Oscar Wilde
Irish playwright, poet and wit, 1854–1900. 2 explained quotes and 1 wrongly credited to them.
Art is not meant to teach, preach or serve a practical purpose. Its value is that it is beautiful and gives pleasure, the way a flower does.
Read the full explanation →Lord Darlington, a society man in love, says that everyone is flawed, but some people still look up toward something higher. His friends tease him for being romantic.
Read the full explanation →A witty push to be authentic. It is not found anywhere in Wilde's works; the earliest known exact match is anonymous and from 1999, a century after his death.
See who really said it →No quotes match these filters yet. New quotes are added every week.
About Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde was born in Dublin and became the most celebrated wit of Victorian London, the author of The Picture of Dorian Gray and comedies such as The Importance of Being Earnest. In 1895, at the height of his success, he was convicted of “gross indecency” for relationships with men and sentenced to two years of hard labor. He died in Paris three years after his release.
Wilde’s plays are packed with epigrams, which makes him a magnet for invented quotes; any clever, paradoxical line tends to drift toward his name.
More lines by Wilde
Short quotes checked against their sources.
- “I can resist everything except temptation.”Lady Windermere's Fan, 1892
- “Most people are other people. Their thoughts are some one else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation.”De Profundis, 1905