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c872bef
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People are very fond of giving away what they need most themselves.
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Oscar Wilde |
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2509a8c
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Time is jealous of you, and wars against your lilies and your roses.
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Oscar Wilde |
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244507a
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The basis of optimism is sheer terror. We think that we are generous because we credit our neighbour with the possession of those virtues that are likely to be a benefit to us. We praise the banker that we may overdraw our account, and find good qualities in the highwayman in the hope that he may spare our pockets.
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Oscar Wilde |
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714c290
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In the old days men had the rack. Now they have the Press.
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press
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Oscar Wilde |
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a2c37a2
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Religion does not help me. The faith that others give to what is unseen, I give to what one can touch, and look at. My gods dwell in temples made with hands; and within the circle of actual experience is my creed made perfect and complete: too complete, it may be, for like many or all of those who have placed their heaven in this earth, I have found in it not merely the beauty of heaven, but the horror of hell also.
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religion
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Oscar Wilde |
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3d7f8bc
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I believe I am to have enough to live on for about eighteen months at any rate, so that if I may not write beautiful books, I may at least read beautiful books; and what joy can be greater?
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Oscar Wilde |
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8b4a47b
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You have never been poor, and never known what ambition is.
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Oscar Wilde |
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8bf5c7e
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Each man lived his own life and paid his own price for living it. The only pity was one had to pay so often for a single fault. One had to pay over and over again, indeed. In her dealings with man, Destiny never closed her accounts.
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Oscar Wilde |
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d3cd623
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To be popular one must be a mediocrity." "Not with Women," said the duchess, shaking her head; "and women rule the world. I assure you we can't bear mediocrities. We women, as someone says, love with our ears, just as you men love with your eyes, if you ever love at all." "It seems to me that we never do anything else," murmered Dorian."
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women
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Oscar Wilde |
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37dfdd5
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Know thyself' was written over the portal of the antique world. Over the portal of the new world, 'Be thyself' shall be written.
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Oscar Wilde |
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085cc3f
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There is a luxury in self-reproach. When we blame ourselves we feel that no one else has a right to blame us.
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Oscar Wilde |
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63bf5fc
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The emotions of man are stirred more quickly than man's intelligence.
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intelligence
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Oscar Wilde |
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8defeba
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Yes; poor Bunbury is a dreadful invalid. Well, I must say, Algernon, that I think it is high time that Mr. Bunbury made up his mind whether he was going to live or to die. This shillyshallying with the question is absurd.
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humor
life-and-death
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Oscar Wilde |
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5ffa29c
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She has form," he said to himself, as he walked away through the grove - "that cannot be denied to her; but has she got feeling? I am afraid not. In fact, she is like most artists; she is all style, without any sincerity. She would not sacrifice herself for others. She thinks merely of music, and everybody knows that arts are selfish. Still, it must be admitted that she has some beautiful notes in her voice. What a pity it is that they do n..
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Oscar Wilde |
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34cb388
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MRS ALLONBY Is she such a mystery? LORD ILLINGWORTH She is more than a mystery - she is a mood. MRS ALLONBY Moods don't last. LORD ILLINGWORTH It is their chief charm.
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Oscar Wilde |
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3e64131
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Ordinary people waited till life disclosed to them its secrets, but to the few, to the elect, the mysteries of life were revealed before the veil was drawn away. Sometimes this was the effect of art, and chiefly of the art of literature, which dealt immediately with the passions and the intellect.
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Oscar Wilde |
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bd4ea43
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Sins of the flesh are nothing. They are maladies for physicians to cure, if they should be cured. Sins of the soul alone are shameful.
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Oscar Wilde |
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5174972
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What the artist is always looking for is the mode of existence in which soul and body are one and indivisible: in which the outward is expressive of the inward: in which form reveals.
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Oscar Wilde |
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e3d16f5
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If a man treats life artistically, his brain is his heart
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Oscar Wilde |
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04c9e9e
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It was always once springtime in my heart.
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Oscar Wilde |
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bb2fcad
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A truth ceases to be true when more than one person believes in it.
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Oscar Wilde |
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a761bac
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I think life too complex a thing to be settled by these hard and fast rules.
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Oscar Wilde |
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dc4a8c7
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It is very wrong to kill any one[.]" "Oh, I hate the cheap severity of abstract ethics!"
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Oscar Wilde |
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54b6b3d
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Philanthropic people lose all sense of humanity. It is their distinguishing characteristic.
