Oscar Wilde

Never marry at all, Dorian. Men marry because they are tired, women, because they are curious: both are disappointed.

Ultimately the bond of all companionship, whether in marriage or in friendship, is conversation, and conversation must have a common basis, and between two people of widely different culture the only common basis possible is the lowest level.

The whole theory of modern education is radically unsound. Fortunately in England, at any rate, education produces no effect whatsoever. If it did, it would prove a serious danger to the upper classes, and probably lead to acts of violence in Grosvenor Square.

We all take such pains to over-educate ourselves. In the wild struggle for existence, we want to have something that endures, and so we fill our minds with rubbish and facts, in the silly hope of keeping our place. The thoroughly well-informed man - that is the modern ideal. And the mind of the thoroughly well-informed man is a dreadful thing. It is like a bric-a-brac shop, all monsters and dust, with everything priced above its proper value.

The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible.

To expect the unexpected shows a thoroughly modern intellect.

You can never be overdressed or overeducated.

Imagination is a quality that was given to man compensate him from whats not. The sense of humor was given to console him from what is.

I never approve, or disapprove, of anything now. It is an absurd attitude to take towards life.

What seems to us as bitter trials are often blessings in disguise

The only difference between the saint and the sinner is that every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future.

If one could only teach the English how to talk, and the Irish how to listen, society here would be quite civilized.

Society exists only as a mental concept in the real world there are only individuals.

The English novels are the only relaxation of the intellectually unemployed. But one should not be too severe on them. They show a want of knowledge that must be the result of years of study.

The man who sees both sides of a question is a man who sees absolutely nothing.

Women love us for our defects. If we have enough of them, they will forgive us everything, even our gigantic intellects.

All bad poetry springs from genuine feeling.

A poet can survive everything but a misprint.