Best Quotes Oscar Wilde

October 16 was born an outstanding English writer Poet and playwright Oscar Wilde

A master of spectacular aphorisms and ingenious paradoxes, Oscar Wilde is one of the most quoted classics on the internet. As did his friend Bernard Shaw.
A witty, handsome man with long hair, Oscar Wilde, was a favorite of society during his lifetime. The writer's contemporaries claimed that in his presence no one else was paid attention at all. An excellent interlocutor, a skillful orator, witty, with perfect diction, he charmed his listeners with his lectures and stories. Many of them remained unwritten: Wilde did not have the habit of writing down everything that came to his mind.
Even before declaring himself in literature, Oscar Wilde made a revolution in fashion. He appeared in society in personally invented mind-blowing outfits. Today it was short culottes and silk stockings, tomorrow a vest embroidered with flowers, the day after tomorrow lemon gloves combined with a lush lace frill. An indispensable accessory was a carnation in a buttonhole, painted green.

Discarding all religious and moral prejudices, Oscar Wilde sang the cult of beauty. AT Victorian England 19th century - it was unforgivably outrageous.
In early 1882, Wilde went to conquer America. He got off the ship in the port of New York and, in Wilde's way, threw out to the reporters who swooped down on him: "Gentlemen, the ocean disappointed me, it is not at all as majestic as I thought." Passing through customs procedures, when asked if he had anything to declare, he replied: "I have nothing to declare, except for my genius." He was confident in his irresistibility and in his talent.

Outrageous and narcissistic Oscar Wilde often heard harsh criticism, ridicule and accusations of immorality addressed to him. He either ignored the offenders, going into creativity, or with brilliance and Wilde's wit he got out of the situation. However, the mind and oratory did not save the writer in the fateful trial, where he was convicted of homosexual relationships and sent to hard labor.
Prison broke Oscar Wilde mentally and physically. But she could not kill the esthete in him to the marrow of his bones. In exile, under a false name, dying in a run-down hotel in poverty, obscurity and loneliness, he said: "Either me, or this vile flower wallpaper."

Oscar Wilde's works - "The Picture of Dorian Gray", "The Importance of Being Earnest", "An Ideal Husband", "A Woman noteworthy”, “Lady Windermere’s Fan” and others - all over the world were sorted into quotes. Bright Side presents the most significant of them, according to which you can easily create an image of the London dandy, esthete and philosopher Oscar Wilde.

About people

* Most of us are not us. Our thoughts are the judgments of others; our life is mimicry; our passions quote!

* We can't stand people with the same flaws that we have.

* You love everyone, and to love everyone means not to love anyone. Everyone is equally indifferent to you.

* Positive people get on your nerves, bad people affect your imagination.

* Lies are the truth of others.

* A cynic is a person who knows the price of everything and appreciates nothing.

* A person is very embarrassed when he speaks on his own behalf. Give him a mask and he will tell you the whole truth.

* To be good means to live in harmony with oneself.

* There is a kind of voluptuousness in self-flagellation. And when we blame ourselves, we feel that no one else has the right to blame us anymore.

* <...>a man who has no enemies, but who are successfully replaced by friends who secretly hate him.

* Only empty people know themselves.

About success

* The world is divided into two classes - some believe in the incredible, others do the impossible.

* Moderation is a fatal quality. Only extremes lead to success.

* Great success always requires some promiscuity in the means.

* Ambition is the last refuge of losers.

* People call their mistakes experiences.

* Be yourself, the rest of the roles are taken.

About relationships

* Falling in love begins with the fact that a person deceives himself, and ends with the fact that he deceives another

* It is not bad if friendship begins with laughter, and it is best if it ends with it.

* Selfishness does not mean living the way you want, it is a requirement for others to live the way you want it.

* Friendship between a man and a woman is impossible. Passion, enmity, adoration, love - but not friendship.

About old age

* The tragedy of old age is not that a person grows old, but that he remains young in soul.

* To regain youth, one has only to repeat all its follies.

About myself

* I like to talk about nothing. It's the only one I know anything about.

* I don't want to know what people are saying behind my back. This flatters me too much.

* I love men with a future and women with a past.

* What is fashionable is what you wear yourself. And what others wear is unfashionable.

* We're all in the gutter, but some of us are stargazing.

* The only way to get rid of temptation is to give in to it.

about religion

* Religion is a very common surrogate for faith.

* The truths of faith are not believed because they are reasonable, but because they are often repeated.

* Prayer must remain unanswered, otherwise it ceases to be prayer and becomes correspondence.

About women

* You should never trust a woman who tells you her age. A woman who can do this is capable of anything.

* If a woman has a lot of blush on, and very few dresses, this is a sign of desperation.

* The strength of a woman is that she cannot be explained with the help of psychology. Men can be analyzed, women can only be adored.

* Women love us for our flaws. If there are a fair amount of these shortcomings, they are ready to forgive us everything, even the mind ...

* As one witty Frenchman said, women inspire us to great things, but always prevent us from doing them.

* With bad women you do not know peace, but with good ones you languish with boredom.

* Women exist to be loved, not to be understood.

About marriage

* The main harm of marriage is that it corrodes selfishness from a person. And unselfish people are colorless, they lose their individuality.

* Men marry out of fatigue, women marry out of curiosity. Both marriages are disappointing.

* Loyalty! It is the greed of the owner. There are many things we would gladly give up if not for the fear that someone else would pick them up.

* The strongest foundation for marriage is mutual misunderstanding.

About life

* Broken can only be considered a life that has stopped in its development.

* There are only two real tragedies in life: one is when you don't get what you want, and the other is when you do.

* People always laugh at their tragedies - that's the only way to endure them.

* Life is too caustic liquid. She destroys art.

* The purpose of life is self-expression. To manifest our essence in all its fullness - that's what we live for.

A master of spectacular aphorisms and ingenious paradoxes, Oscar Wilde is one of the most quoted classics on the internet. As did his friend.

A witty, handsome man with long hair, Oscar Wilde, was a favorite of society during his lifetime. The writer's contemporaries claimed that in his presence no one else was paid attention at all. An excellent interlocutor, a skillful orator, witty, with perfect diction, he charmed his listeners with his lectures and stories. Many of them remained unwritten: Wilde did not have the habit of writing down everything that came to his mind.

Even before declaring himself in literature, Oscar Wilde made a revolution in fashion. He appeared in society in personally invented mind-blowing outfits. Today it was short culottes and silk stockings, tomorrow - a vest embroidered with flowers, the day after tomorrow - lemon gloves combined with a lush lace jabot. An indispensable accessory was a carnation in a buttonhole, painted green.

Discarding all religious and moral prejudices, Oscar Wilde sang the cult of beauty. In 19th century Victorian England, this was unforgivably outrageous.

In early 1882, Wilde went to conquer America. He got off the ship in the port of New York and, in Wilde's way, threw out to the reporters who swooped down on him: "Gentlemen, the ocean disappointed me, it is not at all as majestic as I thought." Passing through customs procedures, when asked if he had anything to declare, he replied: "I have nothing to declare, except for my genius." He was confident in his irresistibility and in his talent.

Outrageous and narcissistic Oscar Wilde often heard harsh criticism, ridicule and accusations of immorality addressed to him. He either ignored the offenders, going into creativity, or with brilliance and Wilde's wit he got out of the situation. However, the mind and oratory did not save the writer at the fateful trial, where he was convicted of homosexual relationships and sent to hard labor.

Prison broke Oscar Wilde mentally and physically. But she could not kill the esthete in him to the marrow of his bones. In exile, under a false name, dying in a run-down hotel in poverty, obscurity and loneliness, he said: "Either me, or this vile flower wallpaper."

The works of Oscar Wilde - "The Picture of Dorian Gray", "The Importance of Being Earnest", "The Ideal Husband", "The Woman of No Interest", "Lady Windermere's Fan" and others - have been sorted into quotes all over the world. We present the most significant of them, according to which you can easily create an image of the London dandy, esthete and philosopher Oscar Wilde.

About people

• Most of us are not us. Our thoughts are the judgments of others; our life is mimicry; our passions - quote!
• We can't stand people with the same flaws that we have.
• You love everyone, and to love everyone means not to love anyone. Everyone is equally indifferent to you.
• Positive people act on the nerves, bad people - on the imagination.
• Lies are the truth of other people.
• A cynic is a person who knows the price of everything and appreciates nothing.
• A person is very embarrassed when he speaks on his own behalf. Give him a mask and he will tell you the whole truth.
• To be good means to live in harmony with oneself.
• There is a kind of voluptuousness in self-flagellation. And when we blame ourselves, we feel that no one else has the right to blame us anymore.
• <...>a man who has no enemies, but who are successfully replaced by friends who secretly hate him.
• Only empty people know themselves.

