Oscar Wilde Quotes

I shouldn't steal in this world.

That's just the way: a person does a low-down thing, and then he don't want to take no consequences of it. Thinks as long as he can hide it, it ain't no disgrace.

My greatest personal mistake is ever to allow a word or moment that “doesn’t count,” i.e., that I do not refer to my own basic principles. Every word, every action, every moment counts. (This is the pattern on which everybody makes mistakes [or] becomes irrational — not relating their one action or one conviction to another.

We want a society in which we are free to make choices, to make mistakes, to be generous and compassionate. That is what we mean by a moral society - not a society in which the State is responsible for everything, and no one is responsible for the State.

Let us strive for personal, practical integrity in every endeavor, regardless of how mundane or inconsequential it may seem.

The biggest difference between people is between those who are trying to do the right thing - whether or not they succeed - and those for whom the only question is how much they can get away with.

Life does not require us to be consistent, cruel, patient, helpful, angry, rational, thoughtless, loving, rash, open-minded, neurotic, careful, rigid, tolerant, wasteful, rich, downtrodden, gentle, sick, considerate, funny, stupid, healthy, greedy, beautiful, lazy, responsive, foolish, sharing, pressured, intimate, hedonistic, industrious, manipulative, insightful, capricious, wise, selfish, kind or sacrificed. Life does, however, require us to live with the consequences of our choices.

Ninety-nine percent of leadership failures are failures of character.

Rose, I cheat at cards and buy liquor for minors. But I would never, ever force you into something you don't want.

Trust is equal parts character and competence... You can look at any leadership failure, and it's always a failure of one or the other.

True freedom is not the liberty to do anything we please, but the liberty to do what we ought; and it is genuine liberty because doing what we ought now pleases us

It is our choice of good or evil that determines our character, not our opinion about good or evil.

Self-respecting men and women think about the consequences of their actions-and are willing to take responsibility for them.

Successful people do what is right no matter how they feel, and by doing right, they feel good.

One of the hardest things to teach a child is that truth is more important than consequences.

If you are going to do something that you have to lie about, don't do it, it's very simple.

Honesty is largely a matter of information, of knowing that dishonesty is a mistake. Principle is not as powerful in keeping people straight as a policeman.

I prefer to do right and get no thanks than to do wrong and receive no punishment.

But they who are unconcerned about the consequences of their actions are not therefore unconcerned about their actions.

What is the most precious thing in the world? I see now that it is the knowledge that you have no part in injustice. Injustice is stronger than you, it always was and always will be, but let it not be done through you.

People of poor character tend to blame their choices on circumstances. Ethical people make good choices regardless of circumstances. If they make enough good choices, they begin to create better conditions for themselves.

Isn't every hero aware of all the terrible reason they did those good deeds?" Aware of every mistake they ever made and how good people got hurt because of their decisions? Don't they recall the moments they weren't heroic at all? The moments where their heroism led to more deaths than deliberate villainy ever could?

I would hope that we can load our moral computers with three elements of integrity: 1. Dealing justly with oneself. 2. Dealing justly with others. 3. Recognizing the law of the harvest.

Do well and right and let the world sink.

When men are pure, laws are useless; when men are corrupt, laws are broken.