Oscar Wilde
Traced to source
20 quotes we’ve traced to Oscar Wilde
“A cynic is a man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing”
Verified“A man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing”
Verified“Absinthe: After the First Glass, You See Things As You Wish They Were”
Verified“Anybody can sympathise with the sufferings of a friend, but it requires a very fine nature—it requires, in fact, the nature of a true Individualist—to sympathise with a friend's success”
Verified“The truth is rarely pure and never simple”
Verified“The world is a stage, but the play is badly cast”
Verified“There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about”
Verified“We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars”
Verified“I Have the Simplest Tastes; I Am Always Satisfied with the Best”
Attributed“It Is the Best Play I Ever Slept Through”
Attributed“A pessimist is one who, when he has the choice of two evils, chooses both”
Disputed“Be yourself; everyone else is already taken”
Disputed“Everything in the world is about sex, except sex. Sex is about power”
Disputed“I don't want to go to heaven. None of my friends are there”
Disputed“I have nothing to declare except my genius”
Disputed“Life Is Too Important To Be Taken Seriously”
Disputed“Niagara Falls: The First Great Disappointment in Married Life”
Disputed“There is a Conspiracy of Silence Against Me. What Should I Do, Oscar?" "Join It”
Disputed“True friends stab you in the front”
Disputed“You don't love someone for their looks, or their clothes, or their fancy car, but because they sing a song only you can hear”
DisputedNot actually Oscar Wilde
Often misattributed to Oscar Wilde
Famous lines widely pinned on Oscar Wilde that we’ve traced to someone else.
“A pessimist is one who, when he has the choice of two evils, chooses both”
actually Unknown (anonymous quip)
“Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much”
actually Percy Colson
“Be yourself; everyone else is already taken”
actually Unknown
“Briefest Correspondence: Question Mark? Exclamation Mark!”
actually Anonymous
“Everything in the world is about sex, except sex. Sex is about power”
actually Unknown
“History Does Not Repeat Itself. The Historians Repeat One Another”
actually Max Beerbohm
“I don't want to go to heaven. None of my friends are there”
actually Unknown
“I have nothing to declare except my genius”
actually Unknown
“I'm not young enough to know everything”
actually J. M. Barrie
“Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go”
actually Anonymous
“There Are Three Rules for the Writing of a Novel”
actually W. Somerset Maugham
“True friends stab you in the front”
actually Unknown
“You don't love someone for their looks, or their clothes, or their fancy car, but because they sing a song only you can hear”
actually Unknown
Did they really say it?
Thought Oscar Wilde said something else?
Type a quote you think Oscar Wilde said — we’ll tell you what we know, or point you to the best sources.