About success

• The world is divided into two classes - some believe in the incredible, others do the impossible.
• Moderation is a fatal property. Only extremes lead to success.
• Great success always requires some promiscuity in the means.
• Ambition is the last refuge of losers.
• People call their mistakes experiences.
• Be yourself, the rest of the roles are taken.

About relationships

• Falling in love begins with the fact that a person deceives himself, and ends with the fact that he deceives another
• It is not bad if friendship begins with laughter, and it is best if it ends with it.
• Selfishness does not mean living the way you want, it is a requirement for others to live the way you want it.
• Friendship between a man and a woman is impossible. Passion, enmity, adoration, love - but not friendship.

About old age

• The tragedy of old age is not that a person grows old, but that he remains young in soul.
• To regain youth, one has only to repeat all its follies.

About myself

• I like to talk about nothing. It's the only one I know anything about.
• I don't want to know what people are saying behind my back. This flatters me too much.
• I love men with a future and women with a past.
• What is fashionable is what you wear yourself. And what others wear is unfashionable.
• We're all in the gutter, but some of us are stargazing.
• The only way to get rid of temptation is to give in to it.

about religion

• Religion is a very common surrogate for faith.
• The truths of faith are not believed because they are reasonable, but because they are often repeated.
• Prayer must remain unanswered, otherwise it ceases to be prayer and becomes correspondence.

About women

• You should never trust a woman who tells you her age. A woman who can do this is capable of anything.
• If a woman has a lot of blush on, and very few dresses, this is a sign of despair.
• The strength of a woman is that she cannot be explained with the help of psychology. Men can be analyzed, women can only be adored.
• Women love us for our flaws. If there are a fair amount of these shortcomings, they are ready to forgive us everything, even the mind ...
• As one witty Frenchman said, women inspire us to great things, but always prevent us from doing them.
• With bad women you do not know peace, but with good women you are bored.
• Women exist to be loved, not to be understood.

About marriage

• The main harm of marriage is that it corrodes selfishness from a person. And unselfish people are colorless, they lose their individuality.
• Men marry out of fatigue, women marry out of curiosity. Both marriages are disappointing.
• Loyalty! It is the greed of the owner. There are many things we would gladly give up if not for the fear that someone else would pick them up.
• The strongest foundation for marriage is mutual misunderstanding.

About life

• Broken can only be considered a life that has stopped in its development.
• There are only two real tragedies in life: one is when you don't get what you want, and the second is when you get it.
• People always laugh at their tragedies - that's the only way to endure them.
• Life is too caustic liquid. She destroys art.
• The purpose of life is self-expression. To manifest our essence in all its fullness - that's what we live for.

Quotes from the works of Oscar Wilde

Quotes from the preface to The Picture of Dorian Gray

All art is completely useless.

There are no books moral or immoral. There are books that are well written or poorly written. That's all.

Any art is both an outer cover and a symbol. Anyone who looks under the cover does so at their own peril and risk. Anyone who reveals the symbol does so at their own peril and risk.

The purpose of art is to reveal beauty and hide the artist.

The artist does not seek to prove anything. You can prove anything, even undoubted truths.

The ethics of art is in the perfect application of imperfect means.

In essence, Art is a mirror that reflects the one who looks into it, and not life at all.

Quotes from The Picture of Dorian Gray

I prefer men with a future and women with a past.

Women give men the most precious things in life. But they invariably demand it back - and all in the smallest coin.

Women treat us, men, the same way that humanity treats its gods: they worship us - and get bored, constantly demanding something.

Women inspire us to create masterpieces, but always prevent us from creating them.

Women are the decorative floor. They have nothing to say, but everything they say is charming.

The woman defends herself by attacking and wins by suddenly and inexplicably surrendering.

The beauty of the past is that it is the past. And the women never notice that the curtain has come down. They certainly give the sixth act!

Women demand the continuation of the performance when it has already dragged on. Give them free rein and every comedy would end tragic ending and every tragedy is a farce. Women act superbly, but lack any artistic flair.

I try to avoid scenes when I have this hat on: it is too airy, one harsh word can ruin it.

I didn't say he was getting married. I only said that he was going to get married. It's far from the same. For example, I clearly remember that I got married, but I don’t remember at all that I was going to get married. And I tend to think that I never had such an intention.

Perhaps cruelty, outright cruelty, is most dear to women: they are surprisingly strong primal instincts. We gave them freedom, but they still remained slaves looking for a master. They love to be subdued.

Women are divided into two categories - unmade and made up. The first ones are very useful to us. If you want to acquire a reputation as a respectable person, all you have to do is invite such a woman to dine with you.

There are only five women in all of London worth talking to, and even then two of those five have no place in polite society.

I like her very much, but I'm not in love with her.
- And she is in love with you, although she does not like you very much.

If a woman manages to look ten years younger than her own daughter, then she does not need more.

Beauty is one of the types of Genius, it is even higher than Genius, because it does not require understanding.

Sad as it may seem, but Genius is undoubtedly more durable than Beauty.

Beauty, real beauty, ends where the mind begins to shine through. The mind itself is already a kind of anomaly that violates the harmony of the face.

In this age people read too much to be wise and think too much to be beautiful.

Better to be beautiful than virtuous. But, on the other hand, I am the first to admit that it is better to be virtuous than ugly.

It lacks the elusive charm of weakness.

She has all the qualities of a peacock, except for her beauty.

She was like a bird of paradise that had spent the whole night in the rain.

…Highly clever woman, which retained traces of a truly remarkable ugliness.

- It turns out that ugliness is one of the mortal sins?
— No, ugliness is one of the seven deadly virtues.

Never marry a straw blonde - they are terribly sentimental.

Having buried her third husband, she became completely golden-haired with grief.

Do not speak with contempt of dyed hair and painted faces. You can find unexpected charm in them - from time to time, of course.

Such a face, once you see it, you will not remember it.

Knowledge is detrimental to love. Only the unknown captivates us. In the fog, everything seems unusual.

Love feeds on repetition, and only repetition turns mere lust into art.

If a person is especially dear to me, I never tell anyone his name. It's like giving some part of it to someone else.

Between a whim and love to the grave, the only difference is that the whim lasts a little longer.

I don't remember what killed love. It seems like the promise of a loved one to sacrifice the whole world for me. And this always chills the soul: you are seized by fear of eternity.

There is always something funny in the suffering of those we have fallen out of love with.

Great passion is the privilege of people who have nothing to do. This is the only purpose of idle classes.

Falling in love begins with the fact that a person deceives himself, and ends with the fact that he deceives another.

She was always in love with someone - and always hopelessly, so she kept all her illusions.

Someone said about women that they "love with their ears." And men love with their eyes... If only they ever love at all.

A man can be happy with any woman, as long as he is not in love with her.

Better to adore than to be adored. To endure someone's adoration is boring and painful.

The worst thing about romantic relationships of any kind is that after them you become terribly unromantic.

Small sorrows and shallow love are tenacious. great love and great grief perish from the excess of their power.

A woman will flirt with anyone, as long as they look at her at that time.

It is women who propose to us, not we propose to them.

Women in the highest degree practical people. They are much more practical than us. A man in sublime moments often forgets to talk about marriage, and a woman always reminds him of this.

Women seek happiness in marriage, men put their own at stake.

Men marry out of fatigue, women marry out of curiosity. Both are disappointed.

- Marriage - not from the category of what they do from time to time.
- In America, they think differently.

If a woman marries again, it is because her first husband was disgusting to her. If a man marries again, it is because he adored his first wife.

I am a married man, and that is the beauty of marriage, that both parties inevitably have to excel in lying.

Young men would like to be faithful, but they do not; old people would like to change, but they cannot.

Loyalty! Someday I will analyze this feeling. It is the greed of the owner. There are many things we would gladly give up if not for the fear that someone else would pick them up.

Superficial people are just those who have loved only once in their lives. What they call constancy and fidelity, I would rather call the lethargy of habit or the paucity of the imagination.

Every time you fall in love, you love for the first time. The object of passion changes, but passion always remains the one and only. The change only makes it stronger.

The surest consolation is to beat off a suitor from another when you lose yours. In high society, this always rehabilitates a woman.

