Quotes from Complete Works of Oscar Wilde

“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, quote from Complete Works of Oscar Wilde

“Time is a waste of money.”
― Oscar Wilde, quote from Complete Works of Oscar Wilde

“A truth ceases to be true when more than one person believes in it.”
― Oscar Wilde, quote from Complete Works of Oscar Wilde

“The first duty in life is to be as artificial as possible.  What the second duty is no one has as yet discovered.”
― Oscar Wilde, quote from Complete Works of Oscar Wilde

“If one tells the truth, one is sure, sooner or later, to be found out.”
― Oscar Wilde, quote from Complete Works of Oscar Wilde

“And when wind and winter harden
All the loveless land,
It will whisper of the garden,
You will understand.”
― Oscar Wilde, quote from Complete Works of Oscar Wilde

“A really well-made buttonhole is the only link between Art and Nature.”
― Oscar Wilde, quote from Complete Works of Oscar Wilde

“The one person who has more illusions than the dreamer is the man of action.”
― Oscar Wilde, quote from Complete Works of Oscar Wilde

“But we who live in prison, and in whose lives there is no event but sorrow, have to measure time by throbs of pain, and the record of bitter moments. We have nothing else to think of. Suffering ― curious as it may sound to you ― is the means by which we exist, because it is the only means by which we become conscious of existing; and the remembrance of suffering in the past is necessary to us as the warrant, the evidence, of our continued identity.”
― Oscar Wilde, quote from Complete Works of Oscar Wilde

“One cannot always keep an adder in one's breast to feed one, nor rise up every night to sow thorns in the garden of one's soul.”
― Oscar Wilde, quote from Complete Works of Oscar Wilde

“The ages live in history through their anachronisms.”
― Oscar Wilde, quote from Complete Works of Oscar Wilde

“We lose too soon, and only find delight
In withered husks of some dead memory.”
― Oscar Wilde, quote from Complete Works of Oscar Wilde

“In every sphere of life, form is the beginning of things. […] Forms are the food of faith, cried Newman in one of those great moments of sincerity that made us admire the know the man. […] The Creeds are believed, not because they are rational, but because they are repeated.”
― Oscar Wilde, quote from Complete Works of Oscar Wilde

“Public opinion exists only where there are no ideas.”
― Oscar Wilde, quote from Complete Works of Oscar Wilde

“Bitter, bitter was the pain, and wilder and wilder grew her song, for she sang of the Love that is perfected by Death, of the Love that dies not in the tomb.”
― Oscar Wilde, quote from Complete Works of Oscar Wilde

“I am not sorry for anything that has happened. It has taught me to know myself better.”
― Oscar Wilde, quote from Complete Works of Oscar Wilde

“Death is the brother of Sleep, is he not?”
― Oscar Wilde, quote from Complete Works of Oscar Wilde

“Nothing that actually occurs is of the smallest importance.”
― Oscar Wilde, quote from Complete Works of Oscar Wilde

“Colonel. Can she read and write?   Peter. Ay, that she can, sir. Colonel. Then she is a dangerous woman.”
― Oscar Wilde, quote from Complete Works of Oscar Wilde

“Intellect is in itself an exaggeration, and destroys the harmony of any face. The moment one sits down to think, one becomes all nose, or all forehead, or something horrid.”
― Oscar Wilde, quote from Complete Works of Oscar Wilde

“One is sure to be disappointed if one tries to get romance out of modern life.”
― Oscar Wilde, quote from Complete Works of Oscar Wilde

“Every single human being should be the fulfilment of a prophecy.”
― Oscar Wilde, quote from Complete Works of Oscar Wilde

“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, quote from Complete Works of Oscar Wilde

“The criminal classes are so close to us that even the policemen can see them.  They are so far away from us that only the poet can understand them.”
― Oscar Wilde, quote from Complete Works of Oscar Wilde

“For only blood can wipe out blood, And only tears can heal: And the crimson stain that was of Cain Became Christ’s snow-white seal. VI.”
― Oscar Wilde, quote from Complete Works of Oscar Wilde

