Oscar Wilde

“I can resist everything except temptation.”

“When I was young I thought that money was the most important thing in life; now that I am old I know that it is.”

“It is absurd to divide people into good and bad. People are either charming or tedious.”

“If you are not too long, I will wait here for you all my life.”

“Beauty has as many meanings as man has moods. Beauty is the symbol of symbols. Beauty reveals everything, because it expresses nothing. When it shows us itself, it shows us the whole fiery-coloured world.”

“All art is quite useless.”

“There is only one thing in life worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.”

“The moment you think you understand a great work of art, it's dead for you.”

“One can survive everything, nowadays, except death, and live down everything except a good reputation.”

“I want my food dead. Not sick, not dying, dead.”

“All art is at once surface and symbol. Those who go beneath the surface do so at their peril. Those who read the symbol do so at their peril. It is the spectator, and not life, that art really mirrors. Diversity of opinion about a work of art shows that the work is new, complex and vital.”

“'The Lady's World' should be made the recognized organ for the expression of women's opinions on all subjects of literature, art and modern life, and yet it should be a magazine that men could read with pleasure.”

“I think that God, in creating man, somewhat overestimated his ability.”

“It is the spectator, and not life, that art really mirrors.”

“The only thing to do with good advice is to pass it on. It is never of any use to oneself.”

“Life is never fair, and perhaps it is a good thing for most of us that it is not.”

“Romantic art deals with the exception and with the individual. Good people, belonging as they do to the normal, and so, commonplace type, are artistically uninteresting.”

“A critic should be taught to criticise a work of art without making any reference to the personality of the author.”

“Who, being loved, is poor?”

“Yes, there is a terrible moral in 'Dorian Gray' - a moral which the prurient will not be able to find in it, but it will be revealed to all whose minds are healthy. Is this an artistic error? I fear it is. It is the only error in the book.”

“It is only an auctioneer who can equally and impartially admire all schools of art.”