We prescribe to our neighbor those virtues from which we can benefit, and we imagine that we do so out of generosity.
An idea that cannot be called dangerous does not deserve the name of an idea.
When proposed to alter one of his plays, Wilde replied: "Who am I to dare to alter a masterpiece?"
In fact, it is not art that reflects life, but the viewer.
In the exam, fools ask questions that the wise cannot answer.
I hope you are not leading a double life pretending to be a lecher when in fact you are a virtuoso. That would be hypocrisy.
You must always be in love. Here's why you should never get married.
Find words for your pain and you will love it.
A true great passion is rarely found these days. This is a privilege of people who have nothing to do.
Don't tell me about the sufferings of the poor. They are inevitable. Talk to me about the sufferings of geniuses and I will cry tears of blood.
Not the sinner, but the fool is the greatest of our evils. There is no sin but stupidity.
Don't let yourself be hindered from walking the wrong path! As a virtuoso, you want to be unbearably boring. This angers me in women. They definitely need a good man. But if he is good from the beginning, they will never love him. They must love him when he is bad, and forsake him when he is disgustingly good.
Simplicity is one of the seven deadly virtues.
You can't trust a woman who doesn't hide her age. Such a woman can tell you anything.
I don't like it when people don't handle food properly. These are unprincipled and vulgar people.
The necessary condition of perfection is laziness; the goal of perfection is youth.
It is easiest to feign innocence through indiscreet behavior.
There are no moral or immoral books. There are well-written books and badly-written books. That's all.
There are no beautiful women - there are ugly and well-painted women.
There are no prying questions, there are only prying answers.
There is nothing more distressing than to find a virtue in a man that you would never suspect. It's like finding a needle in a haystack. It's like a revolver. If you have a virtue, you must announce it from the very beginning.
There is nothing more dangerous than being fashionable. All fashionable things go out of fashion quickly. (paraphrased after Wilde)
None of the errors cost us so cheaply as prophecy.
Niagara Falls is the second disappointment of a young married woman.
You should never give a woman something she can't wear in the evening.
None of us would put up with other people's mistakes like ours.
No one is rich enough to buy their own past.
Doing nothing is the most difficult occupation in the world, the most difficult and the most spiritual.
Nothing hurts a romance like a woman's sense of humor or a man's lack of it.
Nothing satisfies our vanity more than the reputation of a sinner.