Oscar Wilde

“One of the many lessons that one learns in prison is that things are what they are and will be what they will be.”

“Discontent is the first step in the progress of a man or a nation.”

“The only thing to do with good advice is to pass it on. It is never of any use to oneself.”

“(A country where) the young are always ready to give to those who are older than themselves the full benefits of their inexperience.”

“Good artists exist simply in what they make, and consequently are perfectly uninteresting in what they are.”

“Always! That is the dreadful word ... it is a meaningless word, too.”

“When critics disagree, the artist is in accord with himself.”

“For he who lives more lives than one More deaths than one must die.”

“Things are in their essence what we choose to make them. A thing is, according to the mode in which one looks at it.”

“Experience is the name so many people give to their mistakes.”

“I can believe anything, provided it is incredible.”

“Children begin by loving their parents. After a time they judge them. Rarely, if ever, do they forgive them.”

“The suspense is terrible. I hope it will last.”

“The basis of optimism is sheer terror.”

“The public is wonderfully tolerant. It forgives everything except genius.”

“Pleasure is the only thing to live for. Nothing ages like happiness.”

“We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.”

“In this world there are only two tragedies. One is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it.”

“When a love comes to an end, weaklings cry, efficient ones instantly find another love, and the wise already have one in reserve.”

“All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. No man does. That's his.”