Quotes by Oscar Wilder

The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. Resist it, and your soul grows sick with longing for the things it has forbidden to itself.
(The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1891)

There are many things that we would throw away if we were not afraid that others might pick them up.
(The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1891)

There is a luxury in self-reproach. When we blame ourselves, we feel that no one else has a right to blame us. It is the confession, not the priest, that gives us absolution.
(The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1891)

To get back my youth I would do anything in the world, except take exercise, get up early, or be respectable.
(The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1891)

When a woman marries again, it is because she detested her first husband. When a man marries again, it is because he adored his first wife. Women try their luck; men risk theirs.
(The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1891)

Whenever a man does a thoroughly stupid thing, it is always from the noblest motives.
(The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1891)

Women love us for our defects. If we have enough of them, they will forgive us everything, even our intellects.
(The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1891)

There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written or badly written.
(The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1891)

Anybody can sympathise with the sufferings of a friend, but it requires a very fine nature to sympathise with a friend's success.
(The Soul of Man under Socialism ,1881)

I suppose that I shall have to die beyond my means.
(upon being told the cost of an operation)