A book or poem which has no pity in it had better not be written.

— Oscar Wilde

A cigarette is the perfect type of perfect pleasure. It is exquisite and it leaves one unsatisfied. What more can you want?

— Oscar Wilde

(A country where) the young are always ready to give to those who are older than themselves the full benefits of their inexperience.

— Oscar Wilde

Actions are the first tragedy in life, words are the second. Words are perhaps the worst. Words are merciless. . .

— Oscar Wilde

Actors are so fortunate. They can choose whether they will appear in tragedy or in comedy, whether they will suffer or make merry, laugh or shed tears. But in real life it is different. Most men and women are forced to perform parts for which they have no qualifications. Our Guildenstern's play Hamlet for us, and our Hamlets have to jest like Prince Hal. The world is a stage, but the play is badly cast.

— Oscar Wilde

Actual life was chaos, but there was something terribly logical in the imagination. It was the imagination that set remorse to dog the feet of sin. It was the imagination that made each crime bear its misshapen brood. In the common world of fact the wicked were not punished, nor the good rewarded. Success was given to the strong, failure thrust upon the weak. That was all.

— Oscar Wilde

A cynic is a man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.

— Oscar Wilde

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.

— Oscar Wilde

A flower blossoms for its own joy.

— Oscar Wilde

After a good dinner one can forgive anybody, even one's own relations.

— Oscar Wilde