Quotations From OSCAR WILDE

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• 161.

  The only thing that ever consoles man for the stupid things he does is the praise he always gives himself for doing them.

  Oscar Wilde (1854-1900), Anglo-Irish playwright, author. review of Chuang Tsu: Mystic, Moralist and Social Reformer, Speaker (London, Feb. 8, 1890), trans. by Herbert A. Giles.
• 162.

  Literature always anticipates life. It does not copy it, but moulds it to its purpose. The nineteenth century, as we know it, is largely an invention of Balzac.

  Oscar Wilde (1854-1900), Anglo-Irish playwright, author. Vivian, in The Decay of Lying, published in Intentions (1891).
  
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• 163.

  To make men Socialists is nothing, but to make Socialism human is a great thing.

  Oscar Wilde (1854-1900), Anglo-Irish playwright, author. review of Chants of Labour: A Song-Book of the People, ed. Edward Carpenter, Pall Mall Gazette (London, Feb. 15, 1889).
• 164.

  One should never make one's debut with a scandal. One should reserve that to give an interest to one's old age.

  Oscar Wilde (1854-1900), Anglo-Irish playwright, author. Lord Henry, in The Picture of Dorian Gray, ch. 8 (1891).
• 165.

  A poet can survive everything but a misprint.

  Oscar Wilde (1854-1900), Anglo-Irish playwright, author. Quoted in The Fireworks of Oscar Wilde, ed. Owen Dudley Edwards (1989). The Children of the Poets, Pall Mall Gazette (London, Oct. 14, 1886).
• 166.

  The way of paradoxes is the way of truth. To test Reality we must see it on the tight-rope. When the Verities become acrobats we can judge them.

  Oscar Wilde (1854-1900), Anglo-Irish playwright, author. Mr. Erskine, in The Picture of Dorian Gray, ch. 3 (1891).
  
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• 167.

  No publisher should ever express an opinion on the value of what he publishes. That is a matter entirely for the literary critic to decide.... I can quite understand how any ordinary critic would be strongly prejudiced against a work that was accompanied by a premature and unnecessary panegyric from the publisher. A publisher is simply a useful middle-man. It is not for him to anticipate the verdict of criticism.

  Oscar Wilde (1854-1900), Anglo-Irish playwright, author. Letter to the editor. St. James's Gazette (London, June 30, 1890).
  
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• 168.

  The youth of America is their oldest tradition. It has been going on now for three hundred years.

  Oscar Wilde (1854-1900), Anglo-Irish playwright, author. Lord Illingworth, in A Woman of No Importance, act 1 (1893).
  
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• 169.

  I do not approve of anything that tampers with natural ignorance. Ignorance is like a delicate exotic fruit; touch it and the bloom is gone.

  Oscar Wilde (1854-1900), Anglo-Irish playwright, author. Lady Bracknell, in The Importance of Being Earnest, act 1.
  
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• 170.

  Do you really think, Arthur, that it is weakness that yields to temptation? I tell you that there are terrible temptations that it requires strength, strength and courage, to yield to.

  Oscar Wilde (1854-1900), Anglo-Irish playwright, author. Sir Robert Chiltern, in An Ideal Husband, act 2. To Lord Goring; on the same theme, Wilde wrote, in The Picture of Dorian Gray, ch. 2: "The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it."
  
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