For those who are faithful in love, only its banal essence is available. The tragedy of love is known only to those who change.

I'm already sick of women who love somebody. Women who hate someone are much more interesting.

Now all married men live as bachelors, and all single men live as married men.

Any trifle, if hidden from people, acquires the charm of mystery.

“I like to hear gossip about others, and gossip about me is not at all interesting to me. They don't have the charm of novelty.

It's bad when people talk about you a lot, and it's even worse when they don't talk about you at all.

You shouldn't start your story with a scandal. Scandals are saved for old age, when you need to stir up interest in yourself.

Nothing flatters women's vanity so much as the reputation of being a sinner.

All good hats are made from nothing.
Like all good reputations.

His whims are the law for everyone except himself.

“I will always be attractive to you. In your eyes, I am the embodiment of all those sins that you do not have the courage to commit.

A woman can re-educate a man in only one way: to pester him so that he loses all interest in life.

We are sorry to part even with the most bad habits. Perhaps with the bad ones - perhaps the most pitiful thing. Without them, our "I" loses too much.

The only way to get rid of temptation is to give in to it.

I love simple pleasures. This is the last refuge of complex natures.

Everything we do too often becomes pleasure.

In every pleasure there is almost always something cruel.

People's feelings are much more interesting than their thoughts.

Every experience is valuable.

We are most strongly dominated by passions, the nature of which we misunderstand. And the weakest of all are motives that are quite understandable to us.

People are instinctively afraid of passions and sensations that may be stronger than them.

“I can stand against brute force, but not against brute sanity. There is something ungrateful about him. This is a blow below the intellect.

Most people are dying of a creeping form of sanity these days. Too late, they notice that delusions are the only things you will never repent of.

Humanity took itself too seriously - this is its original sin. If the caveman knew how to laugh, history would have taken a different path.

Laughter is a good start to friendship and the best way to end it.

“Young people today imagine that money is everything.
- Yes, and over the years they are convinced of this.

- I don't need money - they are needed by those who have the habit of paying debts, and I never pay my creditors.

I would not like to change anything in England, except the weather.

The child, once burned, reaches for the fire.

— I confess, I really can not stand my relatives. It must be because we can't stand people with the same flaws that we have.

Life gives us one single unique moment, and the secret of life is to repeat this moment as often as possible.

"Don't tell me you're fed up with life!" Only those who are already fed up with life say so.

Life is ruined only when its development has stopped.

Most people fail because they overinvest in the prose of life. Go broke on poetry at least honorable.

Become a spectator own life means to save yourself from her suffering.

The true secret of life lies in the visible, and not in the hidden.

A person must absorb the colors of life, but never remember the details. The details are always banal.

Random lighting of objects in the room, the tone of the morning sky, a smell that you once loved and brought back vague memories, a line forgotten poem, which you met again in a book, a musical phrase from a play that you have not played for a long time - these are the little things on which the course of our life depends.

Whoever approaches life as an artist has his whole mind in his heart.

The real tragedies of life often appear in such an ugly form that they offend our taste - by their crude cruelty, their monstrous illogicality, their absurdity and senselessness, their absence of any style whatsoever. They disgust us like any vulgarity.

There is always something unbearably banal about other people's dramas.

Women and lovers are turned on only so that there is someone to make scenes.

Passion for acting sometimes pushes us to acts that are much nobler than ourselves.

In this world, the best life is for fools and freaks. They can sit quietly and stare at the performance. They are not given to experience victories, but they do not know defeats either.

Our future is usually similar to our past.

In its calculations with a person, Fate never considers his debt repaid.

Everything can be experienced except death.

This girl, in fact, never lived, and therefore, in essence, never died.

Only two phenomena still remain inexplicable: death and vulgarity.

There are no omens. Fate does not send messengers to us - for this she is too wise or too ruthless.

To regain youth, one has only to repeat all its follies.

- How stupid it is to talk about "inexperienced and ignorant youth." I respectfully listen to the opinions of only those who are much younger than me. The youth is ahead of us, life reveals its newest wonders to them.

The tragedy of old age is not that you grow old, but that you remain young at heart.

Only two kinds of people are truly interesting - those who know absolutely everything about life, and those who know nothing about it.

Good influence does not exist. Any influence is in itself immoral. To influence another person means to transfer your soul to him. And his virtues will not be his own, and his sins will be borrowed. He will become an echo of someone else's melody, an actor acting in a role that was not written for him.

A highly educated, knowledgeable person is the modern ideal. And the brain of such a highly educated person is like an antique shop full of all sorts of dusty junk, where every thing is valued much higher than its true value.

He's so smart that he can't help but do stupid things from time to time.

He knew how to choose the moment when he should remain silent with impeccable accuracy.

The value of an idea has nothing to do with the sincerity of its herald. And even, perhaps, the less sincere he is, the higher the intellectual purity of the idea, since it is no longer colored by his desires, passions and prejudices.

It's easy to be friendly with someone you don't care about.

Being natural is a pose, and the most hated pose for people!

Perhaps the most at ease we look is when we have to pretend.

- Orchids are beyond my means, but I do not spare money for foreigners: they decorate the living room so much!

She thought of making her house a salon, but she made it into an ordinary restaurant.

He was always late out of principle, and this principle said: punctuality is a thief of time.

No decent person eats dinner before seven.

- To regain my youth, I am ready to do anything - just do not walk for health, do not get up early and do not lead a respectable lifestyle.

When a woman notices that her husband is indifferent to her, she begins to dress very unpretentiously - or she has ruinously expensive hats that someone else's husband has to pay for.

She tried to dress flashy, but only looked abandoned.

In a tailcoat and white tie, anyone, even a stockbroker, can pass for a cultured person.

Thanks to fashion, any fantasy can become ordinary for a moment.

Cigarettes are perfect view supreme pleasure, subtle and sharp, but leaving us unsatisfied.

They lead an exemplary rural life: get up early because they have a lot to do, and go to bed early because they have nothing to think about.

In the village, anyone can be righteous. There are no temptations there. To join civilization is a very difficult matter. There are two ways to do this: culture or the so-called depravity. And the villagers do not have access to both. Here they are stagnant in virtue.

Every class of society preaches virtues for the benefit of others. The rich praise frugality, while the idle speak eloquently of the high dignity of labor.

In our age, only useless things are needed.

I fully sympathize with the British democrats who are indignant at what they call "the vices of the upper classes." The lower classes instinctively feel that drunkenness, stupidity, viciousness should be their exclusive property, and if one of us is disgraced, then he encroaches on their privileges.

There is a complete balance in their accounting: stupidity is compensated by gold, and vice by hypocrisy.

The tragedy of the poor is that only self-denial is within their means. Beautiful sins, like beautiful things, are the privilege of the rich.

The bravest of us is afraid of ourselves.

We always misunderstand ourselves, and rarely misunderstand others.

Only superficial people do not judge by appearances.

— Who are you?
To define means to limit.

- I choose beautiful friends for myself, friends with a good character, and I only make smart enemies.

I like to know everything about my new acquaintances and nothing about my old ones.

There is something tragic about friendship tinged with the color of falling in love.

One cannot be careful enough in choosing one's enemies.

He has no enemies - he is not such an outstanding person.

He has no enemies, but his friends strongly dislike him.

We consider ourselves generous, endowing others with virtues from which we hope to benefit ourselves.

We are ready to think well of others only because we are afraid for ourselves. The underlying reason for such optimism is the most common fear.

- You love everyone equally; in other words, everyone is equally indifferent to you.

Often it seems to us that we are experimenting on others, but it turns out that we were experimenting on ourselves.

The greatest sins in the world are rooted in the brain, and only in the brain.

There are no secret vices. They show up in the lines of the mouth, in the heavy eyelids, even in the shape of the hands.

A sin committed only once, and with disgust, we then repeat many times, and already with pleasure.

Boredom is the only sin that cannot be forgiven.

Real life is chaos, but the imagination is endowed with some kind of its own, terrifying logic. It is this that sends repentance, like a hound, on the trail of sin.

There is a special kind of pleasure in self-flagellation. When we blame ourselves, we feel that no one else has the right to do so.

A person who is introduced to culture will never regret his pleasures, and a person who is not attached to culture does not even know what it is.

Remission of sins is granted not by the confessor, but by confession itself.

Conscience and cowardice are essentially one and the same. Conscience is trademark cowardice.

Conscience makes us all selfish.

If you cannot forgive yourself for this, then you can forget it.

