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All art is at once surface and symbol. Those who go beneath the surface do so at their peril.

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
Art
Peril
Symbol
Beneath
Symbols
Surface

More quotes by Oscar Wilde

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It is a vulgar error to suppose that America was ever discovered. It was merely detected.
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I can't help detesting my relations. I suppose it comes from the fact that none of us can stand other people having the same faults as ourselves.
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I hate people who are not serious about meals. It is so shallow of them.
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I am jealous of everything whose beauty does not die.
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Appearance blinds, whereas words reveal.
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Prayer must never be answered: if it is, it ceases to be prayer and becomes correspondence.
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I never read a book I must review it prejudices you so.
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Life is far too important a thing ever to talk seriously about.
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Grass is hard and lumpy and damp, and full of dreadful black insects.
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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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Men know life too early. Women know life too late. That is the difference between men and women.
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The youth of the present day are quite monstrous. They have absolutely no respect for dyed hair.
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Nowadays we are all of us so hard up that the only pleasant things to pay are compliments. They’re the only things we can pay.
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The Americans are certainly hero-worshipers, and always take their heroes from the criminal classes.
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When critics disagree the artist is in accord with himself.
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In England it is enough for a man to try and produce any serious, beautiful work to lose all his rights as a citizen.
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Even before I met you I was far from indifferent to you.
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Women, as some witty Frenchman once put it, inspire us with the desire to do masterpieces and always prevent us from carrying them out.
Oscar Wilde
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Simple pleasures are the last healthy refuge in a complex world.
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I am but too conscious of the fact that we are born in an age when only the dull are treated seriously, and I live in terror of not being misunderstood. Don't degrade me into the position of giving you useful information. Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught.
Oscar Wilde