Потребител:Darldarl/My Oscar Wilde
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My Oscar Wilde
Aphorisms
- "A cigarette is the perfect type of a perfect pleasure. It is exquisite, and it leaves one unsatisfied. What more can one want?"
- "A cynic is one who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing."
- "A dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world."
- "A gentleman is one who never hurts anyone's feelings unintentionally."
- "A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal."
- "A man about to get married should know either everything or nothing."
- "A man can be happy with any woman, so long as he does not love her."
- "A man can't be too careful in the choice of his enemies."
- "A man who does not think for himself does not think at all."
- "A man's face is his autobiography. A woman's face is her work of fiction."
- "A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it."
- "A well-tied tie is the first serious step in life."
- "A woman begins by resisting a man's advances and ends by blocking his retreat."
- "A woman will flirt with anyone in the world, so long as other women are looking on."
- "Action: the last resource of those who know not how to dream."
- "All bad poetry springs from genuine feeling."
- "All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. No man does. That's his."
- "Always forgive your enemies - nothing annoys them so much."
- "America has often been discovered before Columbus, but is was always hushed up."
- "America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between."
- "An idea that is not dangerous is unworthy of being called an idea at all."
- "Anybody can be good in the country. There are no temptations there."
- "Anybody can sympathize with the sufferings of a friend, but it requires a very fine nature to sympathize with a friend's success."
- "Anyone can make history. Only a great man can write it."
- "Anyone who lives within their means suffers from a lack of imagination."
- "Argument's are to be avoided; they are always vulgar and often convincing."
- "Art is the most intense form of individualism that the world has known."
- "As for the virtuous poor, one can pity them, of course, but one cannot possibly admire them."
- "As long as war is regarded as wicked it will always have its fascinations. When it is looked upon as vulgar, it will cease to be popular."
- "Bad artists always admire each others work."
- "Beauty reveals everything, because it expresses nothing."
- "Being natural is simply a pose, and the most irritating pose I know."
- "Bigamy is having one wife too many. Monogamy is the same."
- "Biography lends to death a new terror."
- "Children begin by loving their parents; as they grow older they judge them; sometimes they forgive them."
- "Conscience and cowardice are really the same thing. Con-science is the trade-name of the firm."
- "Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative."
- "Crying is the refuge of plain women and the ruin of pretty ones."
- "Cultivated leisure is the aim of man."
- "Democracy is the bludgeoning of the people, by the people, for the people."
- "Divorces are made in heaven."
- "Duty is what one expects from others, it is not what one does oneself."
- "Each time that one loves is the only time one has ever loved. Difference of object does not alter singleness of passion. It merely intensifies it."
- "Education is an admirable thing, but nothing that is worth knowing can be taught."
- "Even things that are true can be proved."
- "Every great man has his disciples, but it is always Judas who writes the biography."
- "Everyone who is incapable of learning has taken to teaching."
- "Examinations consist of the foolish asking questions the wise cannot answer."
- "Experience is one thing you can't get for nothing."
- "Experience is the name everyone gives to their mistakes."
- "Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months."
- "Fashion is what one wears oneself; what is unfashionable is what other people wear."
- "For fascinating women, sex is a challenge; for others, it is merely a defence."
- "Good resolutions are simply checks that men draw on a bank where they have no account."
- "History never repeats itself. The historians repeat each other."
- "I adore simple pleasures. They are the last refuge of the complex."
- "I always like to know everything about my new friends, and nothing about my old ones."
- "I am not young enough to know everything."
- "I am the only person in the world I should like to know thoroughly."
- "I can believe anything, provided that it is quite incredible."
- "I can resist everything except temptation."
- "I can stand brute force, but brute reason is quite unbearable. There is something unfair about its use. It is hitting below the intellect."
- "I can sympathise with everything, except suffering."
- "I choose my friends for their good looks, my acquaintances for their good characters, and my enemies for their intellects."
- "I don't like principles. I prefer prejudices."
- "I have had my hand on the moon; what is the use of trying to rise a little way from the ground?"
- "I have never given adoration to anyone except myself."
