Quote

I envy you going to Oxford: it is the most flower-like time of one's life. One sees the shadow of things in silver mirrors. Later on, one sees the Gorgon's head, and one suffers, because it does not turn one to stone.

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
Things
Later
Suffers
Time
Flower
Silver
Life
Turn
Stone
Like
Head
Envy
Suffering
Sees
Turns
Mirrors
Doe
Stones
Gorgon
Going
Shadow
Oxford

More quotes by Oscar Wilde

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Anybody can sympathise with all the sufferings of the pal, nevertheless it involves an extremely great mother nature to sympathise by using a friend's achievement.
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Paradoxically though it may seem, it is none the less true that life imitates art far more than art imitates life.
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I asked the question for the best reason possible, for the only reason, indeed, that excuses anyone for asking any question - simple curiosity.
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The nineteenth century is a turning point in history, simply on account of the work of two men, Darwin and Renan, the one the critic of the Book of Nature, the other the critic of the books of God. Not to recognise this is to miss the meaning of one of the most important eras in the progress of the world.
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Know thyself' was written over the portal of the antique world. Over the portal of the new world, 'Be thyself' shall be written.
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The tragedy of growing old is not that one is old but that one is young.
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It is only through Art and through Art only that we can realize our perfection Through Art and art only that we can shield ourselves from the sordid perils of actual existence.
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And with tears of blood he cleansed the hand, The hand that held the steel: For only blood can wipe out blood, And only tears can heal
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Oh, I love London Society! It is entirely composed now of beautiful idiots and brilliant lunatics. Just what Society should be.
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Then there was a man who said, 'I never knew what real happiness was until I got married by then it was too late'
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People who count their chickens before they are hatched act very wisely because chickens run about so absurdly that it's impossible to count them accurately.
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To be popular one must be a mediocrity. Not with Women, said the duchess, shaking her head and women rule the world. I assure you we can't bear mediocrities. We women, as someone says, love with our ears, just as you men love with your eyes, if you ever love at all. It seems to me that we never do anything else, murmered Dorian.
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...The two great turning-points of my life were when my father sent to Oxford, and when society sent me to prison.
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The only way a woman can ever reform a man is by boring him so completely that he loses all possible interest in life.
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Self-denial is the shining sore on the leprous body of Christianity.
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The liar at any rate recognizes that recreation, not instruction, is the aim of conversation, and is a far more civilized being than the blockhead who loudly expresses his disbelief in a story which is told simply for the amusement of the company.
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As I lounged in the Park, or strolled down Piccadilly, I used to look at everyone who passed me, and wonder, with mad curiosity, what sort of lives they led. some of them fascinated me. Others filled me with terror.
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There is only one real tragedy in a woman's life. The fact that her past is always her lover, and her future invariably her husband.
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I wanted to eat of the fruit of all the trees in the garden of the world… And so, indeed, I went out, and so I lived. My only mistake was that I confined myself so exclusively to the trees of what seemed to me the sun-lit side of the garden, and shunned the other side for its shadow and its gloom.
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Just as the worst slave-owners were those who were kind to their slaves, and so prevented the horror of the system being realized by those who suffered from it, and understood by those who contemplated it, so, in the present state of things in England, the people who do most harm are the people who try to do most good.
Oscar Wilde