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Oscar Wilde |
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e88ebfc
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Requiescat Tread lightly, she is near Under the snow, Speak gently, she can hear The daisies grow. All her bright golden hair Tarnished with rust, She that was young and fair Fallen to dust. Lily-like, white as snow, She hardly knew She was a woman, so Sweetly she grew. Coffin-board, heavy stone, Lie on her breast, I vex my heart alone She is at rest. Peace, Peace, she cannot hear Lyre or sonnet, All my life's buried here, Heap earth upon i..
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poetry
love
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Oscar Wilde |
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a82f358
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MISS PRISM Memory, my dear Cecily, is the diary that we all carry about with us.
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Oscar Wilde |
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fce8881
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LADY BRACKNELL Algernon is an extremely, I may almost say an ostentatiously, eligible young man. He has nothing, but he looks everything. What more can one desire?
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humor
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Oscar Wilde |
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8054c20
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Love! What is love? It's nothing. It's just a word. It doesn't exist. Only pleasure is important.
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Oscar Wilde |
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e71c191
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Travel improves the mind wonderfully, and does away with all one's prejudices.
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travel
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Oscar Wilde |
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8f839e0
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And when wind and winter harden All the loveless land, It will whisper of the garden, You will understand.
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understanding
wife
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Oscar Wilde |
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be1a822
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There were moments when he looked on evil simply as a mode through which he could realize his conception of the beautiful.
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evil
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Oscar Wilde |
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183d3e3
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There is a fatality about all physical and intellectual distinction, the sort of fatality that seems to dog through history the faltering steps of kings. It is better not to be different from one's fellows. The ugly and the stupid have the best of it in this world. They can sit at their ease and gape at the play. If they know nothing of victory, they are at least spared the knowledge of defeat. They live as we all should live, undisturbed, ..
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Oscar Wilde |
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59b9f9e
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Harry," said Basil Hallward, looking him straight in the face, "every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of the sitter. The sitter is merely the accident, the occasion. It is not he who is revealed by the painter; it is rather the painter who, on the coloured canvas, reveals himself. The reason I will not exhibit this picture is that I am afraid that I have shown in it the secret of my own soul."
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Oscar Wilde |
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3bb5d81
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Only love can keep anyone alive...
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Oscar Wilde |
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486513b
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I hate people who talk about themselves, as you do, when one wants to talk about oneself, as I do.
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Oscar Wilde |
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41f3477
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Man is complete in himself. When they go into the world, the world will disagree with them. That is inevitable. The world hates Individualism. But that is not to trouble them. They are to be calm and self-centred. If a man takes their cloak, they are to give him their coat, just to show that material things are of no importance. If people abuse them, they are not to answer back. What does it signify? The things people say of a man do not al..
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violence
personality
freedom
soul-of-a-man
wilde
oscar
prison
soul
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Oscar Wilde |
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3142684
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Oh I can't explain. When I like people immensely I never tell their names to any one. It is like surrendering a part of them. I have grown to love secrecy. It seems to be the one thing that can make modern life mysterious or marvellous to us. The commonest thing is delightful if one only hides it.
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Oscar Wilde |
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b12a3bc
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the Garden of Death" "Yes, death. Death must be so beautiful. To lie in the soft brown earth, with the grasses waving above one's head, and listen to silence. To have no yesterday, and no to-morrow. To forget time, to forget life, to be at peace. You can help me. You can open for me the portals of death's house, for love is always with you, and love is stronger than death is."
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Oscar Wilde |
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a54d677
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Neither at things, nor at people should one look. Only in mirrors should one look, for mirrors do but show us masks.
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Oscar wilde |
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e3202e8
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A man who moralizes is a hypocrite, and a woman who does so is invariably plain.
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Oscar Wilde |
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b16900d
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MRS ALLONBY I adore them. The clever people never listen, and the stupid people never talk. HESTER I think the stupid people talk a great deal. MRS ALLONBY Ah, I never listen!
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Oscar Wilde |
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980cb25
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There is no such thing as a good influence, Mr. Gray. All influence is immoral - immoral from the scientific point of view.'
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Oscar Wilde |
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bf43405
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Youth is the only thing worth having. When I find that I am growing old, I shall kill myself.
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youth
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Oscar Wilde |
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4f4a23b
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There is a fatality about good resolutions - that they are always made too late
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Oscar Wilde |