Wilde, Oscar Archives - World Quotations

America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between.

America

America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between.

Art, like Nature, has her monsters, things of bestial shape and with hideous voices.

Arts and Artists

Art, like Nature, has her monsters, things of bestial shape and with hideous voices.

There is no such thing as a moral book or an immoral book. Books are well written or badly written. That is all.

Books - Reading

There is no such thing as a moral book or an immoral book. Books are well written or badly written. That is all.

The exquisite art of idleness, one of the most important things that any University can teach.

Colleges and Universities

The exquisite art of idleness, one of the most important things that any University can teach.

Temperament is the primary requisite for the critic -- a temperament exquisitely susceptible to beauty, and to the various impressions that beauty gives us.

Critics and Criticism

Temperament is the primary requisite for the critic — a temperament exquisitely susceptible to beauty, and to the various impressions that beauty gives us.

Discontent is the first step in the progress of a man or a nation.

Discontent

Discontent is the first step in the progress of a man or a nation.

The great events of life often leave one unmoved; they pass out of consciousness, and, when one thinks of them, become unreal. Even the scarlet flowers of passion seem to grow in the same meadow as the poppies of oblivion.

Events

The great events of life often leave one unmoved; they pass out of consciousness, and, when one thinks of them, become unreal. Even the scarlet flowers of passion seem to …

Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months.

Fashion

Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months.

The past is of no importance. The present is of no importance. It is with the future that we have to deal. For the past is what man should not have been. The present is what man ought not to be. The future is what artists are.

Future