Irish dramatist, poet, author and
one of the most iconic figures from late Victorian society. For his
sexuality he suffered the indignity and shame of imprisonment. For
a long time his name was synonymous with scandal and intrigue. However
with changing social attitudes he is remembered with great affection for
his biting social criticism, wit and linguistic skills. (1854-1900)
Be yourself, everyone else is already taken.
A dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world.
Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes.
A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal.
A man can be happy with any woman, as long as he does not love her.
The smallest act of kindness is worth more than the grandest intention.
A man who does not think for himself does not think at all.
A cynic is a man who knows the price of everything but the value of nothing.
Don't walk in front of me; I may not follow. Don't walk behind me; I may not lead. Just walk beside me and be my friend.
A man's face is his autobiography. A woman's face is her work of fiction.
A poet can survive everything but a misprint.
A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it.
A true friend stabs you in the front.
A work of art is the unique result of a unique temperament.
Ah, well, then I suppose I shall have to die beyond my means.
Alas, I am dying beyond my means.
Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months.
All bad poetry springs from genuine feeling.
All that I desire to point out is the general principle that life imitates art far more than art imitates life.
All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. No man does. That's his.
Fathers should be neither seen nor heard. That is the only proper basis for family life.
Do you really think it is weakness that yields to temptation? I tell you that there are terrible temptations which it requires strength, strength and courage to yield to.
Democracy means simply the bludgeoning of the people by the people for the people.
Always forgive your enemies - nothing annoys them so much.
There are only two kinds of people who are really fascinating; people who know absolutely everything, and people who know absolutely nothing.
Every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of the sitter.
Memory... is the diary that we all carry about with us.
Every saint has a past and every sinner has a future.
Hatred is blind, as well as love.
Ambition is the germ from which all growth of nobleness proceeds.
Anybody can make history. Only a great man can write it.
Everybody who is incapable of learning has taken to teaching.
A man can't be too careful in the choice of his enemies.
Everything popular is wrong.
A gentleman is one who never hurts anyone's feelings unintentionally.
Experience is one thing you can't get for nothing.
All art is quite useless.
In examinations, the foolish ask questions the wise cannot answer.
A man who pays his bills on time is soon forgotten.
He has no enemies, but is intensely disliked by his friends.
Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught.
To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.
Keep love in your heart. A life without it is like a sunless garden when the flowers are dead. The consciousness of loving and being loved brings a warmth and richness to life that nothing else can bring.
To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance.
How can a woman be expected to be happy with a man who insists on treating her as if she were a perfectly normal human being.
Children begin by loving their parents; after a time they judge them; rarely, if ever, do they forgive them.
Women love us for our defects. If we have enough of them, they will forgive us everything, even our gigantic intellects.
I am so clever that sometimes I don't understand a single word of what I am saying.
There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written.
An excellent man; he has no enemies; and none of his friends like him.
An idea that is not dangerous is unworthy of being called an idea at all.
How marriage ruins a man! It is as demoralizing as cigarettes, and far more expensive.
I always pass on good advice. It is the only thing to do with it. It is never of any use to oneself.
Between men and women there is no friendship possible. There is passion, enmity, worship, love, but no friendship.
To expect the unexpected shows a thoroughly modern intellect.
There are only two tragedies in life: one is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it.
I can resist everything except temptation.
As long as a woman can look ten years younger than her own daughter, she is perfectly satisfied.
By giving us the opinions of the uneducated, journalism keeps us in touch with the ignorance of the community.
I choose my friends for their good looks, my acquaintances for their good characters, and my enemies for their intellects. A man cannot be too careful in the choice of his enemies.
Who, being loved, is poor?
Ambition is the last refuge of the failure.
Conversation about the weather is the last refuge of the unimaginative.
I am the only person in the world I should like to know thoroughly.
Seriousness is the only refuge of the shallow.
The pure and simple truth is rarely pure and never simple.
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.
Romance should never begin with sentiment. It should begin with science and end with a settlement.
Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live.
Bigamy is having one wife too many. Monogamy is the same.
I can stand brute force, but brute reason is quite unbearable. There is something unfair about its use. It is hitting below the intellect.
There are many things that we would throw away if we were not afraid that others might pick them up.
I am not young enough to know everything.
Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative.
The world is divided into two classes, those who believe the incredible, and those who do the improbable.
Deceiving others. That is what the world calls a romance.
Death and vulgarity are the only two facts in the nineteenth century that one cannot explain away.
Arguments are to be avoided: they are always vulgar and often convincing.
The well bred contradict other people. The wise contradict themselves.
Though of all poses a moral pose is the most offensive, still to have a pose at all is something.
I forgot that every little action of the common day makes or unmakes character, and that therefore what one has done in the secret chamber one has some day to cry aloud on the house--tops.
I have the simplest tastes. I am always satisfied with the best.
If one could only teach the English how to talk, and the Irish how to listen, society here would be quite civilized.
