“In America, the President reigns for four years, and journalism governs for ever and ever.”
“Every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of the sitter.”
“To lose one parent may be regarded as a misfortune... to lose both seems like carelessness.”
“Philanthropic people lose all sense of humanity. It is their distinguishing characteristic.”
“He was always late on principle, his principle being that punctuality is the thief of time.”
“Nothing can cure the soul but the senses, just as nothing can cure the senses but the soul.”
“When a man has once loved a woman, he will do anything for her, except continue to love her.”
“Never speak disrespectfully of Society, Algernon. Only people who can't get into it do that.”
“Vulgarity is the conduct of other people, just as falsehoods are the truths of other people.”
“Every great man nowadays has his disciples, and it is usually Judas who writes the biography.”
“Nothing is so dangerous as being too modern; one is apt to grow old fashioned quite suddenly.”
“In going to America one learns that poverty is not a necessary accompaniment to civilization.”
“Gossip is charming! History is merely gossip. But scandal is gossip made tedious by morality.”
“Wickedness is a myth invented by good people to account for the curious attraction of others.”
“No great artist ever sees things as they really are, if he did he would cease to be an artist.”
“The exquisite art of idleness, one of the most important things that any University can teach.”
“They flaunt their conjugal felicity in one's face, as if it were the most fascinating of sins.”
“Keep love in your heart. A life without it is like a sunless garden when the flowers are dead.”
“There is always something ridiculous about the emotions of people whom one has ceased to love.”
“He must have a truly romantic nature, for he weeps when there is nothing at all to weep about.”
“Laughter is not at all a bad beginning for a friendship, and it is far the best ending for one.”
“The value of an idea has nothing whatever to do with the sincerity of the man who expresses it.”
“I adore political parties. They are the only place left to us where people don't talk politics.”
“One should never trust a woman who tells her real age. If she tells that, she'll tell anything.”
“No, Ernest, don't talk about action. It is the last resource of those who know not how to dream.”
“Despotism is unjust to everybody, including the despot, who was probably made for better things.”
“As long as a woman can look ten years younger than her own daughter, she is perfectly satisfied.”
“It is because Humanity has never known where it was going that it has been able to find its way.”
“Popularity is the crown of laurel which the world puts on bad art. Whatever is popular is wrong.”
“The youth of America is their oldest tradition. It has been going on now for three hundred years.”