Oscar Wilde on Human Nature

"The honest ratepayer and his healthy family have no doubt often mocked at the dome-like forehead of the philosopher, and laughed over the strange perspective of the landscape that lies beneath him. If they really knew who he was, they would tremble. For Chuang Tsǔ spent his life in preaching the great creed of Inaction, and in pointing out the uselessness of all things."

"The things people say of a man do not alter a man. He is what he is. Public opinion is of no value whatsoever."

"Ah! Don't say you agree with me. When people agree with me I always feel I must be wrong."

"It is absurd to divide people into good and bad. People are either charming or tedious."

"Of course the music is a great difficulty. You see, if one plays good music, people don't listen, and if one plays bad music people don't talk."

"Never speak disrespectfully of Society, Algernon. Only people who can't get into it do that."

"A map of the world that does not include Utopia is not worth even glancing at, for it leaves out the one country at which Humanity is always landing."

"Fashion is what one wears oneself. What is unfashionable is what other people wear."

"All charming people, I fancy, are spoiled. It is the secret of their attraction."

"Hard work is simply the refuge of people who have nothing whatever to do."

"Only dull people are brilliant at breakfast."

"The only possible society is oneself."