Do you like quotes? I do! A lot!!! The quotes I like are like pictures; they worth a thousand words: of wisdom, humour, experience or plain genius.

One of the ultimate sources of quotes is someone that was able to say in a few words what others tried and try to express in pages or even books, none other than Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde.

Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) is almost equally famous for his work and for his turbulent life. I had only read The Portrait of Dorian Grey when I watched Wilde with our very dear Stephen Fry, and that got me really interested in Wilde (and also in Fry but that is another story). Since then, I also read The Happy Prince (a collection of very beautiful but sad fairy tales), The Importance of Being Earnest and Lady Windermere's Fan and The Epigrams of Oscar Wilde (a collection of his quotes).

This is a seemingly long but actually rather small selection of Oscar Wilde quotes. I may not agree 100% with all of them and I cannot be sure I have comprehended every subtle layer of hidden connotations in each one of them, but that does not prevent me from thoroughly enjoying them. So, without further ado ...

1. I don't want to earn my living; I want to live.
2. Every saint has a past and every sinner has a future.
3. There are many things that we would throw away if we were not afraid that others might pick them up.
4. I am the only person in the world I should like to know thoroughly.
5. Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.
6. 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.
7. The heart was made to be broken.
8. To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.
9. Nothing is so aggravating than calmness.
10. Ordinary riches can be stolen, real riches cannot. In your soul are infinitely precious things that cannot be taken from you.
11. No object is so beautiful that, under certain conditions, it will not look ugly.
12. It's not whether you win or lose; it's how you place the blame.
13. To do nothing at all is the most difficult thing in the world, the most difficult and the most intellectual.
14. A gentleman is one who never hurts anyone's feelings unintentionally.
15. A true friend stabs you in the front.
16. The aim of love is to love: no more, and no less.
17. Nothing that is worth knowing can be taught.
18. The well bred contradict other people. The wise contradict themselves.
19. Only the shallow know themselves.
20. If you are not too long, I will wait here for you all my life.
21. It is the confession, not the priest that gives us absolution.
22. I have nothing to declare except my genius.
23. I am so clever that sometimes I don't understand a single word of what I am saying.
24. If one cannot enjoy reading a book over and over again, there is no use in reading it at all.
25. We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.
26. In examinations, the foolish ask questions the wise cannot answer.
27. When liberty comes with hands dabbled in blood it is hard to shake hands with her.
28. Those who are faithful know only the trivial side of love: it is the faithless who know love's tragedies.
29. The man had killed the thing he loved, and so he had to die.
30. The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. Resist it, and your soul grows sick with longing for the things it has forbidden to itself… I can resist everything but temptation.
31. I like to do all the talking myself. It saves time, and prevents arguments.
32. Discontent is the first step in the progress of a man or a nation.
33. The truth is rarely pure and never simple.
34. Who, being loved, is poor?
35. Experience is the name every one gives to their mistakes.
36. Moderation is a fatal thing. Nothing succeeds like excess.
37. I like men who have a future and women who have a past.
38. All charming people, I fancy, are spoiled. It is the secret of their attraction.
39. A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal.
40. This suspense is terrible. I hope it will last.
41. Children begin by loving their parents; as they grow older they judge them; sometimes, they forgive them.
42. She wore far too much rouge last night and not quite enough clothes. That is always a sign of despair in a woman.
43. Every great man nowadays has his disciples, and it is always Judas who writes the biography.
44. Man can believe the impossible, but can never believe the improbable.
45. Religions die when they are proved to be true. Science is the record of dead religions.
46. The world is divided into two categories, those who believe the incredible, and those who do the improbable.
47. How clever you are, my dear! You never mean a single word you say.
48. She behaves as if she was beautiful. Most American women do. It is the secret of their charm.
49. He has no enemies, but is intensely disliked by his friends.
50. 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.
51. Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go.
52. No man dies for what he knows to be true. Men die for what they want to be true, for what some terror in their hearts tells them is not true.
53. But what is the good of friendship if one cannot say exactly what one means? Anybody can say charming things and try to please and to flatter, but a true friend always says unpleasant things, and does not mind giving pain. Indeed, if he is a really true friend he prefers it, for he knows that then he is going good.
54. Simple pleasures are always the last refuge of the complex.
55. I have the simplest tastes. I am always satisfied with the best.
56. When I was young, I thought that money was the most important thing in life; now that I am old, I know it is.
57. The soul is born old but grows young. That is the comedy of life. And the body is born young and grows old. That is life's tragedy.
58. It is better to be beautiful than to be good, but it is better to be good than to be ugly.
59. Between men and women there is no friendship possible. There is passion, enmity, worship, love, but no friendship.
60. If one tells the truth, one is sure sooner or later to be found out.
61. The good ended happily, and the bad unhappily. That is what Fiction means.
62. Like two doomed ships that pass in storm we had crossed each other's way: but we made no sign, we said no word, we had no word to say.
63. I can sympathize with everything, except suffering.
64. The ugly and the stupid have the best of it in this world. They can sit at their ease and gape at the play. If they know nothing of victory, they are at least spared the knowledge of defeat.
65. It is what you read when you don't have to that determines what you will be when you can't help it.
66. An acquaintance that begins with a complement is sure to develop into a real friendship.
67. I am not young enough to know everything.
68. If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh, otherwise they'll kill you.
69. Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.
70. Morality, like art, means drawing a line someplace.
71. The aim of life is self-development. To realize one's nature perfectly - that is what each of us is here for.
72. We teach people how to remember, we never teach them how to grow.
73. What is a cynic? A man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.
74. Anybody can sympathise with the sufferings of a friend, but it requires a very fine nature to sympathise with a friend's success.
75. When we are happy we are always good, but when we are good we are not always happy.
76. I may have said the same thing before...but my explanation, I am sure, will always be different.
77. Morality is the attitude we adopt toward people whom we personally dislike.