The Wisdom of Oscar Wilde Read Online Free Page B

Artist”
    He had that curious love of green, which in individuals is always a sign of a subtle artistic temperament, and in nations is said to denote a laxity if not a decadence of morals.
    “Pen, Pencil and Poison”
    Gilbert: A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal.
    “The Critic as Artist”
    To be good, according to the vulgar standard of goodness, is obviously quite easy. It merely requires a certain amount of sordid terror, a certain lack of imaginative thought, and a certain low passion for middle-class respectability.
    “The Critic as Artist”
    It is not selfish to think for oneself. A man who does not think for himself does not think at all.
    “The Soul of Man under Socialism”
    Like all poetical natures, [Christ] loved ignorant people. He knew that in the soul of one who is ignorant there is always room for a great idea.
    De Profundis
    Cecily: I hope you have not been leading a double life, pretending to be wicked and being really good all the time. That would be hypocrisy.
    The Importance of Being Earnest
    Algernon: If I am occasionally a little over-dressed, I make up for it by being always immensely over-educated.
    The Importance of Being Earnest
    People have a careless way of talking about a “born liar,” just as they talk about a born poet. But in both cases they are wrong. Lying and poetry are arts—arts, as Plato saw, not unconnected with each other—and they require the most careful study, the most disinterested devotion.
    “The Decay of Lying”
    Many a young man starts in life with a natural gift for exaggeration which, if nurtured in congenial and sympathic surroundings, or by the imitation of the best models, might grow into something really great and wonderful.
    “The Decay of Lying”
    Lying for the sake of the improvement of the young, which is the basis of home education, still lingers amongst us.
    “The Decay of Lying”

CHILDREN
    Children begin by loving their parents; after a time they judge them. Rarely, if ever, do they forgive them.
    A Woman of No Importance
Similarly in The Picture of Dorian Gray
    To get back one’s youth, one has merely to repeat one’s follies.
    The Picture of Dorian Gray
    In America the young are always ready to give to those who are older than themselves the full benefit of their experience.
    “The American Invasion”
    No office is too mean, no care too lowly for the thing we women love.
    A Woman of No Importance
    Because you have the most marvellous youth, and youth is the one thing worth having.
    The Picture of Dorian Gray
    As for a spoiled life, no life is spoiled but one whose growth is arrested. If you want to mar a nature, you have merely to reform it.
    The Picture of Dorian Gray
    The secret of remaining young is never to have an emotion that is unbecoming.
    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
    Youth! There is nothing like it. It’s absurd to talk of the ignorance of youth. The only people to whose opinions I listen now with any respect are people much younger than myself.
    The Picture of Dorian Gray
    What was youth at best? A green, an unripe time, a time of shallow moods and sickly thoughts.
    The Picture of Dorian Gray

LOVE AND MARRIAGE
    The very essence of romance is uncertainty.
    The Importance of Being Earnest
    In married life three is company, two is none.
    The Importance of Being Earnest
    The basis of every scandal is an immoral certainty.
    The Picture of Dorian Gray
    The real drawback to marriage is that it makes one unselfish.
    The Picture of Dorian Gray
    Every experience is of value, and, whatever one may say against marriage, it is certainly an experience.
    The Picture of Dorian Gray
    Faithfulness is to the emotional life what consistency is to the life of the intellect—simply a confession of failure.
    The Picture of Dorian Gray
    When one is in love, one always