Oscar Wilde Quotes

Is it possible to succeed without any act of betrayal?

Virtue knows that it is impossible to get on without compromise, and tunes herself, as it were, a trifle sharp to allow for an inevitable fall in playing.

Each concession we make is accompanied by an inner diminution of which we are not immediately conscious.

I enjoyed the Hee Haw people, but from 1980 on I didn't enjoy it and thought about leavin', and thought, hell, it's an easy job and pays wonderful. I kinda just prostituted myself for their money.

I think that I have sold out sometimes.

Poverty is a great enemy to human happiness; it certainly destroys liberty, and makes some virtues impracticable and others extremely difficult.

Be sensible, that is, cease to be honest.

Moderation in temper is always a virtue; but moderation in principle is always a vice.

On the whole, human beings want to be good, but not too good, and not quite all the time.

To defer to someone else's definition of a life well-lived is a Faustian bargain.

The amiable is a duty most certainly, but must not be exercised at the expense of any of the virtues. He who seeks to do the amiable always, can only be successful at the frequent expense of his manhood.

Most victories came from instantly exploiting your enemy's stupid mistakes, and not from any particular brilliance in your own plan.

Mrs LINDE: When you've sold yourself once for the sake of others, you don't do it second time.

Our great democracies still tend to think that a stupid man is more likely to be honest than a clever man.

One's style holds one, thankfully, at bay from the enemies of it but not from the stupid crucifixions by those who must willfully misunderstand it.

Owing to the identification of religion with virtue, together with the fact that the most religious men are not the most intelligent, a religious education gives courage to the stupid to resist the authority of educated men, as has happened, for example, where the teaching of evolution has been made illegal. So far as I can remember, there is not one word in the Gospels in praise of intelligence; and in this respect ministers of religion follow gospel authority more closely than in some others.

To save our imperiled honor everything must be sacrificed, even virtue.

Nonsense prevails, modesty fails Grace and virtue turn into stupidity While the calendar fades almost all barricades to a pale compromise And our leaders have feasts on the backsides of beasts They still think they're the gods of antiquity If something you missed didn't even exist It was just an ideal is it such a surprise?

Men must learn now with pity to dispense; For policy sits above conscience.

The archenemy is the arch stupid!

As for the virtuous poor, one can pity them of course, but one cannot possibly admire them.

You know what I mean. I'm telling you I was stupid over it. I thought it was about trying so hard to survive that you didn't have the time to be a good parent. Obviously, that's not it. Because you and I, we're both...wealthy in love.

This is the crux of the moral pessimists: if they really wanted to promote their neighbor's redemption, then they would have to resolve themselves to spoiling existence for him, and thus to being his misfortune; out of pity, they would have to--become evil!

To regard states of distress in general as an objection, as something which must be abolished is the greatest nonsense on earth; having the most disastrous consequences, fatally stupid- almost as stupid as a wish to abolish bad weather - out of pity for the poor.

Learn all you can, don't be lazy. Nothing's worse than being stupid. Being broke is bad, but being stupid is what's really bad. And what's really really bad is being broke and stupid. Nothing's much worse than that. Unless you're sick. Sick, broke and stupid, that’s about as far as you can fall unless you're ugly. Surely that would be the ultimate; ugly, sick, broke and stupid.