20 Witty Oscar Wilde Quotes — The Importance of Being Earnest

Oscar Wilde's wit cuts to the heart of truth, and his lines have a way of inspiring, provoking, and motivating in equal measure. Quotes can remind us to act, to reflect, to laugh at ourselves, and to keep perspective when life gets heavy. Use these lines to start your day, caption a post, anchor a journal entry, or refocus when you need a quick lift. Below are witty, motivational, and profound Oscar Wilde quotes — including memorable lines from The Importance of Being Earnest — organized to suit the mood you need.

Motivational quotes

• "To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all." — Oscar Wilde
• "Anyone who lives within their means suffers from a lack of imagination." — Oscar Wilde
• "I can resist everything except temptation." — Oscar Wilde
• "Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes." — Oscar Wilde
• "No great artist ever sees things as they really are. If he did, he would cease to be an artist." — Oscar Wilde

Inspirational quotes

• "Be yourself; everyone else is already taken." — Oscar Wilde
• "To be natural is such a very difficult pose to keep up." — Oscar Wilde (The Importance of Being Earnest)
• "We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars." — Oscar Wilde
• "To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance." — Oscar Wilde
• "The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it." — Oscar Wilde

Life wisdom quotes

• "The truth is rarely pure and never simple." — Oscar Wilde (The Importance of Being Earnest)
• "A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal." — Oscar Wilde (The Importance of Being Earnest)
• "To define is to limit." — Oscar Wilde
• "I have the simplest tastes. I am always satisfied with the best." — Oscar Wilde (The Importance of Being Earnest)
• "No man is rich enough to buy back his past." — Oscar Wilde

Success & ambition quotes

• "The public is wonderfully tolerant. It forgives everything except genius." — Oscar Wilde
• "Art is the most intense mode of individualism that the world has known." — Oscar Wilde
• "The critic has to educate the public; the artist has to educate the critic." — Oscar Wilde
• "A gentleman is simply a patient wolf." — Oscar Wilde
• "The one duty we owe to history is to rewrite it." — Oscar Wilde

Happiness & relationships quotes

• "Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go." — Oscar Wilde
• "Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much." — Oscar Wilde
• "Every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future." — Oscar Wilde
• "There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about." — Oscar Wilde (The Importance of Being Earnest)
• "A man's face is his autobiography. A woman's face is her work of fiction." — Oscar Wilde

Witty & thought-provoking quotes

• "Life is too important to be taken seriously." — Oscar Wilde (The Importance of Being Earnest)
• "What is a cynic? A man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing." — Oscar Wilde
• "Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn't." — Oscar Wilde
• "The world is a stage, but the play is badly cast." — Oscar Wilde
• "The heart was made to be broken." — Oscar Wilde

Quotes have the power to shift perspective, break a rut, and spark action. Keep a few of these Oscar Wilde lines where you can see them each day — as reminders to be bold, honest, and a little bit irreverent — and watch how small reframes change your mood and momentum.