A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal.

Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much.

Anyone who lives within their means suffers from a lack of imagination.

Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative.

Every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of the sitter.

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

I am not young enough to know everything.

I was working on the proof of one of my poems all the morning, and took out a comma. In the afternoon I put it back again.

Illusion is the first of all pleasures.

If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh, otherwise they'll kill you.

It is a very sad thing that nowadays there is so little useless information.

It is always a silly thing to give advice, but to give good advice is fatal.

Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.

Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone elses opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation.

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.

A gentleman is one who never hurts anyone's feelings unintentionally.

A man can't be too careful in the choice of his enemies.

A man who does not think for himself does not think at all.

A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it.

All art is quite useless.

All bad poetry springs from genuine feeling.

All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. No man does. That's his.

Ambition is the last refuge of the failure.

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

An excellent man; he has no enemies; and none of his friends like him.

An idea that is not dangerous is unworthy of being called an idea at all.

Anybody can be good in the country. There are no temptations there.

Arguments are extremely vulgar, for everyone in good society holds exactly the same opinion.

Arguments are to be avoided: they are always vulgar and often convincing.

Art is the most intense mode of individualism that the world has known.

As long as a woman can look ten years younger than her own daughter, she is perfectly satisfied.

As long as war is regarded as wicked, it will always have its fascination. When it is looked upon as vulgar, it will cease to be popular.

Between men and women there is no friendship possible. There is passion, enmity, worship, love, but no friendship.

Bigamy is having one wife too many. Monogamy is the same.

Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative.

Conversation about the weather is the last refuge of the unimaginative.

Deceiving others. That is what the world calls a romance.

Democracy means simply the bludgeoning of the people by the people for the people.

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

Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught.

Every saint has a past and every sinner has a future.

Everybody who is incapable of learning has taken to teaching.

Everything popular is wrong.

Experience is one thing you can't get for nothing.

Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes.

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

Hatred is blind, as well as love.

He has no enemies, but is intensely disliked by his friends.

I am so clever that sometimes I don't understand a single word of what I am saying.

I am the only person in the world I should like to know thoroughly.

I can resist everything except temptation.

I can stand brute force, but brute reason is quite unbearable. There is something unfair about its use. It is hitting below the intellect.

I choose my friends for their good looks, my acquaintances for their good characters, and my enemies for their intellects. A man cannot be too careful in the choice of his enemies.

I have nothing to declare except my genuis.

I have the simplest tastes. I am always satisfied with the best.

I like persons better than principles, and I like persons with no principles better than anything else in the world.

I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read in the train.

I put all my genius into my life; I put only my talent into my works.

If one cannot enjoy reading a book over and over again, there is no use in reading it at all.

If one could only teach the English how to talk, and the Irish how to listen, society here would be quite civilized.

If you are not too long, I will wait here for you all my life.

In all matters of opinion, our adversaries are insane.

It is absurd to divide people into good and bad. People are either charming or tedious.

It is better to be beautiful than to be good. But... it is better to be good than to be ugly.

It is better to have a permanent income than to be fascinating.

Laughter is not at all a bad beginning for a friendship, and it is far the best ending for one.

Life imitates art far more than art imitates Life.

Life is far too important a thing ever to talk seriously about.

Life is never fair, and perhaps it is a good thing for most of us that it is not.

Life is too important to be taken seriously.

Man can believe the impossible, but man can never believe the improbable.

Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.