Oscar Wilde Sayings and Quotes

Below you will find our collection of inspirational, wise, and humorous old Oscar Wilde quotes, Oscar Wilde sayings, and Oscar Wilde proverbs, collected over the years from a variety of sources.'

The smallest act of kindness is worth more than the grandest intention. Oscar Wilde
The ugly and the stupid have the best of it in this world. They can sit at their ease and gape at the play. If they know nothing of victory, they are at least spared the knowledge of defeat. Oscar Wilde
Whenever a man does a thoroughly stupid thing, it is always from the noblest motives. Oscar Wilde
The only thing that ever consoles man for the stupid things he does is the praise he always gives himself for doing them. Oscar Wilde
There is no sin except stupidity. Oscar Wilde
I am so clever that sometimes I don't understand a single word of what I am saying. Oscar Wilde
Cleverness becomes a public nuisance. Oscar Wilde
I was disappointed with Niagara—most people must be disappointed with Niagara. Every American bride is taken there, and the sight of the stupendous waterfall must be one of the earliest, if not the keenest, disappointments in American married life. Oscar Wilde
Oh, brothers! I don’t care for brothers. My elder brother won’t die, and my younger brothers seem never to do anything else. Oscar Wilde
With freedom, books, flowers, and the moon, who could not be happy? Oscar Wilde
It is only the superficial qualities that last. Man's deeper nature is soon found out. Oscar Wilde
There is a tiny yellow daffodil, the butterfly can see it from a far. Although one summer evening's dew could fill Its little cup twice over, ere the star had called the lazy shepherd to his fold. Oscar Wilde
I made that vow,/ Swore that two lives should be like one / As long as the seagull loved the sea, / As long as the sunflower sought the sun,/ It shall be, I said, for eternity,/ 'Twixt you and me! Oscar Wilde
There is not a single colour hidden away in the chalice of a flower, or the curve of a shell, to which, by some subtle sympathy with the very soul of things, my nature does not answer. Oscar Wilde
Fathers should be neither seen nor heard. That is the only proper basis for family life. Oscar Wilde
Beauty is the only thing that time cannot harm. Philosophies fall away like sand, creeds follow one another, but what is beautiful is a joy for all seasons, a possession for all eternity. Oscar Wilde
I found [life] to be a revolting and repellent tragedy, and that the sinister occasion of the great catastrophe, sinister in its concentration of aim and intensity of narrowed will-power, was yourself stripped of that mask of joy and pleasure by which you, no less than I, had been deceived and led astray. Oscar Wilde
How evil he looked! The face was saturnine and swarthy, and the sensual lips seemed to be twisted with disdain. Oscar Wilde
He knew that he had tarnished himself, filled his mind with corruption, and given horror to his fancy; that he had been an evil influence to others, and had experienced a terrible joy in being so; and that, of the lives that had crossed his own, it had been the fairest and the most full of promise that he had brought to shame. Oscar Wilde
Action is the last resource of those who know not how to dream. Oscar Wilde
Dullness is always an irresistible temptation for brilliancy, and stupidity is the permanent Bestia Trionfans that calls wisdom from its cave. Oscar Wilde
When Narcissus died the pool of his pleasure changed from a cup of sweet waters into a cup of salt tears, and the Oreads came weeping through the woodland that they might sing to the pool and give it comfort. Oscar Wilde
She is a peacock in everything but beauty. Oscar Wilde
Success is a science; if you have the conditions, you'll get the result. Oscar Wilde
We are the zanies of sorrow. We are clowns whose hearts are broken. Oscar Wilde
People are told not to buy pig in a poke — that may or may not be true. I don't think people should buy pigs at all. Oscar Wilde
The heart was made to be broken. Oscar Wilde
I have never watched a man do anything useful who has not been graceful at some moment of his labour: it is only the loafer and the idle saunterer who is as useless and uninteresting to the artist as he is to himself. Oscar Wilde
I saw some designs on your vases done by someone who, I should say, had only five minutes to catch a train... the institution of pottery should not be a refuge for people who cannot draw nor asylum for the artistically afflicted. Oscar Wilde
I let myself be lured into long spells of senseless and sensual ease... Tired of being on the heights, I deliberately went to the depths in search of new sensations... I grew careless of the lives of others. I forgot that every little action of the common day makes or unmakes character, and that therefore what one has done in the secret chamber, one has some day to cry aloud from the house-top. I ceased to be lord over myself. I was no longer the captain of my soul, and did not know it. I allowed displeasure to dominate me. I ended in horrible grace. Oscar Wilde