When we are happy we are always virtuous, but when we are virtuous we are not necessarily happy.

To be virtuous means to live in harmony with oneself. And whoever is forced to live in harmony with others lives in discord with himself.

Good intentions are checks with no backing whatsoever.

Good intentions are vain attempts to overcome the laws of nature.

The most stupid deeds are done with the noblest intentions.

The worst thing about marriage is that it eats away the selfishness in us. And unselfish people are colorless. They don't have their own face.

She had no right to kill herself: it was so selfish of her!

The purpose of life is self-expression. The highest duty is a duty to oneself.

There is something highly unhealthy in the universal sympathy for suffering. One must sympathize with the beauty, bright colors and joys of life. The nineteenth century went bankrupt because it was too generous with compassion.

Every crime is vulgar, and every vulgarity is a crime.

Crime is the exclusive property of the lower classes. And I don't blame them in the slightest. I hold to the hypothesis that for them crime is what art is for us: just a way to experience unusual and exciting sensations.

Murder is always a mistake. You should never do anything that you can't talk to people about after dinner.

Punishment is cleansing. Not “Forgive us our sins”, but “Punish us for our iniquities” - this is how we should pray to the most just God.

Philanthropists, carried away by charity, lose all philanthropy.

Religion is a fashionable surrogate for Faith.

A bishop at eighty continues to repeat what he was told when he was an eighteen-year-old youth - it is natural that his face retains beauty and good looks.

Only the inviolable and worth touching.

Some women find solace in religion. Her mysteries have for them all the charm of flirting.

Skepticism is the beginning of faith.

Both Heaven and Hell are inside each of us.

Emotions are good because they mislead us, and Science is good because it does not know emotions.

Like everyone who tries to exhaust a topic, he has exhausted the patience of his listeners.

In our age, the world is ruled by individuals, not ideas.

This painting was all over the penny papers, and nowadays it's a patent for immortality.

“Still, we have done great things in the past.
“They were forced on us.

“I believe in the greatness of the nation.
- I prefer the decline.

"So you don't like our country?"
- I live in it.

Beer, the Bible and the seven deadly virtues made England what it is.

— I would say that America is not open at all. She has just been discovered.

It is said that in America the export of pork is the most profitable business. Only politics is more profitable than him.

American girls are as clever at hiding their parents as English ladies are about their past.

The greatest events in the world are those that take place in the human brain.

"Are you absolutely sure of that?"
- Quite sure.
Well, in that case, it's just an illusion. Just what you firmly believe in does not really exist. Such is the fatal fate of faith, and love teaches us the same thing.

“I proclaim the truths of the future!”
“And I prefer the delusions of the present.

The path to truth is paved with paradoxes.

"I'll believe anything, as long as it's unbelievable."

— People interest me more than their principles, and most interesting of all - people without principles.

His principles are long outdated, but much could be said in favor of his prejudices.

Only cretins always argue.

I can't stand vulgar realism in literature. The man who calls a shovel a shovel should be made to work with it. He's no good for anything else.

For a novel, only that which is already out of use in life is suitable.

A person has ancestors not only in the family: he also has them in literature. And many of these literary ancestors, perhaps, are closer to him in type and temperament, and their influence, of course, is felt by him more strongly.

If a person has released a collection of bad sonnets, you can say in advance that he is completely irresistible. He brings into his life the poetry that he is not able to bring into his poems. But other kinds of poets pour out poetry on paper that they don't have the courage to put into practice.

Of all the artists I knew, only the mediocre ones were charming people. Talented people live by their creativity and therefore are completely uninteresting in themselves. great poet- truly great - always turns out to be the most prosaic person. And the secondary ones are charming.

Only words give reality to phenomena.

- I love the stage, everything on it is much more truthful than in life.

Look at bad game harmful to good morals.

What a blessing that we have at least one inimitable art!

Music creates in the soul new world but rather a new chaos.

I prefer Wagner's music to any other. It is so noisy, you can chat to it in the theater all evening without fear that strangers will hear you.

If you listen to bad music, your duty is to drown it in conversation.

The feelings of the artist are not reflected in his creation. Art is much more abstract than we think. Form and colors tell us about form and colors, and nothing more.

…That curious mix bad work and good intentions, which gives us the right to consider the artist as a typical representative of English art.

Any portrait painted with love is, in essence, a portrait of the artist himself, and not of the one who posed for him. Not him, but himself, the artist reveals on the canvas.

Only art has a soul, but a person does not have it.

In art, as in politics, grandfathers are always wrong.

An artist must create beauty without bringing anything from his personal life into it.

Mediocrity is a necessary condition for popularity.

Art does not affect our actions in any way - on the contrary, it paralyzes the desire to act. It is completely sterile.

Judging by their appearance, most critics are sold for a low price.

It is sometimes said that Beauty is something external, something superficial. May be. But, in any case, it is not as superficial as Thought.

Behind everything subtly beautiful, something tragic is hidden. In order for the humblest flower to bloom, the worlds must endure birth pangs.

Quotes from "The Importance of Being Earnest"

All women become like their mothers. This is their tragedy.
“That never happens to a man. This is his tragedy.

- Men who neglect their family duties become pampered beyond measure. And I don't like it. It makes a man too attractive.

“I haven't seen her since her poor husband died. And I've never seen a woman change like that. She looks twenty years younger.

“She's still thirty-five since she was forty.

“You should always do what a woman does not expect and say what she does not understand.

“The whole truth is not at all what a beautiful, sweet, charming girl should be told.

- If you are absent for a short time, I am ready to wait for you all my life.

I hope your hair curls on its own?
“Yes, dear, with a little help from the hairdresser.

"I hope you're doing well?"
“I feel good, Aunt Augusta.
“It's not the same at all. Moreover, it rarely coincides.

A woman should never be too precise about her age. It reeks of pedantry.

Thirty-five is the heyday. London Society full of women of the most noble birth, who, of their own free will, for many years in a row remain thirty-five years old.

This uncertainty is just awful. If only she hadn't finished!

Girls never marry those they flirt with. They think it's not accepted.

It's just a disgrace how many women in London flirt with their own husbands. It's very disgusting. It's like washing clean linen in public.

Men often propose just for practice.

“To be honest, I am not a fan of long engagements. This provides an opportunity to get to know each other better before marriage, which, in my opinion, is very imprudent.

The essence of romance is uncertainty. If I am destined to marry, I will, of course, try to forget that I am married.

- I was married only once - due to some misunderstanding that arose between me and one young lady.

The general was a peaceful person in all respects, except for family ones.

- I am unchanged in everything except my feelings.

Divorces are made in heaven.

A man who stubbornly refuses to marry turns into a constant public temptation.

A person who has as many as three addresses always inspires confidence, even among suppliers.

“I hope you don't lead a double life pretending to be dissolute when you're really virtuous. That would be hypocrisy.

“For God's sake, don't try to be a cynic. It's too easy.
“In our time, my friend, it is not easy to be anyone. There is fierce competition all around.

I hope the weather will be good tomorrow.
— The weather is never good, sir.
You are a complete pessimist.
“I do my best, sir.

Just don't talk to me about the weather. Whenever men start a conversation with me about the weather, I immediately know that they have something else on their minds.

Losing one of your parents can still be seen as a misfortune, but losing both is like negligence.

Relatives are the most boring people, they have no idea how to live, and they can’t guess when they should die.

- I love it when they wash the bones of my relatives. This is the only thing that still somehow reconciles me with its existence.

The doctors came to the conclusion that he could not live, so he died.
“He seems to have put too much faith in the opinion of his doctors.

Yes, he died. Completely died.
What a lesson for him! I hope this will do him good.

- The former respect for youth is quickly dying. I lost any influence on my mother already at the age of three.

All theories of modern education are fundamentally flawed. Fortunately, at least here in England, education does not leave any traces.

“I do not approve of anything that damages natural ignorance. Ignorance is like a delicate exotic flower: touch it and it will wither.

In important matters, the main thing is style, and not at all sincerity.

Talking about your own business is extremely vulgar. Only stockbrokers do this, and even then only at dinner parties.

“I have never seen people dress for so long and with such poor results.

If I am a little too well dressed, it is redeemed by the fact that I am too well educated.

- In major troubles, I deny myself everything except food and drink.

I can't stand people who talk frivolously about food. This is a sign of a superficial mind.

It's good that you smoke. Every man needs something to do. And there are too many idlers in London.

The three letters you wrote to me after we broke up are so good and have so many spelling mistakes that I still can't help crying when I reread them.

