Oscar Wilde Quotes to Live By — Brilliant & Heartbreaking

Quotes have a rare power: a few perfectly chosen words can lift your spirits, sharpen your perspective, and carry you through hard days. Oscar Wilde’s voice — equal parts wit, wisdom, and heartbreak — is especially good at that. Use these quotes for morning motivation, captions, journaling prompts, pep talks, or quiet reflection when you need courage, clarity, or consolation.

Motivational quotes

• "Be yourself; everyone else is already taken."
• "To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all."
• "The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it."
• "Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes."
• "Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative."
• "Whenever people agree with me I always feel I must be wrong."

Inspirational quotes

• "We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars."
• "To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance."
• "Life imitates Art far more than Art imitates Life."
• "No great artist ever sees things as they really are. If he did, he would cease to be an artist."
• "Art is the most intense mode of individualism that the world has known."
• "Who, being loved, is poor?"

Life wisdom quotes

• "The truth is rarely pure and never simple."
• "Nowadays people know the price of everything and the value of nothing."
• "The only thing to do with good advice is to pass it on. It is never of any use to oneself."
• "Every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future."
• "The public is wonderfully tolerant. It forgives everything except genius."
• "A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal."

Success & ambition quotes

• "There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about."
• "No great artist ever sees things as they really are. If he did, he would cease to be an artist."
• "The best way to get the full value of joy is to have someone to divide it with." (share success and joy)
• "Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go." (know what kind of legacy you want)
• "The one duty we owe to history is to rewrite it." (reshape your narrative)

Love & heartbreaking quotes

• "A man's face is his autobiography. A woman's face is her work of fiction."
• "Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much." (bittersweet counsel)
• "To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance." (self-love as shelter)
• "The heart was made to be broken." (on vulnerability and sorrow)
• "To get the full value of joy you must have someone to divide it with."

Wit & humor for every day

• "I can resist everything except temptation."
• "Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go." (sharp and playful)
• "What is a cynic? A man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing."
• "A gentleman is one who never hurts anyone's feelings unintentionally."
• "The only way to behave to a woman is to make love to her if she is pretty and to someone else if she is plain." (Wilde's provocative wit — use with caution.)

Conclusion A single sentence from a writer like Oscar Wilde can reframe a problem, spark bravery, or offer comfort. Keep a few favorites visible — in your notes, on your wall, or in your morning ritual — and let those lines steady your thinking, sharpen your humor, and remind you that life can be brilliant, heartbreaking, and ultimately full of meaning.