The Wisdom of Oscar Wilde (6 page)
The Picture of Dorian Gray
The basis of optimism is sheer terror.
The Picture of Dorian Gray
The way of paradoxes is the way of truth.
The Picture of Dorian Gray
It is a sad thing to think of, but there is no doubt that Genius lasts longer than Beauty. That accounts for the fact that we all take such pains to over-educate ourselves.
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Conscience and cowardice are really the same things....
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Progress is the realisation of Utopias.
“The Soul of Man under Socialism”
Charity, as even those of whose religion it makes a formal part have been compelled to acknowledge, creates a multitude of evils.
“The Critic as Artist”
Charity creates a multitude of sins.
“The Soul of Man under Socialism”
There is nothing that stirs in the whole world of thought or motion to which Sorrow does not vibrate in terrible and exquisite pulsation.
De Profundis
Where there is Sorrow there is holy ground.
De Profundis
Still I believe that in the beginning God made a world for each separate man, and in that world which is within us we should seek to live.
Letter to Robert Ross, April 1, 1897
A fine theatre is a temple where all the muses may meet, a second Parnassus....
“Twelfth Night at Oxford”
As long as war is regarded as wicked, it will always have its fascination. When it is looked upon as vulgar, it will cease to be popular.
“The Critic as Artist”
It takes a thoroughly grasping age, such as that in which we live, to set above fine intellectual virtues, those shallow and emotional virtues that are an immediate practical benefit to itself.
“The Critic as Artist”
[The contemplative life] is the one great thing that could make our own age great also; for the real weakness of England lies, not in incomplete armaments or unfortified coasts, not in the poverty that creeps through sunless lanes, or the drunkenness that brawls in loathsome courts, but simply in the fact that her ideals are emotional and not intellectual.
“The Critic as Artist”
Science is out of the reach of morals, for her eyes are fixed upon eternal truths. Art is out of reach of morals, for her eyes are fixed upon things beautiful and immortal and ever-changing.
“The Critic as Artist”
Unlimited and absolute is the vision of him who sits at ease and watches, who walks in loneliness and dreams.
“The Critic as Artist”
Criticism demands infinitely more cultivation than creation does.
“The Critic as Artist”
When we have fully discovered the scientific laws that govern life, we shall realise that the one person who has more illusions than the dreamer is the man of action.
“The Critic as Artist”
It is only the gods who taste of death. Apollo has passed away, but Hyacinth, whom men say he slew, lives on....
“Phrases and Philosophies for the Use of the Young”
The gamin in the gutter may be a necessity, but the gamin in discussion is a nuisance.
“More Radical Ideas upon Dress Reform”
The word
practical
is nearly always the last refuge of the uncivilised.
“Ideas upon Dress Reform”
It is not, Sir, by the mimes that the muses are to be judged.
“Puppets and Actors”
Nature has good intentions, of course, but, as Aristotle once said, she cannot carry them out.
“The Decay of Lying”
Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught.
“The Critic as Artist”
It is not the moment that makes the man, but the man who creates the age.
“The Critic as Artist”
It is well for our vanity that we slay the criminal, for if we suffered him to live he might show us what we had gained by his crime. It is well for his peace that the saint goes to his martyrdom. He is spared the sight of the horror of his harvest.
“The Critic as Artist”
The world is made by the singer for the dreamer.
“The Critic as Artist”
We cannot go back to the saint. There is far more to be learned from the sinner.
“The Critic as Artist”
It is only about things that do not interest one that one can give a really unbiased opinion, which is no doubt the reason why an unbiased opinion is always absolutely valueless. The man who sees both sides of a question is a man who sees absolutely nothing at all.
“The Critic as Artist”
People cry out against the sinner, yet it is not the sinful, but the stupid, who are our shame. There is no sin except stupidity.
“The Critic as Artist”
If there was less sympathy in the world there would be less trouble in the world.
De Profundis
Sins of the flesh are nothing. They are maladies for physicians to cure, if they should be cured. Sins of the soul alone are shameful.
De Profundis
All great ideas
are
dangerous.
De Profundis
Just as there are false dawns before the dawn itself, and winter-days so full of sudden sunlight that they will cheat the wise crocus into squandering its gold before its time, and make some foolish bird call to its mate to build on barren boughs, so there were Christians before Christ. For that we should be grateful. The unfortunate thing is that there have been none since.
De Profundis
To speak the truth is a painful thing. To be forced to tell lies is much worse.
De Profundis
It has been said that the great events of the world take place in the brain. It is in the brain, and the brain only, that the great sins of the world take place also.
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Nothing can cure the soul but the senses, just as nothing can cure the senses but the soul.
The Picture of Dorian Gray
It is only shallow people who do not judge by appearance. The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible ...
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Humanity takes itself too seriously. It is the world’s original sin.
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Besides, nothing makes one so vain as being told that one is a sinner. Conscience makes egotists of us all.
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Lord Windermere:
Misfortunes one can endure—they come from outside, they are accidents. But to suffer for one’s own faults—ah!—there is the sting of life.
Lady Windermere’s Fan
Lady Windermere:
Life is terrible. It rules us, we do not rule it.
Lady Windermere’s Fan
Up to the present, man has been, to a certain extent, the slave of machinery, and there is something tragic in the fact that as soon as man had invented a machine to do his work he began to starve.
