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

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I must say to myself that I ruined myself, and that nobody great or small can be ruined except by his own hand. I am quite ready to say so. ... Terrible as was what the world did to me, what I did to myself was far more terrible still.
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The moon in her chariot of pearl
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When a love comes to an end, weaklings cry, efficient ones instantly find another love, and the wise already have one in reserve.
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A temperament capable of receiving, through an imaginative medium, and under imaginative conditions, new and beautiful impressions, is the only temperament that can appreciate a work of art.
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All art is at once surface and symbol. Those who go beneath the surface do so at their peril.
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I refuse to have a battle of wits with an unarmed man.
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The Lord's Prayer is 66 words, the Gettysburg Address is 286 words, there are 1.322 words in the Declaration of Independence, but government regulations on the sale of cabbage total 26.911 words. The difference between literature and journalism is that journalism is unreadable and literature is not read.
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There are three kinds of despots. There is the despot who tyrannizes over the body. There is the despot who tyrannizes over the soul. There is the despot who tyrannizes over the soul and body alike. The first is called the Prince. The second is called the Pope. The third is called the People.
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Education is very admirable but let us not forget that anything worth knowing cannot be taught.
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Genius lasts longer than beauty
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What the hell is an oboe?
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When bankers get together they talk about art. When artists get together, they talk about money.
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Fashion is what one wears oneself. What is unfashionable is what other people wear.
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I expect I shall have to die beyond my means.
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Personally, I have a great admiration for stupidity.
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But what world says that [I'm wicked]? It can only be the next world. This world and I are on excellent terms.
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Bad artists always admire each other's work. They call it being large-minded and free from prejudice. But a truly great artist cannot conceive of life being shown, or beauty fashioned, under any conditions other than those he has selected.
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The public is wonderfully tolerant. It forgives everything except genius.
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You know I have loved him always. But we are very poor. Who, being loved, is poor? Oh, no one. I hate my riches. They are a burden.
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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.
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