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Cheap editions of great books may be delightful, but cheap editions of great men are absolutely detestable

Oscar Wilde

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Oscar Wilde
Age: 46 †
Born: 1854
Born: October 16
Died: 1900
Died: November 30
Author
Essayist
Journalist
Novelist
Opinion Journalist
Playwright
Poet
Prosaist
Short Story Writer
Writer
Dublin city
Oscar O'Flahertie Wills Wilde
Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde
Books
May
Book
Great
Editions
Men
Detestable
Delightful
Cheap
Absolutely

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What seems to us as bitter trials are often blessings in disguise
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Don't squander the gold of your days, listening to the tedious, trying to improve the hopeless failure, or giving away your life to the ignorant, the common, and the vulgar
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Genius learns from nature, its own nature. Talent learns from art.
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But we never get back our youth… The pulse of joy that beats in us at twenty becomes sluggish. Our limbs fail, our senses rot. We degenerate into hideous puppets, haunted by the memory of the passions of which we were too much afraid, and the exquisite temptations that we had not the courage to yield to.
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The English country-gentleman galloping after a fox — the unspeakable in full pursuit of the uneatable.
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Bore: a man who is never unintentionally rude.
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If people are dishonest once, they will be dishonest a second time. And honest people should keep away from them. (Lady Chiltern)
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Artists reproduce themselves or each other, with wearisome iteration. But criticism is always moving on, and the critic is always developing.
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Art only begins where Imitation ends.
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Even now I cannot help feeling that it is a mistake to think that the passion one feels in creation is ever really shown in the work one creates.
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Truth is independent of facts always.
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To be entirely free, and at the same time entirely dominated by law, is the eternal paradox of human life.
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Dear little Swallow,’ said the Prince, ‘you tell me of marvelous things, but more marvelous than anything is the suffering of men and of women. There is no Mystery so great as Misery.
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The husbands of very beautiful women belong to the criminal classes.
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The supreme vice is shallowness.
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The reason we all like to think so well of others is that we are all afraid for ourselves. The basis of optimism is sheer terror.
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A man who does not think for himself does not think at all. It is grossly selfish to require of one's neighbour that he should think in the same way, and hold the same opinions. Why should he? If he can think, he will probably think differently. If he cannot think, it is monstrous to require thought of any kind from him.
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When one is in town one amuses oneself. When one is in the country one amuses other people. It is excessively boring.
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I have spent most of the day putting in a comma and the rest of the day taking it out.
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My friend is not allowed to go out today. I sit by his side and read him passages from his own life. They fill him with surprise. Everyone should keep someone else's diary I sometimes suspect you of keeping mine.
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