- "I have put my genius into my life, whereas all I have put into my work is my talent."
- "I have the simplest tastes. I am always satisfied with the best."
- "I like men who have a future, and women who have a past."
- "I like persons better than principles, and I like persons with no principles better than anything else in the world."
- "I like talking to a brick wall, I find it is the only thing that never contradicts me."
- "I live in terror of not being misunderstood."
- "I love acting. It is so much more real than life."
- "I often have long conversations all by myself, and I am so clever that sometimes I don't understand a single word of what I am saying."
- "I suppose publishers are untrustworthy. They certainly always look It."
- "I suppose society is wonderfully delightful! To be in it is merely a bore. But to be out of it simply a tragedy."
- "I think that God, in creating man, somewhat overestimated His ability."
- "I was asked by the customs if I had anything to declare. I said: Yes, I'd like to declare -- I'm a genius!"
- "I was working on the proof of one of my poems all the morning, and took out a comma. In the afternoon I put it back again."
- "If a man is a gentleman he knows quite enough, and if he is not a gentleman, whatever he knows is likely to be bad for him."
- "If a woman really repents, she never wishes to return to the society that has made or seen her ruin."
- "If a woman wants to hold a man, she has merely to appeal to the worst in him."
- "If I hadn't my debts I shouldn't have anything to think about."
- "If one always tells the truth one is sure, sooner or later, to be found out."
- "If property had simply pleasures, we could stand it; but its duties make it unbearable. In the interest of the rich we must get rid of it."
- "If there was less sympathy in the world, there would be less trouble in the world."
- "If you really want to know what a woman means, which is dangerous, always look at her but never listen."
- "Ignorance is like a delicate exotic fruit; touch it and the bloom is gone."
- "Illusion is the first of all pleasures."
- "Imagination is a quality given to man to compensate for what he is not, and a sense of humour is provided to console him from what he is."
- "In all matters of opinion, our adversaries are insane."
- "In life, we are all in the gutter. Some of us just tend to look up at the stars."
- "In married life, three is company, two is none."
- "In matters of grave importance, style, not sincerity, is the vital thing."
- "Intellect is in itself a mode of exaggeration, and destroys the harmony of any face."
- "It is a terrible thing for a man to find out suddenly that all his life he has been speaking nothing but the truth."
- "It is a very sad thing that nowadays there is so little useless information around."
- "It is absurd to divide people into good or bad. People are either charming or tedious."
- "It is an error to suppose that America was discovered. It was merely detected."
- "It is better to be beautiful than to be good - it is better to be good than to be ugly."
- "It is better to have a permanent income than to be fascinating."
- "It is only an auctioneer who can equally and impartially admire all schools of art."
- "It is only by not paying one's bills that one can hope to live in the memory of the commercial classes."
- "It is only the shallow people who do not judge by appearances."
- "It is only the unimaginative who ever invents. The true artist is known by the use he makes of what he annexes."
- "It is sad. One half of the world does not believe in God, and the other half does not believe in me."
- "It is the confession, not the priest, that gives us absolution."
- "It is the spectator, and not life, that art really mirrors."
- "Journalism justifies its own existence by the great Darwinian principle of the survival of the vulgarist."
- "Life imitates Art far more than Art imitates Life."
- "Life is far too important to be taken seriously."
- "Like dear St Francis of Assisi I am wedded to Poverty: but in my case the marriage is not a success."
- "Long engagements give people the opportunity of finding out each other's character before marriage, which is never advisable."
- "Man can believe the impossible, but man can never believe the improbable."
- "Man is a rational animal who always loses his temper when he is called upon to act in accordance with the dictates of reason."
- "Marriage is the triumph of imagination over intelligence. Second marriage is the triumph of hope over experience."
- "Marriage is the one subject on which all women agree and all men disagree."
- "Men always want to be a woman's first love. Women like to be a man's last romance."
- "Men become old, they never become good."
- "Men marry because they are tired, women because they are curious; both are disappointed."
- "Missionaries are going to reform the world whether it wants to or not."
