Oscar Wilde

Art is the most intense mode of individualism that the world has known. I am inclined to say that it is the only real mode of individualism that the world has known. Crime, which, under certain conditions, may seem to have created individualism, must take cognisance of other people and interfere with them. It belongs to the sphere of action. But alone, without any reference to his neighbours, without any interference, the artist can fashion a beautiful thing; and if he does not do it solely for his own pleasure, he is not an artist at all.

All sins, except a sin against itself, Love should forgive. All lives, save loveless lives, true Love should pardon.

I can believe anything provided it is incredible.

Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative.

It is immoral to use private property in order to alleviate the horrible evils that result from the institution of private property.

Morality is simply the attitude we adopt towards people we personally dislike.

I drink to separate my body from my soul.

The old believe everything; the middle-aged suspect everything; the young know everything.

I summed up all systems in a phrase, and all existence in an epigram.

I find him in the curves of certain lines, in the loveliness and subtleties of certain colours.

You like every one; that is to say, you are indifferent to every one.

Beauty is a form of Genius — is higher, indeed, than Genius, as it needs no explanation. It is one of the great facts of the world, like sunlight, or springtime, or the reflection in the dark waters of that silver shell we call the moon. It cannot be questioned. It has divine right of sovereignty. It makes princes of those who have it.

A poet can survive everything but a misprint.

The good ended happily, and the bad unhappily. That is what Fiction means.

Lady Windermere: Windermere and I married for love.

Duchess of Berwick: Yes, we begin like that. It was only Berwick's brutal and incessant threats of suicide that made me accept him at all, and before the year was out, he was running after all kinds of petticoats, every colour, every shape, every material.