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The sure way of knowing nothing about life is to try to make oneself useful.

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
Life
Oneself
Existence
Knowing
Sure
Nothing
Trying
Way
Make
Useful

More quotes by Oscar Wilde

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That is what the highest criticism really is, the record of one's own soul. It is more fascinating than history, as it is concerned simply with oneself. It is more delightful than philosophy, as its subject is concrete and not abstract, real and not vague. It is the only civilized form of autobiography.
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I see when men love women. They give them but a little of their lives. But women when they love give everything.
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The typewriting machine, when played with expression, is no more annoying than the piano when played by a sister or near relation.
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It is only the intellectually lost who ever argue.
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There is no such thing as a heterosexual male, only men who haven't met Oscar Wilde yet.
Oscar Wilde
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The secret to life is to enjoy the pleasure of being terribly, terribly deceived.
Oscar Wilde
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At six o'clock we cleaned our cells, At seven all was still, But the sough and swing of a mighty wing The prison seemed to fill, For the Lord of Death with icy breath Had entered in to kill.
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Life is never fair, and perhaps it is a good thing for most of us that it is not.
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The one person who has more illusions than the dreamer is the man of action.
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Travel ennobles the spirit and does away with our prejudices.
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A poet can survive everything but a misprint.
Oscar Wilde
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Thinking is wonderful, but the experience is even more wonderful.
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Those who find ugly meanings in beautiful things are corrupt without being charming. This is a fault.
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Being natural is simply a pose, and the most irritating pose I know.
Oscar Wilde
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Poets know how useful passion is for publication. Nowadays a broken heart will run to many editions.
Oscar Wilde
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If you pretend to be good, the world takes you very seriously. If you pretend to be bad, it doesn't. Such is the astounding stupidity of optimism.
Oscar Wilde
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Newspapers. . . give us the bald, sordid, disgusting facts of life. They chronicle, with degrading avidity, the sins of the second-rate, and with the conscientiousness of the illiterate give us accurate and prosaic details. . .
Oscar Wilde
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I have never met any really wicked person before. I feel rather frightened. I am so afraid he will look just like every one else.
Oscar Wilde
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I write because it gives me the greatest possible artistic pleasure to write. If my work pleases the few I am gratified. As for the mob, I have no desire to be a popular novelist. It is far too easy.
Oscar Wilde
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Oh, I don’t care about Jack. I don’t care for anybody in the whole world but you. I love you, Cecily. You will marry me, won’t you? You silly boy! Of course. Why, we have been engaged for the last three months. For the last three months?
Oscar Wilde