- "Moderation is a fatal thing. Nothing succeeds like excess."
- "Morality, like art, means a drawing a line someplace."
- "Morality is simply the attitude we adopt toward people we personally dislike."
- "Most modern calendars mar the sweet simplicity of our lives by reminding us that each day that passes is the anniversary of some perfectly uninteresting event."
- "Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation."
- "Most people die of a sort of creeping common sense, and discover when it is too late that the only things one never regrets are one's mistakes."
- "Music makes one feel so romantic - at least it always gets on one's nerves - which is the same thing."
- "My own business bores me to death. I prefer other people's."
- "Never speak disrespectfully of Society. Only people who can't get into it do that."
- "Never trust a woman who tells you her real age; a woman who tells you that would tell you anything."
- "Niagara Falls is the bride's second great disappointment."
- "No great artist ever sees things as they really are; if he did, he would cease to be an artist."
- "No man is rich enough to buy back his past."
- "No woman should ever be quite accurate about her age. It looks so calculating."
- "None of us can stand other people having the faults as ourselves."
- "Nothing can cure the soul but the senses, just as nothing can cure the senses but the soul."
- "Nothing is so aggravating as calmness."
- "Nothing makes one so vain as being told that one is a sinner."
- "One can always be kind to people about whom one cares nothing."
- "One can survive everything except death, and live down everything except a good reputation."
- "One half of the world does not believe in God, and the other half does not believe in me."
- "One must have a heart of stone to read the death of Little Nell without laughing."
- "One should always be in love. That is the reason one should never marry."
- "One should always play fairly when one has the winning cards."
- "One's past is what one is. It is the only way by which people should be judged."
- "One's real life is often the life that one does not lead."
- "Only dull people are brilliant at breakfast."
- "Only the shallow know themselves."
- "Ordinary riches can be stolen, real riches cannot. In your soul are infinitely precious things that cannot be taken from you."
- "Other people are quite dreadful. The only possible society is oneself."
- "Patriotism is the virtue of the vicious."
- "Pessimist: One who, when he has the choice of two evils, chooses both."
- "Philanthropy is the refuge of rich people who wish to annoy their fellow creatures."
- "Philosophy teaches us to bear with equanimity the misfortunes of others."
- "Praise makes me humble, but when I am abused I know I have touched the stars."
- "Punctuality is the thief of time."
- "Questions are never indiscreet, answers sometimes are."
- "Real beauty ends where an intellectual expression begins."
- "Relations are simply a tedious pack of people, who haven't got the remotest knowledge of how to live, nor the smallest instinct about when to die."
- "Religion is the fashionable substitute for belief."
- "Romance should never begin with sentiment. It should begin with science and end with a settlement."
- "Scandal is gossip made tedious by morality."
- "Science is the record of dead religions."
- "Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live."
- "Seriousness is the only refuge of the shallow."
- "Sin is the only real colour element left in modern life."
- "Society often forgives the criminal but it never forgives the dreamer."
- "Society produces rogues, and education makes one rogue cleverer than another."
- "Some people cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go."
- "Success is a science; if you have the conditions, you get the result."
- "The advantage of the emotions is that they lead us astray, and the advantage of science is that it is not emotional."
- "The basis of optimism is sheer terror."
- "The book of life begins with a man and a woman in a garden. It ends with Revelations."
- "The books that the world calls immoral are the books that show the world its own shame."
- "The brotherhood of man is not a mere poet's dream: it is a most depressing and humiliating reality."
- "The condition of perfection is idleness: the aim of perfection is youth."
- "The difference between literature and journalism is that journalism is unreadable and literature is not read."
- "The English have a miraculous power of turning wine into water."
- "The form of government that is most suitable to the artist is no government at all."
- "The happiness of a married man depends on the people he has not married."
- "The husbands of very beautiful women usually belong to the criminal classes."
- "The Ideal Man should talk to us as if we were goddesses, and treat us as if we were children."
- "The mystery of love is greater than the mystery of death."
- "The old believe everything, the middle-aged suspect everything, the young know everything."