“Memory is a diary that no one can take away from us.
- Yes, but usually you remember events that actually did not happen and could not happen.

I don't go anywhere without a diary. On the road, you should always have some reading with you, from which you can not tear yourself away.

“This is just a record of the thoughts and experiences of a very young girl, and therefore it is intended for publication.

In the city you entertain yourself, outside the city you entertain others, and this is such a bore!

- What do we do?
- Nothing.
- This is a very difficult job. But I don't mind working hard, unless it's for some purpose.

“Never speak ill of high society. This is done only by those who are denied access there.

If the lower classes will not set an example for us, what good will they do?

“Your character is so simple that it is absolutely impossible to comprehend you.

The absence of old friends can be easily reconciled. But even a short separation from those whom you have just recognized is almost unbearable.

— Your loving parents see to it that you receive all the benefits that money can buy, including baptism.

Both the teaching and practice of the early apostolic Church were definitely against marriage.
– Therefore, the early Apostolic Church did not survive to our time.

— I can't allow French songs. People imagine that they are obscene, and either make indignant faces, which is extremely vulgar, or, even worse, laugh. But German sounds eminently respectable, and I believe that it is.

- I know for sure that after every German lesson I look uglier.

“You have to choose between this world, the next world, and Australia.

Even the most noble men are extremely subject to female charms. New story, like the ancient one, gives many deplorable examples of this. Otherwise the story would be impossible to read.

Truth is rarely pure and never simple.

“I hate arguments, no matter the cause. They are always vulgar and often conclusive.

Any rules about what should and what should not be read are simply ridiculous. Modern culture is more than half based on what not to read.

[In this novel] everything ends well for good people, and badly for bad people. This is called fiction.

I don't like romances with happy endings. They make me sad.

Only relatives and creditors call that Wagnerian.

If the music is good, no one listens to it, and if it's bad, it's impossible to have a conversation.

Quotes from "Lady Windermere's Fan"

Friendship between a man and a woman is impossible. Between them there can be passion, enmity, adoration, love - but not friendship.

With bad women you do not know peace, but with good women you are bored. That's the whole difference.

Only a truly good woman is capable of a truly stupid act.

“Not exactly love at first sight, but love at the end of the season, which is much more reliable.

- To win a man, it is enough for a woman to awaken the worst that is in him. You make a god out of a man and he leaves you. The other makes a beast out of him, and he licks her hands and keeps up with her.

“To meet a woman who fully understands you is a great thing.
“This is a very dangerous business. It usually ends in marriage.

"Damn it, she's so indifferent to me, as if I were her husband!"

“That's what makes me angry in women. They want us to be good. But they will never love us good. They need to pick us up irreparably bad, and leave us good to the point of disgust.

The love of a married woman is a great thing. For married men this was not a dream.

- how cruel good women!
How weak bad men are!

I make it clear that I am no more than twenty-nine - at most thirty. Twenty-nine when the lamps are under pink shades, thirty otherwise.

She poses as a beauty. This is the secret of her success.

Tears are salvation for ugly women, but death for pretty women.

Margaret is very pretty. AT last time that I saw her - twenty years ago - it was a freak in diapers.

These straw blondes are terribly short-tempered.

“I was loved passionately, madly. And very sorry. It has been incredibly disruptive to my life. I wouldn't mind having some free time sometimes.

How long could you love a woman who doesn't love you?
- Who doesn't love? All life.

There is nothing more like innocence than indiscretion.

You are not good at giving compliments. I'm afraid your wife doesn't encourage you in this good habit. This is a big mistake on her part. When a man stops talking pleasant words, his thoughts change accordingly.

We are all impoverished now, so compliments are the only offering we can afford.

In the game called "marriage" (which, by the way, is already going out of fashion), wives have all the cards in their hands, and yet they always give the decisive bribe.

London is full of women who trust their husbands. You can immediately recognize them - they look terribly unhappy.

It is dangerous for a husband these days to give his wife any attention in public. This makes everyone think that he is beating her in private. So suspicious now of everything that looks like a happy marriage.

“By the way, how was it?” Have you been married twice and divorced once or divorced twice and married once? I tell everyone that you were divorced twice and married once. It sounds somehow more plausible.

- This is none of my business. That is why it interests me. My affairs always make me sad. I prefer others.

Backbiting is gossip with a boring tinge of morality.

It makes no sense to divide people into good and bad. People are either charming or boring. I prefer charming.

“I didn’t turn out to be a spoiled person. Many even claim that I have never committed a single truly bad deed in my entire life. Of course, they only say this behind my back.

Those who pretend to be good are taken seriously by the world. Those who pretend to be bad - no. Such is the boundless stupidity of the optimists.

We all wallow in the mud, but some of us look at the stars.

Men get older, but not better.

“I can resist anything but temptation.

I thought I didn't have a heart, but it turns out I do. But my heart is useless. Somehow it does not fit with fashionable toilets. It's getting old.

What is a cynic? A person who knows the price of everything, but does not know the value.

In fact, relatives are the scourge of God, but they give a person a certain weight.

In this world, only two tragedies are possible. One - if the dream did not come true, and the other - if it came true. And the second is much worse, it is truly a tragedy.

To tell is to relive. Actions are the first tragedy of life, words are the second. And the words are perhaps worse. Words hurt.

Many women have pasts, but she is said to have at least a dozen.

- There is simply no way with today's youth. No respect for dyed hair.

As soon as a person lives to such an age when it is necessary to understand, he ceases to understand anything.

Experience is an intuitive understanding of life.

Everyone calls experience their own mistakes.

We learn life lessons that we can no longer use.

All men are monsters. The only thing left for women is to feed them better.

Married life for a man is as destructive as cigarettes, but costs much more.

- A wonderful ball! So I remembered former time. And fools in society has not diminished. It's nice to see that everything is the same here.

“I am the only person in the world that I would like to know better.

In our time, to be understood means to betray oneself.

In our time, comfort is not repentance, but pleasures. Remorse has gone out of fashion. And besides, if a woman sincerely repents, she is forced to sew with a bad dressmaker, otherwise no one will believe her.

“Don’t let yourself be seduced into the path of virtue!” Virtuous you will be irreproachably boring.

A man who reads morality is usually a hypocrite, and a woman who reads morality is certainly an ugly woman.

“Life is not a game. Life is a mystery. Her ideal is love. Her cleansing is a sacrifice.
- God forbid to be sacrificed!

You can endure any adversity - they come from outside, they are accidental. But suffering for your own mistakes is the most bitter thing in life.

He thinks like a conservative and speaks like a radical, which is very important these days.

Too much fog in London and serious people. Whether the fog generates serious people, or vice versa - I do not know.

“How beautiful it must be with such cute little kangaroos fluttering around!

Ideal husband. Quotes

Women are surprisingly perceptive. They see everything but the obvious.

— I like to look at geniuses and listen to beauties.

"I don't believe a single word you tell me... or I tell you."

A novel should not begin with an outpouring of feelings. It should begin with a sober calculation and end with a deed of gift.

“Modern women, they say, understand everything.
Except for their husbands.

She was very unhappy in her marriage. And in the end she despaired so much that she even went ... I don’t remember, either to the monastery, or to the operetta.

- You are very modern girl. Perhaps even too modern. And this is very dangerous - you can suddenly become old-fashioned.

- In my opinion, a man is not capable of development. He has already reached highest point- and it's not God knows how high.

- I'm in my 30s.
“Honey, you look a whole month younger.

“Little requests are always so difficult to fulfill!”

- You should always play fair when you have trump cards in your hands.

Now, after all, a woman is not allowed to flirt before the age of forty and have romantic feelings before forty-five.

When a woman is overly charming, her gender is not a defense for her, but a challenge to the other sex.

Nothing is harder than marrying off a big nose.

A face completely devoid of expression is a mask of good manners.

True love forgives any sins, except for sins against love.

Not the one who is strong needs love, but the one who is weak. That's when we hurt ourselves or others hurt us, then love must come and heal our wounds. Otherwise why love?

If a man has ever loved a woman, he will do anything for her. Except for just one thing: continue to love her.

Women cannot be disarmed with compliments, men are very easy.

- If she accepts your offer she will be the prettiest fool in England.
- That's what we're talking about. A sensible wife would drive me to the stage of dementia in less than six months.

“He was going to propose to me again, but I stopped him. I said that I am a bimetallist.

- If we men married the women we deserve, it would be bad for us!

