In modern days … the fashion of writing poetry has become far too common, and should, if possible, be discouraged.
    “The Decay of Lying”
    … it is not too much to say that the story of George Washington and the cherry-tree has done more harm, and in a shorter space of time, than any moral tale in the whole of literature.
    “The Decay of Lying”
    Literature always anticipates life. It does not copy it, but moulds it to its purpose.
    “The Decay of Lying”
    Yes, writing has done much harm to writers. We must return to the voice.
    “The Critic as Artist”
    Gilbert: Anybody can write a three-volume novel. It merely requires a complete ignorance of both life and literature.
    “The Critic as Artist”
    Ernest: But what is the difference between literature and journalism?
    Gilbert: Oh! journalism is unreadable, and literature is not read. That is all.
    “The Critic as Artist”

BEHAVIOR
    To have been well brought up is a great drawback nowadays. It shuts one out from so much.
    A Woman of No Importance
    Mrs. Erlynne: Don’t use ugly words, Windermere. They are vulgar.
    Lady Windermere’s Fan
    No crime is vulgar, but all vulgarity is crime. Vulgarity is the conduct of others.
    “Phrases and Philosophies for the Use of the Young”
    All crime is vulgar, just as all vulgarity is crime.
    The Picture of Dorian Gray
    There is a fatality about all good resolutions. They are invariably made too soon.
    “Phrases and Philosophies for the Use of the Young”
    In examinations the foolish ask questions that the wise cannot answer.
    “Phrases and Philosophies for the Use of the Young”
    To lose one parent may be regarded as a misfortune … to lose both looks like carelessness.
    The Importance of Being Earnest
    One must be serious about something, if one wants to have any amusement in life.
    The Importance of Being Earnest
    One can survive everything, nowadays, except death, and live down anything except a good reputation.
    A Woman of No Importance
    Duty is what one expects from others, it is not what one does oneself.
    A Woman of No Importance
    Nothing looks so like innocence as an indiscretion.
    Lady Windermere’s Fan
Similarly in “Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime”
    I never talk scandal. I only talk gossip.
    Lady Windermere’s Fan
    We can have in life but one great experience at best, and the secret of life is to reproduce that experience as often as possible.
    The Picture of Dorian Gray
    Modern morality consists in accepting the standard of one’s age. I consider that for any man of culture to accept the standard of his age is a form of the grossest immorality.
    The Picture of Dorian Gray
    There are many things that we would throw away if we were not afraid that others might pick them up.
    The Picture of Dorian Gray
    I never talk during music, at least during good music. If one hears bad music, it is one’s duty to drown it in conversation.
    The Picture of Dorian Gray
    The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. Resist it, and your soul grows sick with longing for the things it has forbidden to itself....
    The Picture of Dorian Gray
    Laughter is not at all a bad beginning for a friendship, and it is far the best way of ending one.
    The Picture of Dorian Gray
    To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.
    “The Soul of Man Under Socialism”
    The sure way of knowing nothing about life, is to try to make oneself useful.
    “The Critic as Artist”
    To be natural is to be obvious, and to be obvious is to be inartistic.
    “The Critic as Artist”
    A cultured Mahomedan once remarked to us, “You Christians are so occupied in misinterpreting the fourth commandment that you have never thought of making an artistic application of the second.”
    “The Decay of Lying”
    It is difficult not to be unjust to what one loves.
    “The Critic as Artist”
    There are things that are right to say, but that