I am so clever that sometimes I don't understand a single word of what I am saying.
Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.
Duty is what one expects from others.
Work is the curse of the drinking classes.
A dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world.
Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes.
A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal.
A man can be happy with any woman, as long as he does not love her.
The smallest act of kindness is worth more than the grandest intention.
A man who does not think for himself does not think at all.
A cynic is a man who knows the price of everything but the value of nothing.
Don't walk in front of me; I may not follow. Don't walk behind me; I may not lead. Just walk beside me and be my friend.
A man's face is his autobiography. A woman's face is her work of fiction.
A poet can survive everything but a misprint.
A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it.
A true friend stabs you in the front.
A work of art is the unique result of a unique temperament.
Ah, well, then I suppose I shall have to die beyond my means.
Alas, I am dying beyond my means.
Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months.
All bad poetry springs from genuine feeling.
All that I desire to point out is the general principle that life imitates art far more than art imitates life.
All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. No man does. That's his.
Fathers should be neither seen nor heard. That is the only proper basis for family life.
Do you really think it is weakness that yields to temptation? I tell you that there are terrible temptations which it requires strength, strength and courage to yield to.
Democracy means simply the bludgeoning of the people by the people for the people.
Always forgive your enemies - nothing annoys them so much.
There are only two kinds of people who are really fascinating; people who know absolutely everything, and people who know absolutely nothing.
Every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of the sitter.
Memory... is the diary that we all carry about with us.
Every saint has a past and every sinner has a future.
Hatred is blind, as well as love.
Ambition is the germ from which all growth of nobleness proceeds.
Anybody can make history. Only a great man can write it.
Everybody who is incapable of learning has taken to teaching.
A man can't be too careful in the choice of his enemies.
Everything popular is wrong.
A gentleman is one who never hurts anyone's feelings unintentionally.
Experience is one thing you can't get for nothing.
All art is quite useless.
In examinations, the foolish ask questions the wise cannot answer.
A man who pays his bills on time is soon forgotten.
He has no enemies, but is intensely disliked by his friends.
Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught.
To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.
Keep love in your heart. A life without it is like a sunless garden when the flowers are dead. The consciousness of loving and being loved brings a warmth and richness to life that nothing else can bring.
To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance.
How can a woman be expected to be happy with a man who insists on treating her as if she were a perfectly normal human being.
Children begin by loving their parents; after a time they judge them; rarely, if ever, do they forgive them.
Women love us for our defects. If we have enough of them, they will forgive us everything, even our gigantic intellects.
I am so clever that sometimes I don't understand a single word of what I am saying.
There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written.
An excellent man; he has no enemies; and none of his friends like him.
An idea that is not dangerous is unworthy of being called an idea at all.
How marriage ruins a man! It is as demoralizing as cigarettes, and far more expensive.
I always pass on good advice. It is the only thing to do with it. It is never of any use to oneself.
Between men and women there is no friendship possible. There is passion, enmity, worship, love, but no friendship.
To expect the unexpected shows a thoroughly modern intellect.
There are only two tragedies in life: one is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it.
I can resist everything except temptation.
As long as a woman can look ten years younger than her own daughter, she is perfectly satisfied.
By giving us the opinions of the uneducated, journalism keeps us in touch with the ignorance of the community.
I choose my friends for their good looks, my acquaintances for their good characters, and my enemies for their intellects. A man cannot be too careful in the choice of his enemies.
Who, being loved, is poor?
Ambition is the last refuge of the failure.
Conversation about the weather is the last refuge of the unimaginative.
I am the only person in the world I should like to know thoroughly.
Seriousness is the only refuge of the shallow.
The pure and simple truth is rarely pure and never simple.
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.
Romance should never begin with sentiment. It should begin with science and end with a settlement.
Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live.
Bigamy is having one wife too many. Monogamy is the same.
I can stand brute force, but brute reason is quite unbearable. There is something unfair about its use. It is hitting below the intellect.
There are many things that we would throw away if we were not afraid that others might pick them up.
I am not young enough to know everything.
Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative.
The world is divided into two classes, those who believe the incredible, and those who do the improbable.
Deceiving others. That is what the world calls a romance.
Death and vulgarity are the only two facts in the nineteenth century that one cannot explain away.
Arguments are to be avoided: they are always vulgar and often convincing.
The well bred contradict other people. The wise contradict themselves.
Though of all poses a moral pose is the most offensive, still to have a pose at all is something.
I forgot that every little action of the common day makes or unmakes character, and that therefore what one has done in the secret chamber one has some day to cry aloud on the house--tops.
I have the simplest tastes. I am always satisfied with the best.
If one could only teach the English how to talk, and the Irish how to listen, society here would be quite civilized.
I am so clever that sometimes I don't understand a single word of what I am saying.
Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.
Duty is what one expects from others.
Work is the curse of the drinking classes.