There is only one true tragedy in a woman's life: that her inevitable past is her lover and her inevitable future is her husband.

Having secrets from other people's wives is a necessary luxury in our time. But trying to hide something from your wife is unforgivable frivolity. She will know anyway.

How many lovely women there are who grew old before their time only because their admirers were so faithful to them!

Marriage without love is a terrible thing. But there is something worse than even marriage without love. This is a marriage in which there is love, but only on one side: there is fidelity, but only on one side; there is devotion, but only on one side.

Nowadays everything decent people get married. Bachelors are no longer in vogue. discredited public. Too much is known about them.

You know how curious women are. Almost like men!

People are so fond of exposing other people's secrets because it diverts attention from their own.

I don't want to know what people are saying about me behind my back. This flatters me too much.

She's one of those modern women who find that a new scandal suits them as much as a new hat, and parade both on the boardwalk at five-thirty in the evening.

“My evil qualities are simply monstrous. When I remember them at night, I immediately fall asleep again.

There are such terrible temptations that it takes strength - strength and courage - to yield to them.

No woman, beautiful or ugly, has common sense. Common sense is the advantage of our gender.
- Yes. And we men are so modest that we never use it.

Fathers should not be seen or heard. Only on this basis can a strong family be built.

Life is never fair. For most of us, it's probably better that way.

Youth is not fashion. Youth is art.

He is one of those extremely weak-willed natures that are not amenable to any influence.

There is more to be said for stupidity than is commonly believed. Personally, I am an ardent admirer of stupidity. I have something for her kindred feeling.

Do you always understand what you say?
Yes, if I listen carefully.

“I like to talk about nothing. It's the only one I know anything about.

I usually say what I think. And it's risky these days. People understand everything the other way around.

“I want to give you good advice.
- For God's sake, don't. Never give a woman something that she cannot wear in the evenings.

- I always do this with good advice: I pass them on to others. There is nothing else to do with them.

Ambition is always somewhat illegible in its means.

Vulgarity is simply the behavior of other people. Others are generally a nightmare audience. The only good company is yourself.

Questions are not immodest. Sometimes the answers are immodest.

- Being natural is a very difficult pose - you can’t stand it for a long time!

When a person comes to visit, he spends the time of the hosts, not his own.

“I don’t know a good half of those who visit my house. And I hardly would like to meet, judging by what I hear about them.

It's always nice not to go where you're expected.

- Are women the embodiment of the irrational?
“Only those who dress well.

The first duty of a woman is to please her dressmaker. What is her second duty, is still not open.

Yesterday there was a lot of blush on her, and very little dress. In a woman, this is always a sign of despair.

What is fashionable is what you wear yourself. And what others wear is unfashionable.

Half the pretty women in London smoke. Personally, I prefer the other half.

I am familiar with this handwriting. Ten commandments in every stroke of the pen and morality in every line.

At ten in the morning he rides in Hyde Park; goes to the opera three times a week; He changes clothes five times a day and has dinner with someone every evening. And this, in your opinion, is an idle way of life?!

- Information that is not subject to disclosure - this is the usual beginning of all the current large fortunes.
“And the inevitable end of all this is a deafening scandal.

He likes to be misunderstood. It elevates him above others.

Moralizing is just a pose in which we stand in front of those whom we somehow do not like.

Self-sacrifice should be prohibited by law. It corrupts those to whom it is sacrificed.

“My duty is something I never do, just out of principle.

Charity is the last resort of those who love to pester their neighbors.

“But let me ask you, are you a pessimist or an optimist?” These seem to be the only fashionable religions we have left.

When the gods want to punish us, they answer our prayers.

Science cannot cope with the irrational. That is why science has no future in our world.

Only boring people go to parliament. And only stupid people succeed there.

— I love political salons. This is the only place where they don't talk about politics.

If a man cannot at least twice a week rant about morality before a vast and quite immoral audience, the political field is closed to him.

In our time, nothing makes such a favorable impression on the listeners as a good, completely worn out common place. Everyone suddenly feels a kind of kinship of souls.

She can talk for hours and say absolutely nothing. She's just made to be a speaker.

— I read all English newspapers. They are very interesting.
Well, then you read between the lines.

Spies are a dying profession. For them now all do newspapers.

If only the English could be taught to speak and the Irish to listen...

The London season is somehow too matrimonial. All women either catch their husbands or hide from them.

You have to be a complete dumbass to shine with wit at breakfast.

Lies are the truth of other people.

I don't like principles. I prefer prejudice.

Listening is very dangerous: you can be convinced, and a person who yields to the arguments of reason is an extremely unreasonable creature.

The music will be in German, you won't understand anyway.

“Musicians are such an unintelligent people. They want us to be mute, just when we most want to be deaf.

A woman who doesn't deserve attention. Quotes

Women are Sphinxes without riddles.

At the heart of every gossip lies a well-tested immorality.

Women represent the triumph of matter over spirit, and men the triumph of spirit over morality.

Women rule society. If women are not on your side, then you are a goner. Then it’s better to immediately go to lawyers, brokers or journalists.

Women are charmingly capricious. Every woman is a rebel by nature, and she usually rebels against herself.

The history of women is the history of the worst kind of tyranny the world has ever known. The tyranny of the weak over the strong. This is single form tyranny that still persists.

“Femininity is the quality I most admire in women.

All men are the property of married women. We don't belong to anyone.

“I only had one husband. You must be looking at me like I'm an amateur?

“The secret of life is to be able to enjoy disappointment when you are terribly, simply terribly deceived.

- A lot can be said in favor of a bashful blush, if, of course, you know how to blush at will.

“There is a lot of truth in what you said—and you were so pretty at that moment, which is much more important.

- If you want to know what a woman really thinks - and this, by the way, is always dangerous - look at her, but do not listen.

“Women love us for our flaws. If we have enough of them, they are ready to forgive us everything, even a huge mind.

“But there are good women in society, aren't there?
- Even too much.

“There is one thing about you that I will always like.
- Only one? And I have so many shortcomings.

The mirror is cruel. It only shows me my wrinkles.
“Mine are much better brought up. It never tells me the truth.
So it's in love with you.

“You women worship the victors.
“We are the laurel wreaths covering their bald head.

We men learn life too soon.
“And we women learn life too late. That's the difference.

— The Book of Life begins with a man and a woman in the Garden of Eden.
And ends with Revelations.

He must always say things that are not what he thinks, and think things that are not what he says.
He must not neglect other pretty women. This would prove that he has no taste, or raise the suspicion that he has too much taste.
He must always praise us for the qualities we do not have.
But he must be merciless, absolutely merciless, blaming us for such virtues that we never even dreamed of.
He must not believe that we need anything useful. It would be unforgivable. But he should shower us with everything that we do not need at all.
He must constantly compromise us in public and be extremely respectful with us in private.
“But what reward will the Ideal Man receive?”
- What reward? The possibility of endless hope.

“You should never give up on a man.
- Even Ideal Man?
- Just to him - especially. Unless it's on purpose to make you sick of him.

You can't trust a woman who doesn't hide her age. Such a woman will not hesitate to say anything.

- It is curious that ugly women are always jealous of their husbands, but beautiful women never.
— beautiful women not before - they are jealous of other people's husbands.

— I saw this governess. She was too beautiful to be kept in a decent house.

She has amazing ability remember names and forget faces.

A man always wants to be a woman's first love. They have such ridiculous vanity. We women are more sensitive in such matters. We would like to be the last love of a man.

All love is terrible. Every love is a tragedy.

One kiss can ruin your whole life.

The first condition for playing with fire is not to get burned. Only those who do not know the rules of the game are burned.

I love men over seventy. They always offer love to the grave.

Good husbands are unbearably boring, bad husbands are terribly presumptuous.

Twenty years of love makes a ruin out of a woman; twenty years of marriage make it look like a public building.

The happiness of a married person depends on those to whom he is not married.

We women have become so educated that nothing will surprise us now, except for happy marriages.

- You can immediately find out whether a person has family responsibilities or not. More than once I noticed such a sad, sad expression in the eyes of married men.

The family breaks up much more often from the sanity of the husband than from anything else. How can a woman be happy with a man who stubbornly wants to see her as a completely rational being?

You must always be in love. That's why you should never get married.

It is downright monstrous that people today allow themselves: behind your back they are talking about you the obvious and shameless truth.

He must be very worthy person. In all his life, no one had ever heard his name, and that means a lot these days.

Everything can be experienced except death; everything can be transferred, except for a good reputation.

