April 21, 2010

gutter

i love Oscar Wilde. i wish he'd written more than just one book. i could read his snarky, cynical ass forever.

some of my favorite quotes (mainly preserving these for myself in the future):
"Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation."
 "Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth."
 "Morality, like art, means drawing a line someplace."
"It is a very sad thing that nowadays there is so little useless information."
"Illusion is the first of all pleasures."
"Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months."
"Every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of the sitter."
"Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative."
"Arguments are to be avoided; they are always vulgar and often convincing."
"Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much."
"America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between."
"Anyone who lives within their means suffers from a lack of imagination."
"Seriousness is the only refuge of the shallow."
"The aim of life is self-development. To realize one's nature perfectly - that is what each of us is here for."
"The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about."
"We live in an age when unnecessary things are our only necessities."
"Whenever people agree with me I always feel I must be wrong."
"Work is the curse of the drinking classes."
"One's real life is often the life that one does not lead."
"I can resist anything but temptation."
"It is absurd to divide people into good and bad. People are either charming or tedious."
"Life is far too important a thing ever to talk seriously about."
"Only the shallow know themselves."
"The public is wonderfully tolerant. It forgives everything except genius."
"Thirty-five is a very attractive age. London society is full of women of the very highest birth who have, of their own free choice, remained thirty-five for years."
"It is better to have a permanent income than to be fascinating."
"The advantage of the emotions is that they lead us astray, and the advantage of science is that it is not emotional."
"There is a luxury in self-reproach. When we blame ourselves, we feel that no one else has a right to blame us. It is the confession, not the priest, that gives us absolution."
"Disobedience, in the eyes of anyone who has read history, is man's original virtue. It is through disobedience and rebellion that progress has been made."
"I suppose that I shall have to die beyond my means." - upon being told the cost of an operation.
"We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars."

(sorry it's so long; he had a lot to say and boy do i love to listen. XD )

2 comments:

Sophie said...

"It is better to have a permanent income than to be fascinating." is the only one that doesn't fit with the rest of his philosophy/other statements at all... really weird.

Kaylie said...

a lot of these are from his plays, so maybe not exactly his personal philosophies, but those of the characters; although in most cases they seem usually one and the same. ;)