“The Soul of Man under Socialism”
But the past is of no importance. The present is of no importance. It is with the future that we have to deal. For the past is what man should not have been. The present is what man ought not to be. The future is what artists are.
“The Soul of Man under Socialism”
For what is Truth? In matters of religion, it is simply the opinion that has survived.
“The Decay of Lying”
England is the home of lost ideas.
“The Decay of Lying”
America is the noisiest country that ever existed.
“Impressions of America”
“They say that when good Americans die they go to Paris,” chuckled Sir Thomas, who had a large wardrobe of Humour’s cast-off clothes.
“Really! And where do bad Americans go when they die?” inquired the Duchess.
“They go to America,” murmured Lord Henry.
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Lady Hunstanton:
What are American dry goods?
Lord Illingworth:
American novels.
A Woman of No Importance
Similarly in
The Picture of Dorian Gray
The Americans are an extremely interesting people. They are absolutely reasonable. I think that is their distinguishing characteristic.
The Picture of Dorian Gray
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.
“Impression of America”
Lady Caroline:
There are a great many things you haven’t got in America, I am told, Miss Worsley. They say you have no ruins, and no curiosities.
Mrs. Allonby (to Lady Stutfield):
What nonsense! They have their mothers and their manners.
A Woman of No Importance
American girls are as clever at concealing their parents as English women are at concealing their past.
The Picture of Dorian Gray
The American man marries early, and the American woman marries often; and they get on extremely well together.
“The American Man”
Lady Caroline:
These American girls carry off all the good matches. Why can’t they stay in their own country? They are always telling us it is the paradise of women.
Lord Illingworth:
It is, Lady Caroline. That is why, like Eve, they are so extremely anxious to get out of it.
A Woman of No Importance
Similarly in
The Picture of Dorian Gray
The strange thing about American civilisation is, that the women are most charming when they are way from their own country, the men most charming when they are at home.
“The American Man”
[American women] take their dresses from Paris, and their manners from Piccadilly, and wear both charmingly. They have a quaint pertness, a delightful conceit, a native self-assertion. They insist on being paid compliments and have almost succeeded in making Englishmen eloquent.... [They] can actually tell a story without forgetting the point—an accomplishment that is extremely rare among women of other countries.... They have however one grave fault— their mothers.
“The American Invasion”
Scandals are extremely rare in America, and should one occur, so paramount in society is female influence, that it is the man who is never forgiven.
“The American Man”
They afterwards took me to a dancing saloon [in Leadville] where I saw the only rational method of art criticism I have ever come across. Over the piano was a printed notice: “Please do not shoot the pianist. He is doing his best.”
“Impressions of America”
Nowadays we are all of us so hard up, that the only pleasant thing to pay are compliments. They’re the only things we
can
pay.
Lady Windermere’s Fan
The first duty in life is to be as artificial as possible. What the second duty is, no one has yet discovered.
“Phrases and Philosophies for the Use of the Young”
It is only by not paying one’s bills that one can hope to live in the memory of the commercial classes.
“Phrases and Philosophies for the Use of the Young”
Land has ceased to be either a profit or a pleasure. It gives one position, and prevents one from keeping it up.
The Importance of Being Earnest
Relations are simply a tedious pack of people, who haven’t the remotest knowledge of how to live, nor the smallest instinct about when to die.
The Importance of Being Earnest
Lady Stutfield:
It must be terribly, terribly distressing to be in debt.
Lord Alfred:
One must have some occupation nowadays. If I hadn’t my debts I shouldn’t have anything to think about.
A Woman of No Importance
My own business bores me to death. I always prefer other people’s.
Lady Windermere’s Fan
The only horrible thing in life is
ennui....
That is the one sin for which there is no forgiveness.
The Picture of Dorian Gray
I always like to know everything about my new friends, and nothing about my old ones.
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Nowadays people know the price of everything, and the value of nothing.
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Similarly in
Lady Windermere’s Fan
It seems to me we all look at Nature too much, and live with her too little.
De Profundis
I assure you that the typewriting machine, when played with expression, is not more annoying than the piano when played by a sister or a near relation.
Letter to Robert Ross, April 1, 1897
It is Criticism, as Arnold points out, that creates the intellectual atmosphere of the age.
“The Critic as Artist”
England will never be civilised till she has added Utopia to her dominions.
“The Critic as Artist”
Conversation should touch everything, but should concentrate itself on nothing.
“The Critic as Artist”
It is only an auctioneer who can equally and impartially admire all schools of Art.
“The Critic as Artist”
Lying for the sake of a monthly salary is, of course, well known in Fleet Street, and the profession of a political leader-writer is not without its advantages.
“The Decay of Lying”
Learned conversation is either the affectation of the ignorant or the profession of the mentally unemployed.
“The Critic as Artist”
Lady Bracknell:
Never speak disrespectfully of society, Algernon. Only people that can’t get into it do that.
The Importance of Being Earnest
The aim of the liar is simply to charm, to delight, to give pleasure. He is the very basis of civilized society....
“The Decay of Lying”
Nowadays we have so few mysteries left to us that we cannot afford to part with one of them.
“The Critic as Artist”
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.