- Whom do you consider spoiled?
“Those men who admire innocence.
What about spoiled women?
“Oh, those women who never bother men.

Who is old enough to do evil is old enough to learn good.

There is no secret to life. The purpose of life, if it exists at all, is to seek temptation forever. They don't hurt a lot. Sometimes for the whole day you will not meet a single one.

As far as pleasure is concerned, women are much more advantageous position than men: for them there are much more prohibitions.

Nothing is serious but passion. The intellect is not serious now, nor has it ever been serious. It's the instrument you play, that's all.

- The man - poor, awkward, solid and urgently needed - belongs to a sex that has been intelligent for many millions of years. He won't be able to do anything about it. It runs in his blood. The history of the Woman is completely different. We have always been a picturesque protest against the very notion common sense. We immediately saw the danger.

People always laugh at their tragedies - that's the only way to endure them.

“Nothing harms a romance more than a sense of humor in a woman.
“Or his lack of a man.

Children begin by loving their parents. Then they judge them. And almost never forgive them.

“I always surprise myself. It's the only thing worth living for.

- The soul is born old, but becomes younger. This is the comedy of life.
- And the body is born young, but becomes old. This is the tragedy of life.

Youth is the master of life. Youth has a whole kingdom ahead of it. Everyone is born a king, and many, like kings, die in exile.

All influence is harmful, but beneficial influence is the worst.

If you are a gentleman, then you know as much as you need, and if you are not a gentleman, then all knowledge is only to your detriment.

The world was created by fools to be inhabited by smart people.

Moderation is a fatal property. Only extremes lead to success.

The whole world is divided into two classes: some believe in the incredible, like simple mob, others do the impossible.

Now good upbringing- just a hindrance. It closes too many doors for you.

— I hate London dinners.
- And I love them. Smart people never listen, and stupid people are always silent.

The right word is sometimes said not when it is necessary, and not to the one who needs it.

Talk to every woman as if you were in love with her, and to every man as if you were bored with him, and you will have a reputation for exceptional tact.

Terrible girl. She is unbearably natural.

A well-tied tie is the first important step in life.

People have become so superficial that they don't even understand the philosophy of appearance.

In fact, women love it when men are badly dressed. They are always a little afraid of the dandy and want the appearance of a man to speak against him.

“These gold-rimmed cigarettes are awfully expensive. I only smoke them when I'm deep in debt.

- Being in society is just boring. And being out of society is already a tragedy.

These days to get in better society, you need to either feed people dinners, or entertain them, or shock them - that's all!

The saint always has a past, and the sinner always has a future.

An orchid as beautiful as the seven deadly sins.

Intellectual abstractions are always interesting, but moral abstractions mean absolutely nothing.

Duty is what we demand from others and do not do ourselves.

In the temple, everyone should be serious, except for the one who is worshiped.

After a good dinner, you will forgive everyone, even your own brother.

It is impossible to bring people to virtue by legislative means - and this is already good.

Do you really believe everything that is written in the newspapers?
— I believe. The only thing that happens these days is the unbelievable.

Discontent is the first step to progress - how individual person as well as nations.

“Our country [America] is the largest in the world. Some of our states are as big as England and France put together.
“I can imagine what kind of drafts you have there.

“You should study the Book of Peers. This is the best novel that the English have produced.

The man who can master the conversation at a London dinner can master the whole world.

America's youth is the oldest of its traditions. She is already three hundred years old.

“They say that after death, good Americans go to Paris.
Where do bad Americans go when they die?
— Oh, they're going to America.

All American women dress well. They order their toilets in Paris.

Every thought is immoral. Its essence is destruction. Nothing can bear the impact of thought.

- Music sets you in a kind of romantic mood ... or, let's say, gets on your nerves.
“Today it’s almost the same thing.

"Salome" by Oscar Wilde. Quotes

The mystery of love is greater than the mystery of death.

It would be terrible if the dead returned.

You don't have to find signs in everything you see. It makes life unbearable.

Mirrors reflect only masks.

- Wonders! I do not believe in miracles. I've seen too many miracles.

Faith, or the Nihilists. Quotes

You need new experiences. You have already been married twice; Why don't you try to fall in love for once?

Family is a big hindrance in life, especially if you are not married.

Not required great work to live badly or die well.

Not talking is so tiring!

"You are wrong to speak disparagingly of culinary arts. Cooking is the basis of culture. The only immortality I would wish for myself is to invent a new sauce.

I would rather lose my best friend than my worst enemy. To have friends, it is enough to be kind, but a person who has lost enemies can be considered a nonentity.

In a true democracy, everyone should be an aristocrat.

In the old days, people spent their lives earning rights for themselves, and now every baby comes into the world with an enormous declaration of rights in his mouth.

“You have so many informants that you don't seem to know enough.

Nothing is impossible in Russia except reforms.

Reforms in Russia are always a tragedy, and they all end in farce.

What good can we do now for Russia?
- It is known that - to suffer.

- Foxes have holes, and forest wolves have dens, and the Russian people, the conqueror of the world, have nowhere to lay their heads.
- Excuse me, but on the chopping block?

He will stab his best friend to place a witty epitaph on his grave.

Indifference is the revenge that punishes mediocrity.

Life is too important thing to talk about it seriously.

Holy harlot. Quotes

Death is not a goddess. She is only a servant of the gods.

You should never name the god you serve.

Lord Savile's crime. Quotes

A woman without cute mistakes is not a woman, but a female person.

- In my opinion, a husband should not be too charming. This is dangerous.
“My child, a husband is never too charming!

The strongest foundation for marriage is mutual misunderstanding.

- Today I have lunch with boring people"They never gossip, and if I don't get enough sleep now, I'll fall asleep at dinner."

She changed husbands more than once, but she kept one lover, and therefore the gossip about her has long ceased.

“You certainly tempt Providence.
“Ah, Providence has definitely learned to resist temptation already.

- No, I'm not cynical, I just have experience - however, this is one and the same.

The whole world is a theater, but the roles are badly distributed.

The actors are fine. They choose whether to play tragedy or comedy, suffer or have fun, shed tears or laugh. But life is not like that. Men and women usually have to play roles for which they are not at all suitable.

Everyone should go to a palmist at least once a month to know what he can and cannot do. Then, of course, we do the opposite, but it's nice to know about the consequences in advance!

Pianists look exactly like poets, and poets look exactly like pianists.

Portrait of Mr. U.G.

All charming people spoiled. This is the secret of their attractiveness.

Giving advice is generally stupid, but good advice is simply fatal.

The only apostle who did not deserve to be presented with evidence of the existence of God was Saint Thomas, but he received them alone.

Martyrdom is just a tragic form of skepticism, an attempt by the fire to achieve what faith could not achieve.

Faith does not become truth just because someone dies for it.

No one dies for an undeniable truth. People die for what they would like to see as truth.

Doesn't trying to prove something to another undermine your own conviction in what you are proving?

Art, and only Art, reveals ourselves to us.

Art cannot show us the outside world in all its authenticity. All that it shows us is our own soul, the only world we really know anything about.

The Canterville Ghost. Quotes

Love is stronger than Life and Death.

I know a lot of people in New York who would give a hundred thousand dollars just to have a grandfather of some kind, well, much more for a family ghost.

How beautiful must death be! To lie in the soft, dark earth, to feel the swaying of the grass above your head and listen to the silence. To know neither yesterday nor tomorrow, forget about time, forget about life, dissolve in peace.

Now we [the British] have everything in common with America, except, of course, the language.

Millionaire Sitter. Quotes

The only people with whom an artist should make acquaintance are beautiful and stupid people; to look at them is an artistic delight, and to converse with them is a rest for the mind.

Only dandies and charming women rule the world - or at least should rule the world.

If you are not rich, you do not need to be charming. Novels are the privilege of the rich, but by no means the profession of persons without definite occupations. It is better to have a steady annual income than charming manners.

Sphinx without a riddle. Quotes

Women are made to be loved, not to be understood.

Ballad of Reading Gaol. Quotes

How can Christ enter us if not through a broken heart?

Great rocket. Quotes

What is a sensitive person?
- This is the one who steps on other people's corns, if he himself suffers from corns.

She must have a truly romantic nature: she cries uncontrollably when there is absolutely nothing to cry about.

Anyone can have common sense - for this it is enough not to have imagination.

— I don't let the interlocutor insert a word. This saves time and stops unnecessary disputes.

Hard work is the occupation of those who have nothing else to do.

