353 quotes
In America the President reigns for four years, and Journalism governs for ever and ever.
The Soul of Man Under Socialism (1891)
Weave purple for his shrunken hips! and purple for his barren loins!
As for modern Journalism, its not my business to defend it. It justifies its own existence by the great Darwinian principle of the survival of the vulgarest.
The Critic as Artist (1891)
The final revelation is that Lying, the telling of beautiful untrue things, is the proper aim of Art.
The Decay of Lying (1889)
For a sentimentalist is simply one who desires to have the luxury of an emotion without paying for it.
De Profundis (1897)
There is only one class in the community that thinks more about money than the rich, and that is the poor.
The Soul of Man Under Socialism (1891)
Tread Lightly, she is near
Under the snow,
Speak gently, she can hear
The daisies grow.
Poems (1881)
When private property is abolished there will be no necessity for crime, no demand for it; it will cease to exist.
The Soul of Man Under Socialism (1891)
As for begging, it is safer to beg than to take, but it is finer to take than to beg.
The Soul of Man Under Socialism (1891)
I suppose Society is wonderfully delightful.
To be in it is merely a bore. But to be out of it is simply a tragedy.
A Woman of No Importance (1893)
I never saw a man who looked
With such a wistful eye
Upon that little tent of blue
Which prisoners call the sky.
The Ballad of Reading Gaol (1898)
He has fought a good fight and has had to face every difficulty except popularity.
Or that young god, the Tyrian, who was more amorous than the dove
Of Ashtaroth?
The Sphinx (1894)
It is a very sad thing that nowadays there is so little useless information.
A Few Maxims for the Instruction of the Over-Educated (1894)
While to the claims of charity a man may yield and yet be free, to the claims of conformity no man may yield and remain free.
A community is infinitely more brutalized by the habitual employment of punishment than … by the occasional occurrence of crime.
A dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world.
The Critic as Artist (1891)
In examinations the foolish ask questions that the wise cannot answer.
Phrases and Philosophies for the Use of the Young (1894)
There are few things easier than to live badly and to die well.
Vera; or, The Nihilists (1880)
A thing is, according to the mode in which one looks at it.
De Profundis (1897)