Oscar
Wilde [Fingal O'Flahertie Wills] (1854-1900)
Irish-born writer
Truth, in matters of religion, is simply the opinion
that has survived.
-- Oscar
Wilde, The Critic as Artist (1891)
The nineteenth century is a
turning point in history, simply on account of the work of two men, Darwin and
Renan, the one the critic of the Book of Nature, the other the critic of the
books of God. Not to recognise this is to miss the meaning of one of the most
important eras in the progress of the world.
-- Oscar
Wilde, Gilbert, in The Critic as Artist,
pt. 2 (Intentions, 1891)
Self-denial is the shining
sore on the leprous body of Christianity.
-- Oscar
Wilde, from Frank Harris, Oscar Wilde (1918)
Medievalism, with its
saints and martyrs, its love of self-torture, its wild passion for wounding
itself, its gashing with knives, and its whipping with rods -- Medievalism is
real Christianity, and the medieval Christ is the real Christ.
-- Oscar
Wilde, "The Soul of Man under Socialism," in the Fortnightly
Review, (1891), quoted from James A Haught, ed., 2000 Years
of Disbelief
When I think of all the
harm the Bible has done, I despair of ever writing anything to equal it.
-- Oscar
Wilde (attributed: source unknown)
The worst vice of the
fanatic is his sincerity.
-- Oscar
Wilde, from Laird Wilcox and John George, eds., Be Reasonable: Selected
Quotations for Inquiring Minds
The sign of a Philistine
age is the cry of immorality against art.
-- Oscar
Wilde, "Lecture Delivered to the Art Students of the
Religion is the fashionable
substitute for belief.
-- Oscar
Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray
(1891)
Agitators are a set of interfering, meddling people,
who come down to some perfectly contented class of the community and sow the
seeds of discontent amongst them. That is the reason why agitators are so
absolutely necessary. Without them, in our incomplete state, there would be no
advance towards civilisation.
-- Oscar
Wilde, "The Soul of Man Under
Socialism," in Fortnightly Review (1891; 1895)
It is grossly selfish to
require of one's neighbour that he should think in the same way, and hold the
same opinions. Why should he? If he can think, he will probably think
differently. If he cannot think, it is monstrous to require thought of any kind
from him.
-- Oscar
Wilde, The Soul of Man Under Socialism,
in Fortnightly Review (1891; 1895)
A thing is not necessarily
true because a man dies for it.
-- Oscar
Wilde, from Laird Wilcox and John George, eds., Be Reasonable: Selected
Quotations for Inquiring Minds
No man dies for what he
knows to be true. Men die for what they want to be true, for what some terror
in their hearts tells them is not true.
-- Oscar
Wilde, The Portrait of Mr. W H, ch. 1 (first published in
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, July 1889)
The worse form of tyranny
the world has ever known is the tyranny of the weak over the strong. It is the
only tyranny that lasts.
-- Oscar
Wilde, quoted from Laird Wilcox, ed., "The Degeneration of Belief"
The books that the world
calls immoral are the books that show the world its own shame.
-- Oscar
Wilde, quoted from
There is no such thing as
an omen. Destiny does not send us heralds. She is too wise or too cruel for
that.
-- Oscar
Wilde: Lord Henry, in The Picture of
Dorian Gray, ch. 17 (1891)