“he was punished by the envy of journalists, and by the malignant pedantry of half-civilised judges. Envy in his case overleaped itself: the hate of his justicers was so diabolic that they have given him to the pity of mankind forever; they it is who have made him eternally interesting to humanity, a tragic figure of imperishable renown.”
― Oscar Wilde, quote from Complete Works of Oscar Wilde

“Surely Love is a wonderful thing. It is more precious than emeralds, and dearer than fine opals. Pearls and pomegranates cannot buy it, nor is it set forth in the market-place. It may not be purchased of the merchants, nor can it be weighed out in the balance for gold.”
― Oscar Wilde, quote from Complete Works of Oscar Wilde

“The Little Ship Have your forgotten the ship love I made as a childish toy, When you were a little girl love, And I was a little boy?   Ah! never in all the fleet love Such a beautiful ship was seen, For the sides were painted blue love And the deck was yellow and green.   I carved a wonderful mast love From my Father’s Sunday stick, You cut up your one good dress love That the sail should be of silk.   And I launched it on the pond love And I called it after you, And for the want of the bottle of wine love We christened it with the dew.   And we put your doll on board love With a cargo of chocolate cream, But the little ship struck on a cork love And the doll went down with a scream!   It is forty years since then love And your hair is silver grey, And we sit in our old armchairs love And we watch our children play.   And I have a wooden leg love And the title of K. C. B. For bringing Her Majesty’s Fleet love Over the stormy sea.   But I’ve never forgotten the ship love I made as a childish toy When you were a little girl love And I was a sailor boy.”
― Oscar Wilde, quote from Complete Works of Oscar Wilde

“The family as subversive of true socialistic and communal unity is to be annihilated.” Yes, President, I agree completely with Article 5. A family is a terrible incumbrance, especially when one is not married.”
― Oscar Wilde, quote from Complete Works of Oscar Wilde

About the author

Popular quotes

“For the rest of my life I will remember that red-brown blur, like a stain of dried blood, standing against the road with a thin screen of blown snow suspended between it and me, the full weight of the vehicle and the thirty-four children in it bearing down on me like a wall of water. And I will remember the formal clarity of my mind, beyond thinking or choosing now, for I had made my choice, as I wrenched the steering wheel to the right and slapped my foot against the brake pedal, and I wasn't the driver anymore, so I hunched my shoulders and ducked my head, as if the bus were a huge wave about to break over me. There was Bear Otto, and the Lamston kids, and the Walkers, the Hamiltons, and the Prescotts, and the teenaged boys and girls from Bartlett Hill, and Risa and Wendell Walker's sad little boy, Sean, and sweet Nichole Burnell, and all the kids from the valley, and the children from Wilmot Flats, and Billy Ansel's twins, Jessica and Mason-the children of my town-their wide eyed faces and fragile bodies swirling and tumbling in a tangled mess as the bus went over and the sky tipped and veered away and the ground lurched brutally forward.”
― Russell Banks, quote from The Sweet Hereafter

“At the height of the Cultural Revolution, rather than risk having to face dire consequences for his accumulated writings, he burned several kilos of manuscripts (ten plays, and many short stories, poems, and essays). For him it was an ordeal to part with what he had written. Moreover, it took a long time to burn so much paper without creating smoke and arousing suspicions.”
― Gao Xingjian, quote from One Man's Bible

“In a city like San Francisco, you can throw a rock out your front door and hit someone with a nice ass and pretty brown eyes. But to find someone you want to fall asleep with, someone you want to breathe and dream next to, is terribly rare.”
― Will Christopher Baer, quote from Hell's Half Acre

“A major source of objection to a free economy is precisely that it gives people what they want instead of what a particular group thinks they ought to want. Underlying most arguments against the free market is a lack of belief in freedom itself.”
― Milton Friedman, quote from Capitalism and Freedom

“You broke my heart when you said I didn't know about foreplay.'
Her lips twitched. 'Yes, you're terrible at sex. Terrible.' That was why she was lying here with melted bones and an inner wolf who was so dozy, she was sprawled out in complete abandon.”
― Nalini Singh, quote from Play of Passion

Interesting books

About BookQuoters

BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.