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

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

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

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

Education is an admirable thing, but nothing that is worth knowing can be taught.

Either those curtains go or I do.

I am not young enough to know everything.

I can resist everything except temptation.

I think that God in creating man somewhat overestimated his ability.

I was asked by the customs if I had anything to declare. I said: Yes, I'd like to declare -- I'm a genius!

In life, we are all in the gutter. Some of us just tend to look up at the stars.

Man is a rational animal who always loses his temper when he is called upon to act in accordance with the dictates of reason.

Marriage is the triumph of imagination over intelligence. Second marriage is the triumph of hope over experience.

Moderation is a fatal thing. Nothing succeeds like excess.

The basis of optimism is sheer terror.

The only thing that men and women have in common, is that they both prefer the company of men.

The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about.

The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it.

The pure and simple truth is rarely pure and never simple.

There are only two tragedies in life: one is not getting what one wants, the other is getting it.

Whenever people agree with me I always feel I must be wrong.

Work is the curse of the drinking classes.

Wilde’s wife changed her name and that of her sons to “Holland” in September 1895 because of her husband’s trials and imprisonment. She ultimately decided against divorce but moved the boys out of England. Wilde spent the last three and a half years of his life in Europe, living under the assumed name of Sebastian Melmoth. An ancestor on his mother’s side, Charles Maturin, had written a successful novel called «Melmoth the Wanderer», and Wilde did seem restless and lost in his final years. The trials and prison time had ruined him.