“I would never have made friends with her if I had known her. It is very dangerous to know your friends well.

The only thing that supports us in life is the consciousness of our infinite superiority over all others, and I do not cease to cultivate this feeling in myself.

It is ignoble to expect from others the same rare virtues that one possesses oneself.

I always think of myself and expect the same from others. This is called responsiveness.

“I often have long conversations with myself, and I am so clever that sometimes I do not understand a single word of what I say.
“Then you should definitely lecture on philosophy.

The controversy is unbearably vulgar. In a good society, everyone has exactly the same opinions.

Quotes from Fairy Tales

Love always promises the impossible and makes you believe in the impossible. (Nightingale and Rose)

She has too little money and too many relatives. (Happy Prince)

The secrets of art are best understood in secret, and Beauty, like Wisdom, loves to be worshiped in private. (Young king)

Many do well, but very few speak well. This means that it is much more difficult to speak, and much more worthy. (Loyal friend)

In wartime, the strong enslave the weak; in Peaceful time The rich enslave the poor. (from the collection of fairy tales "Pomegranate House")

In general, he is not so ugly, unless, of course, you close your eyes and do not look in his direction. (Birthday of the Infanta)

When compiling the section, materials from the book by Konstantin Dushenko "Oscar Wilde. Thoughts, Aphorisms and Phrases" (Moscow: EKSMO, 2013) were used.

The joy of life is in the soul, which over time becomes younger and younger. The tragedy of life is in the body, aging and dying.

A man marries a second time only if he truly loved the previous one. A woman will marry twice for revenge on her ex-husband.

A man abandoned by his soul mate does not know how to live on. Therefore, it often looks ridiculous and strange in the eyes of others.

The only exact scientific discovery- everything is changing. There is nothing permanent. Accepting and honoring some laws, postulates, theories is the same as rejecting progress and development. But nature must evolve. Without constant growth, humanity will simply die out. O. Wilde

Those who live in the past have no future.

A person cannot control his sexual desire. Change does not exist. Any intrigues “on the side” are all just physiology. No matter how young people restrain themselves, they cannot become faithful. The old people madly want to “left” - but it doesn’t work anymore.

Read the continuation of the famous aphorisms and quotes of O. Wilde on the pages:

I like to talk about nothing - it's the only thing I understand.

Imagination is given to a person to console him with what he does not have, and a sense of humor is given to console him with what he has.

Self-sacrifice must be punishable by law. It demoralizes those for whom they make sacrifices.

It is very dangerous to meet a woman who fully understands you. It usually ends in marriage.

Loyalty! It is the greed of the owner. We would gladly give up a lot if it were not for the fear that someone else would pick it up ...

Questions are never indiscreet. Unlike answers.

Time is a waste of money.

Our only duty to history is to constantly rewrite it.

I am always very friendly to those who are indifferent to me.

Everything that is beautiful in this life is either immoral, or illegal, or leads to obesity.

Being in society is just boring. And being out of society is already a tragedy.

It's terribly hard work doing nothing.

If you want to spoil a person, start re-educating him.

America is a paradise for women. That is why, like Eve in her time, they strive to get out of there as soon as possible.

Life is too complicated to be taken seriously.

Positive people get on your nerves, bad people affect your imagination.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

All charming people are spoiled, this is the secret of their attractiveness.

You know him? I know him so well that I haven't spoken to him in ten years.

People always destroy what they love the most.

A thought that is not dangerous is not worthy of being called a thought.

English common sense is the inherited stupidity of the fathers.

Giving advice is always bad, but no one will forgive you good advice.

Everyone sympathizes with the misfortunes of their friends, and only a few rejoice in their successes.

Friendship is more tragic than love - it dies much longer.

It's always nice not to go where you're expected.

England and America are two nations separated by a common language.

Interest in ethics is evidence of belated mental development.

The only difference between a saint and a sinner is that the saint has a past and the sinner has a future.

If a person is sensible about something, it is sure sign that he himself is incompetent in this area.

The purpose of art is to reveal beauty and hide the artist.

American women get tired of long races, but they are great in steeplechase.

Selfishness is not that a person lives as he wants, but that he makes others live according to his principles.

I do not at all want to know what they say behind my back - I already have a rather high opinion of myself.

When Good is powerless, it is Evil.

Be yourself. Other roles are already filled.

Do you know how great female curiosity is? Almost the same as men's.

When the gods want to punish us, they listen to our prayers.

To be natural, you must be able to pretend.

The only thing you will never regret is our mistakes and delusions.

When you have winning cards in your hand, you should play fair.

Most of us are not us. Our thoughts are the judgments of others; our life is mimicry; our passions - quote!

Life is short, art is endless.

Loyalty in love, like the consistency and immutability of thoughts, is simply proof of impotence.

Everything can be experienced except death.

This is what angers me in women. Be sure to give them a good man. Moreover, if he is good from the very beginning, they will never love him. They need to fall in love with him bad, and leave him - disgustingly good.

I have very unpretentious taste - the best is enough.

Truth is rarely pure and never unambiguous.

Only two tragedies are possible in life: the first is to get what you dream of, the second is not to get.

Christ died not to save people, but to teach them how to save one another.

It is better to adore than to be admired. To endure someone's adoration is boring and painful.

Whenever a person commits stupidity, he does it from the most noble motives.

Children begin with love for their parents. Growing up, they begin to judge them. Sometimes they forgive them.

When they release me, I will simply move from one prison to another.

America was discovered many times before Columbus, but no one was told about it.

If a person tells the truth, sooner or later he will be brought to clean water.

The American is the Don Quixote of common sense, for he is practical to such an extent that he is completely out of touch with reality.

Most marriages break up nowadays primarily because of the good sense of the husband. Indeed, how can a woman be happy with a man who considers her an absolutely rational being.

Nothing is impossible in Russia except reforms.

There is only one sin - stupidity.

Only empty people know themselves.

How can a woman be happy with a man who considers her an absolutely rational being?

We all sit in the gutter, but some of us are stargazing.

In everything that people take seriously, you need to see the comic side of things.

The ideal man should speak to us like goddesses and treat us like children.

A woman will flirt with anyone, as long as they look at her at that time.

It makes no sense to divide people into good and bad. People are either charming or stupid.

Forgive your enemies - this is The best way get them out of it.

If the gods want to punish a person, they fulfill his desires.

When we are happy, we are always kind; but when we are kind, we are not always happy.

In its defense, journalism can refer to the great Darwinian law of the survival of the mediocre.

This is none of my business. That is why it interests me. My affairs always make me sad. I prefer others.

Good advice I always pass on to others. There is nothing else to do with them.

The secret to being boring is being able to tell everything about yourself.

You should never trust a woman who tells you her age. A woman capable of this is capable of anything.

Other people's dramas are always unbearably banal.

Being in society is just boring. And being out of society is already a tragedy.

With each of our extraordinary actions, we make an enemy for ourselves. To be popular, you have to be mediocre.

Atheism needs religion just as much as faith.

Democracy is fooling the people with the help of the people for the good of the people.

Enemies should be chosen with special care.

The burden of our day is too heavy for man to bear alone, and the pain of the world is too deep for man to bear alone.

good half modern culture based on what should not be read.

If we men married the women we deserve, it would be bad for us!

Life is too serious a thing to be taken seriously.

I can resist anything but temptation.

Being selfish does not mean living the way you want. It means asking others to live the life you want.

All men are monsters. The only thing left for women is to feed them better.

In our age, people read too much, it prevents them from being wise.

Ugly women are always jealous of their husbands; beautiful - not before, they are jealous of strangers.

Life gives a person best case one unique moment, and the secret of happiness is to repeat this moment as often as possible.

It's good when friendship starts with a smile. But it's even better if it ends with her.

If you want to know what a woman really thinks, look at her, but don't listen.

Most of us are not us. Our thoughts are the judgments of others; our life is mimicry; our passions - quote!

If anything is worth doing, it is only what is considered impossible.

Marriage without love is terrible. But there is something even worse: it is a marriage in which there is love, but only on one side; fidelity, but only on one side. In such a marriage of two hearts, one is undoubtedly broken.

I live in constant fear that I will be understood correctly.

Every woman is a rebel by nature, and she rebels exclusively against herself.

A real friend will stab you in the front.

The only way to get rid of temptation is to give in to it.

Whenever a person commits stupidity, he does it from the most noble motives.

Friendship between a man and a woman is impossible. Passion, enmity, adoration, love - but not friendship.