"The General was essentially a man of peace, except in his domestic life."
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Quote collection
Oscar Wilde quotes (page 81 of 93)
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"When people talk to us about others they are usually dull. When they talk to us about themselves they are nearly always interesting."
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"Learned conversation is either the affectation of the ignorant or the profession of the mentally unemployed."
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"However, it is always nice to be expected, and not to arrive."
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"Musical people always want one to be perfectly dumb at the very moment when one is longing to be perfectly deaf."
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"A man who does not think for himself does not think at all. 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."
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"The value of an idea has nothing whatsoever to do with the sincerity of the man who expresses it. Indeed, the probabilities are that the more insincere the man is, the more purely intellectual will the idea be, as in that case it will not be coloured by either his wants, his desires, or his prejudices."
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"No publisher should ever express an opinion on the value of what he publishes. That is a matter entirely for the literary critic to decide. I can quite understand how any ordinary critic would be strongly prejudiced against a work that was accompanied by a premature and unnecessary panegyric from the publisher. A publisher is simply a useful middle-man. It is not for him to anticipate the verdict of criticism."
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"It is sometimes said that the tragedy of an artist's life is that he cannot realise his ideal. But the true tragedy that dogs the steps of most artists is that they realise their ideal too absolutely. For, when the ideal is realised, it is robbed of its wonder and its mystery, and becomes simply a new starting-point for an ideal that is other than itself."
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"There is no country in the world where machinery is so lovely as in America."
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"Every thing to be true must become a religion."
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"The essence of thought, as the essence of life, is growth."
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"Clergymen and people who use phrases without wisdom sometimes talk of suffering as a mystery. It is really a revelation."
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"Perhaps one never seems so much at ones ease as when one has to play a part."
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"Every prison that men build Is built with bricks of shame, And bound with bars lest Christ should see How men their brothers maim."
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"Those who try to lead the people can only do so by following the mob. It is through the voice of one crying in the wilderness that the ways of the gods must be prepared."
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"When I went to America I had two secretaries, one for autographs, one for locks of hair. Within six months the one had died of writer's cramp, the other was completely bald."
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"Action is limited and relative. Unlimited and absolute is the vision of him who sits at ease and watches, who walks in loneliness and dreams."
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"Artists reproduce themselves or each other, with wearisome iteration. But criticism is always moving on, and the critic is always developing."
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"Never buy a thing you don't want merely because it is dear."
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