- "The only beautiful things are the things that do not concern us."
- "The only charm of marriage is that it makes a life of deception necessary for both parties."
- "The only difference between a caprice and a lifelong passion is that the caprice lasts a little longer."
- "The only duty we owe history is to rewrite it."
- "The only excuse for making a useless thing is that one admires it intensely. All art is quite useless."
- "The only possible form of exercise is to talk, not to walk."
- "The only real tragedy in a woman's life is that her past is always her lover, and the future is invariably her husband."
- "The only thing that men and women have in common, is that they both prefer the company of men."
- "The only thing to do with good advice is pass it on; it is never of any use to oneself."
- "The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about."
- "The only way a woman can ever reform her husband is by boring him so completely that he loses all possible interest in life."
- "The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it."
- "The progress is the accomplishment of the utopias."
- "The proper basis for marriage is a mutual misunderstanding."
- "The public is wonderfully tolerant. It forgives everything except genius."
- "The pure and simple truth is rarely pure and never simple."
- "The soul is born old but grows young. That is the comedy of life. And the body is born young and grows old. That is life's tragedy."
- "The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible."
- "The very essence of romance is uncertainty."
- "The world is divided into two classes, those who believe the incredible, and those who do the improbable."
- "The youth of America is their oldest tradition; it has been going on now for three hundred years."
- "There are many things that we would throw away if we were not afraid that others might pick them up."
- "There are only two tragedies in life: one is not getting what one wants, the other is getting it."
- "There is a luxury in self-reproach. When we blame ourselves, we feel that no one else has a right to blame us."
- "There is no sin except stupidity."
- "There is no such thing as a moral book or an immoral book. Books are well written or badly written. That is all."
- "There is nothing in the world like the devotion of a married woman; it's a thing that no married man knows anything about."
- "Those who are faithful know only the trivial side of love: it is the faithless who know love's tragedies."
- "Those who find ugly meanings in beautiful things are corrupt without being charming."
- "Those whom the gods love grow young."
- "Time is a waste of money."
- "To expect the unexpected shows a thoroughly modern intellect."
- "To get back one's youth, one has merely to repeat one's follies."
- "To give an accurate description of what has never occurred is the proper occupation of the historian."
- "To lose one parent may be regarded as a misfortune, to lose both looks like carelessness."
- "To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance."
- "To make men Socialists is nothing, but to make Socialism human is a great thing."
- "To regain my youth I wold do anything in the world, except take exercise, get up early, or become respectable."
- "True friends stab you in the front."
- "Truth, in matters of religion, is simply the opinion that has survived."
- "Twenty years of romance makes a woman look like a ruin; twenty years of marriage makes her look like a public building."
- "We have really everything in common with America, except, of course, language."
- "We teach people how to remember, we never teach them how to grow."
- "What is mind but motion in the intellectual sphere?"
- "What people call insincerity is simply a method by which we can multiply our personalities."
- "When a man has once loved a woman he will do anything for her except continue to love her."
- "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."
- "When critics disagree the artist is in accord with himself."
- "When I was young I used to think that money was the most important thing in life. Now that I am old, I know it is."
- "When the gods wish to punish us they answer our prayers."
- "When we are happy we are always good, but when we are good we are not always happy."
- "Whenever a man does a thoroughly stupid thing, it is always from the noblest motives."
- "Whenever people agree with me I always feel I must be wrong."
- "Women are meant to be loved, not understood."
- "Women are never disarmed by compliments. Men always are."
- "Women are sphinxes without secrets."
- "Women give to men the very gold of their lives; but they always want it back in small change."
- "Women have a much better time than men in this world. There are far more things forbidden to them."
- "Women have a wonderful instinct about things. They can discover everything except the obvious."
- "Women love us for our defects. If we have enough of them, they will forgive us everything, even our intellects."
- "Women represent the triumph of matter over mind, just as men represent the triumph of mind over morals."
- "Work is the curse of the drinking classes."
- "You should always say much more than you mean, and always mean much more than you say."
- "Young men want to be faithful and are not, old men want to be faithless and cannot."