The best Oscar Wilde quotes (and where they really come from)
The top 3 according to 53 votes from people: We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars. · I can resist everything except temptation. · Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.. (Updated Jan 28, 2026.)
Wilde's sharpest lines, each with the play, novel or essay it actually comes from. Only quotes sourced on Wikiquote: the famous «Be yourself; everyone else is already taken» is not his, and neither is «Always forgive your enemies».
Top 15
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1
We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.
Lord Darlington in Lady Windermere's Fan (1892), Act III.
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2
I can resist everything except temptation.
Lord Darlington in Lady Windermere's Fan (1892), Act I.
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3
Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.
From the essay The Critic as Artist (1891).
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4
The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it.
Lord Henry Wotton in The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890), chapter 2.
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5
There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.
Lord Henry in The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890), chapter 1.
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6
Experience is the name everyone gives to their mistakes.
Mr Dumby in Lady Windermere's Fan (1892), Act III; an earlier version appears in Vera; or, The Nihilists (1880).
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7
To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance.
Lord Goring in An Ideal Husband (1895), Act III; also in Phrases and Philosophies for the Use of the Young (1894).
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8
Life imitates Art far more than Art imitates Life.
From the essay The Decay of Lying (1889), collected in Intentions.
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9
Children begin by loving their parents; as they grow older they judge them; sometimes they forgive them.
The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890), chapter 5; Wilde reused it in A Woman of No Importance (1893).
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10
A cynic is a man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.
Lord Darlington in Lady Windermere's Fan (1892), Act III.
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11
To lose one parent, Mr. Worthing, may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness.
Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest (1895), Act I.
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12
Every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future.
Lord Illingworth in A Woman of No Importance (1893), Act III.
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13
There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written. That is all.
From the preface to The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891 edition).
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14
Yet each man kills the thing he loves.
The Ballad of Reading Gaol (1898), written after his release from prison.
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15
Hard work is simply the refuge of people who have nothing whatever to do.
The Remarkable Rocket, in The Happy Prince and Other Tales (1888).
Candidates
They don't make it into the top 15… yet. Vote for them to move them up.
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16
All art is quite useless.
The last line of the preface to The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891).
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17
The only thing to do with good advice is to pass it on. It is never of any use to oneself.
Lord Goring in An Ideal Husband (1895), Act I.
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18
Women are meant to be loved, not to be understood.
From the short story The Sphinx Without a Secret (1887).
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19
The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame.
Lord Henry in The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891), chapter 19.
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20
The truth is rarely pure and never simple.
Algernon in The Importance of Being Earnest (1895), Act I.
How is this ranking ordered? By people's votes: each ▲ adds a point and each ▼ takes one away. Anyone can vote and add what is missing.
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Comments (3)
Came back to this list to settle an argument with a friend about a 'Wilde quote'. It wasn't Wilde 😂
Love that this list says where each quote comes from. Too many fake Wilde quotes out there.
Lady Bracknell's line about losing both parents still makes me laugh every time I see the play.