Oscar Wilde Quotes

I was disappointed in Niagara—most people must be disappointed in Niagara. Every American bride is taken there, and the sight of the stupendous waterfall must be one of the earliest, if not the keenest, disappointments in American married life.

The basis of optimism is sheer terror.

Never speak disrespectfully of Society, Algernon. Only people who can't get into it do that.

A man who can dominate a London dinner table can dominate the world. The future belongs to the dandy. It is the exquisites who are going to rule.

Though one can dine in New York, one could not dwell there.

The Americans are certainly hero-worshippers, and always take their heroes from the criminal classes.

Children begin by loving their parents. After a time they judge them. Rarely, if ever, do they forgive them.

On the whole, the great success of marriage in the States is due partly to the fact that no American man is ever idle, and partly to the fact that no American wife is considered responsible for the quality of her husband's dinners.

The liar at any rate recognizes that recreation, not instruction, is the aim of conversation, and is a far more civilised being than the blockhead who loudly expresses his disbelief in a story which is told simply for the amusement of the company.

You should study the Peerage, Gerald. It is the one book a young man about town should know thoroughly, and it is the best thing in fiction the English have ever done.