Oscar Wilde Quotes

Saying and doing are two things.

Those who meant well behaved in the same way as those who meant badly.

The light of lights looks always on the motive, not the deed, the shadow of shadows on the deed alone.

It's motive alone which gives character to the actions of men.

We talk on principal, but act on motivation.

What people say, what people do, and what they say they do are entirely different things.

Saying is one thing and doing is another.

One of the most disconcerting phenomena of these times is the disparity between the enormous amount of idealist propaganda that goes on from pulpit, platform and press, and the inconsiderable effect that it seems to produce in the actual conduct of men and of nations.

But thought is one thing, the deed is another, and the image of the deed still another: the wheel of causality does not roll between them.

About the meanest thing you can say about a man is that he means well.

There are some who write, talk, and think, so much about vice and virtue, that they have no time to practice either the one or the other.

Every one may know that to will and not to do, when there is opportunity, is in reality not to will; and that to love what is good and not to do it, when it is possible, is in reality not to love it. Will, which stops short of action, and love, which does not do the good that is loved, is a mere thought separate from will and love, which vanishes and comes to nothing.

Words are but holy as the deeds they cover.

Intention, good or bad, is not enough.

With mere good intentions hell is proverbially paved.

Methods and means cannot be separated from the ultimate aim.

Good works do not make a good man, but a good man does good works.

Saying and Doing, have quarrel'd and parted.

I think you can be an honest person and lie about any number of things.

To get along with God, Consider the consequences of your behavior. Earthseed: The Books of the Living

The real nature of an ethic is that it does not become an ethic unless and until it goes into action.

Modesty is the delicate form of hypocrisy.

A single word often betrays a great design.

God is not averse to deceit in a holy cause.

Purpose ... is held to be most closely connected with virtue, and to be a better token of our character than are even our acts.