The Quotes canon
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Browse all 10,075 quotes or apply filters in different categories to narrow your search.
The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity.
The Second Coming · 1920
A state without some means of change is without the means of its own conservation.
Reflections on the Revolution in France · 1790
Make the Revolution a parent of settlement, and not a nursery of future revolutions.
Reflections on the Revolution in France · 1790
On Conciliation with America · 1775
De Profundis · 1897
Men are never so serious, thoughtful, and intent as when they are at stool.
Gulliver's Travels · 1726
Vision is the art of seeing things invisible.
Thoughts on Various Subjects, Moral and Diverting · 1745
Men marry because they are tired; women, because they are curious: both are disappointed.
The Picture of Dorian Gray · 1890
Old religious factions are volcanoes burnt out.
Speech on the Petition of the Unitarians, May 11, 1792 · 1792
I desire to press in my arms the loveliness which has not yet come into the world.
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man · 1915
We have a degree of delight, and that no small one, in the real misfortunes and pains of others.
Philosophical Enquiry in the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful · 1757
On Conciliation with America · 1775
Reflections on the Revolution in France · 1790
★ 5.1
Gulliver's Travels · 1726
Dubliners · 1914
It is the confession, not the priest, that gives us absolution.
The Picture of Dorian Gray · 1890
The tragedy of old age is not that one is old, but that one is young.
The Picture of Dorian Gray · 1890
By hating vices too much, they come to love men too little.
Reflections on the Revolution in France · 1790
The Picture of Dorian Gray · 1890
There is always something ridiculous about the passions of people whom one has ceased to love.
The Picture of Dorian Gray · 1890
The Picture of Dorian Gray · 1890
Experience was of no ethical value. It was merely the name we gave to our mistakes.
The Picture of Dorian Gray · 1890
To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.
Fortnightly Review · 1891
The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame.
The Picture of Dorian Gray · 1891
Discontent is the first step in the progress of a man or a nation.
A Woman of No Importance · 1893
The Ballad of Reading Gaol · 1898
Gulliver's Travels · 1726
Gulliver's Travels · 1726
Custom reconciles us to everything.
Philosophical Enquiry in the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful · 1757
Reflections on the Revolution in France · 1790
Reflections on the Revolution in France · 1790
People will not look forward to posterity, who never look backward to their ancestors.
Reflections on the Revolution in France · 1790
Wherever there is a man who exercises authority, there is a man who resists authority.
Fortnightly Review · 1891
A Woman of No Importance · 1893
A Woman of No Importance · 1893
No passion so effectually robs the mind of all its powers of acting and reasoning as fear.
Philosophical Enquiry in the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful · 1757
On Conciliation with America · 1775
Reflections on the Revolution in France · 1790
Reflections on the Revolution in France · 1790
Our greatest glory is, not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.
The Citizen of the World · 1761
1796
1800
1806
History of European Morals · 1869
★ 2.6
Sin is a thing that writes itself across a man's face. It cannot be concealed.
The Picture of Dorian Gray · 1890
The Picture of Dorian Gray · 1890
Memory, my dear Cecily, is the diary that we all carry about with us.
The Importance of Being Earnest, A Trivial Comedy for Serious People · 1895
Bad laws are the worst sort of tyranny.
Speech at the Bristol Guildhall, September 6, 1780 · 1780
Reflections on the Revolution in France · 1790
Reflections on the Revolution in France · 1790
All Things Bright and Beautiful · 1848
The Picture of Dorian Gray · 1890
The true artist is a man who believes absolutely in himself, because he is absolutely himself.
Fortnightly Review · 1891
Disobedience, in the eyes of anyone who has read history, is man's original virtue.
Fortnightly Review · 1891
Democracy means simply the bludgeoning of the people by the people for the people.
Fortnightly Review · 1891
Lady Windermere's Fan · 1892
Reflections on the Revolution in France · 1790
The Egoist · 1915
A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge · 1710
My Days Have Been So Wondrous Free · 1714
1770
1808
1846
1917
Nowadays people know the price of everything, and the value of nothing.
The Picture of Dorian Gray · 1890
One has a right to judge of a man by the effect he has over his friends.
The Picture of Dorian Gray · 1891
The truth is rarely pure and never simple.
The Importance of Being Earnest, A Trivial Comedy for Serious People · 1895
Speech in House of Commons, February 11, 1780 · 1780