Oscar Wilde Quotes

However much I have frequented the mystics, deep down I have always sided with the Devil; unable to equal him in power, I have tried to be worthy of him, at least, in insolence, acrimony, arbitrariness and caprice.

We can only write well about our sins because it is too difficult to recall a virtuous act or even whether it was the result of good or evil motives.

I think we all have the capacity of evil in us.

To say of shame - what is it? Of virtue - we can miss it; Of sin-we can kiss it, And it's no longer sin.

Though sin often brings immediate pleasure, it gives no lasting joy.

Being against evil doesn't make you good. Tonight I was against it and then I was evil myself. I could feel it coming just like a tide... I just want to destroy them. But when you start taking pleasure in it you are awfully close to the thing you're fighting.

Sin ought to be something exquisite, my dear boy.

Every man has a paradise around him till he sins, and the angel of an accusing conscience drives him from his Eden.

Memory says, 'I did that.' Pride replies, 'I could not have done that.' Eventually, memory yields.

I am much more afraid of my good deeds that please me than of my bad deeds that repel me.

Sara could commit adultery at one end and weep for her sins at the other, and enjoy both operations at once.

Sin can bring pleasure, but never happiness.

I've committed adultery in my heart.

Vice is a dreary business. And virtue is not a lot of fun, either.

Aphrodite is about lust and gluttony - the only two sins worth committing, in my opinion.

The ways of sin are curious . . . I guess if a man had to shuck off everything he had, inside and out, he'd manage to hide a few little sins somewhere for his own discomfort. They're the last things we'll give up.

Memory haunts me from age to age, and passion leads me by the hand--evil have I done, and with sorrow have I made acquaintance from age to age, and from age to age evil shall I do, and sorrow shall I know till my redemption comes.

I sin like crazy, but I protect my people.

In the books I read the sinners are always more interesting than the saints, and in real life good people are dismally dull. I've no desire to be wicked, but I do want to be happy. A short life and a gay one for me and I'm willing to pay for my pleasure if it is necessary.

Pride is the deadliest of sins, but I was bursting with pride.

Many a one commits a reprehensible action, who is at bottom an honourable man, because man seldom acts upon natural impulse, but from some secret passion of the moment which lies hidden and concealed within the narrowest folds of his heart.

I didn’t know how I could live with that knowledge, without it eating me up, without it poisoning every happy memory I had of growing up. Without it ruining everything Beck and I had. I didn’t understand how someone could be both God and the devil. How the same person could destroy you and save you. When everything I was, good and bad, was knotted with threads of his making, how was I supposed to know whether to love or hate him?

Our best works are shot through with sin and contain something for which we need to be forgiven.

Temptation can be tormenting, but remember: The torment of temptation to sin is nothing to compare with the torment of the consequences of sin. Remorse and regret cannot compensate for sin....though sins can be forgiven immediately - the consequences can last a lifetime

The causes that govern the heart appear to be wholly alien to the results achieved. Are the forces that moved a desperate criminal the same that fill a martyr with pride, as both mount the scaffold?