353 quotes
The yellow fog came creeping down
The bridges, till the houses' walls
Seemed changed to shadows, and St. Paul's
Loomed like a bubble o'er the town.
Divorces are made in Heaven.
The Importance of Being Earnest (1895)
England has done one thing; it has invented and established Public Opinion, which is an attempt to organize the ignorance of the community, and to elevate it to the dignity of physical force.
The Critic as Artist (1891)
We are the zanies of sorrow. We are clowns whose hearts are broken.
De Profundis (1897)
In old days men had the rack. Now they have the press.
The Soul of Man Under Socialism (1891)
Art is Individualism, and Individualism is a disturbing and disintegrating force. Therein lies its immense value. For what it seeks to disturb is monotony of type, slavery of custom, tyranny of habit, and the reduction of man to the level of a machine.
The Soul of Man Under Socialism (1891)
From the point of view of style, a healthy work of art is one whose style recognizes the beauty of the material it employs, be that material one of words or of bronze, of colour or of ivory, and uses that beauty as a factor in producing the æsthetic effect.
The Soul of Man Under Socialism (1891)
[E]verybody who is incapable of learning has taken to teaching.
The Decay of Lying (1889)
Those whom the gods love grow young.
A Few Maxims for the Instruction of the Over-Educated (1894)
The vilest deeds like poison weeds
Bloom well in prison air;
It is only what is good in man
That wastes and withers there;
Pale Anguish keeps the heavy gate
And the Warder is Despair.
The Ballad of Reading Gaol (1898)
There are as many perfections as there are imperfect men. And 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 at all.
The Soul of Man Under Socialism (1891)
The fact is, that the public have an insatiable curiosity to know everything, except what is worth knowing. Journalism, conscious of this, and having tradesmanlike habits, supplies their demands
The Soul of Man Under Socialism (1891)
Action ... is the last resource of those who know not how to dream.
The Critic as Artist (1891)
After the first glass you see things as you wish they were. After the second glass you see things as they are not. Finally, you see things as they really are, and that is the most horrible thing in the world.
I treated Art as the supreme reality, and life as a mere mode of fiction. I awoke the imagination of my century so that it created myth and legend around me: I summed up all systems in a phrase, and all of existence in an epigram.
Sin is a thing that writes itself across a man's face. It cannot be concealed. People talk sometimes of secret vices. There are no such things. If a wretched man has a vice, it shows itself in the lines of his mouth, the droop of his eyelids, the moulding of his hands even.
Who were your lovers? who were they who wrestled for you in the dust?
Which was the vessel of your Lust? What Leman had you, every day?
The Sphinx (1894)
I am but too conscious of the fact that we are born in an age when only the dull are treated seriously, and I live in terror of not being misunderstood.
The Critic as Artist (1891)
Charity creates a multitude of sins.
The Soul of Man Under Socialism (1891)
Why, what a wonderful piece of luck! Here is a red rose! I have never seen any rose like it in all my life. It is so beautiful that I am sure it has a long Latin name.
The Happy Prince and Other Tales (1888)