Selected Quotes

"In this world there are only two tragedies. One is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it. "

"We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars. "

"I can resist anything except temptation. "

"Misfortunes one can endure--they come from outside, they are accidents. But to suffer for one's own faults--ah!--there is the sting of life. "

"My dear Arthur, I never talk scandal. I only talk gossip.
What is the difference between scandal and gossip?
Oh! Gossip is charming! History is merely gossip. But scandal is gossip made tedious by morality. "

"I like talking to a brick wall- it's the only thing in the world that never contradicts me! "

"How long could you love a woman who didn't love you, Cecil?
A woman who didn't love me? Oh, all my life! "

"What is a cynic? A man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing "

"Good heavens! how marriage ruins a man! It's as demoralizing as cigarettes, and far more expensive "

"I think life too complex a thing to be settled by these hard and fast rules. "

"A man who moralizes is a hypocrite, and a woman who does so is invariably plain. "

"Experience is the name every one gives to their mistakes "

"Realize that everything connects to everything else. "

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled. "

"I can think of nothing more gallant, even though again and again we fail, than attempting to get at the facts; attempting to tell things as they really are. For at least reality, though never fully attained, can be defined. Reality is that which, when you don’t believe in it, doesn’t go away. "

"It distresses us to return work which is not perfect. "

"Science is what we do to keep from lying to ourselves "

"Each player must accept the cards life deals him or her; but once they are in hand, he or she alone must decide how to play the cards in order to win the game. "

"The illegal we do immediately. The unconstitutional takes a little longer. "

"Debating creationists on the topic of evolution is rather like trying to play chess with a pigeon—it knocks the pieces over, craps on the board, and flies back to its flock to claim victory. "