Oscar Wilde

I always like to know everything about my new friends, and nothing about my old ones.

[Oscar Wilde @oscarwilde]

It is what one looks at, not what one listens to, that makes the artist. The real schools should be the streets.

[Oscar Wilde @oscarwilde]

The word practical is nearly always the last refuge of the uncivilized. Of all misused words it is the most evilly treated.

[Oscar Wilde @oscarwilde]

Those whom the gods love grow young.

[Oscar Wilde @oscarwilde]

...They are so far away from us that only the poet can understand them.

[Oscar Wilde @oscarwilde]

The criminal classes are so close to us that even the policemen can see them...

[Oscar Wilde @oscarwilde]

... that, after all, one is immortal.

[Oscar Wilde @oscarwilde]

Even the disciple has his uses. He stands behind one's throne, and at the moment of one's triumph whispers in one's ear...

[Oscar Wilde @oscarwilde]

One should never listen. To listen is a sign of indifference to one's hearers.

[Oscar Wilde @oscarwilde]

The only thing that can console one for being poor is extravagance. The only thing that can console one for being rich is economy.

[Oscar Wilde @oscarwilde]

Dandyism is the assertion of the absolute modernity of Beauty.

[Oscar Wilde @oscarwilde]

To be really mediæval one should have no body. To be really modern one should have no soul. To be really Greek one should have no clothes.

[Oscar Wilde @oscarwilde]

Art is the only serious thing in the world. And the artist is the only person who is never serious.

[Oscar Wilde @oscarwilde]

...The result is the Criticism of the Journalist.

[Oscar Wilde @oscarwilde]

The only thing that the artist cannot see is the obvious. The only thing that the public can see is the obvious...

[Oscar Wilde @oscarwilde]

A subject that is beautiful in itself gives no suggestion to the artist. It lacks imperfection.

[Oscar Wilde @oscarwilde]

What is abnormal in Life stands in normal relations to Art. It is the only thing in Life that stands in normal relations to Art.

[Oscar Wilde @oscarwilde]

Friendship is far more tragic than love. It lasts longer.

[Oscar Wilde @oscarwilde]

Most women are so artificial that they have no sense of Art. Most men are so natural that they have no sense of Beauty.

[Oscar Wilde @oscarwilde]

In old days books were written by men of letters and read by the public. Nowadays books are written by the public and read by nobody.

[Oscar Wilde @oscarwilde]

The only link between Literature and Drama left to us in England at the present moment is the bill of the play.