Soul of Man Under Socialism Quotes

In the old days men had the rack. Now they have the Press.

– Oscar Wilde

The true perfection of man lies, not in what man has, but in what man is.

– Oscar Wilde

High hopes were once formed of democracy; but democracy means simply the bludgeoning of the people by the people for the people.

– Oscar Wilde

Disobedience, in the eyes of any one who has read history, is man’s original virtue. It is through disobedience that progress has been made, through disobedience and through rebellion.

– Oscar Wilde

The public has always, and in every age, been badly brought up.

– Oscar Wilde

Charity creates a multitude of sins.

– Oscar Wilde

There is only one class in the community that thinks more about money than the rich, and that is the poor.

– Oscar Wilde

As for the virtuous poor, one can pity them, of course, but one cannot possibly admire them.

– Oscar Wilde

Man reaches his perfection, not through what he has, not even through what he does, but entirely through what he is.

– Oscar Wilde

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

– Oscar Wilde

There are three kinds of despots. There is the despot who tyrannises over the body. There is the despot who tyrannises over the soul. There is the despot who tyrannises over the soul and body alike. The first is called the Prince. The second is called the Pope. The third is called the People.

– Oscar Wilde

All authority is quite degrading. It degrades those who exercise it, and degrades those over whom it is exercised.

– Oscar Wilde

Unless there are slaves to do the ugly, horrible, uninteresting work, culture and contemplation become almost impossible. Human slavery is wrong, insecure, and demoralizing. On mechanical slavery, on the slavery of the machine, the future of the world depends.

– Oscar Wilde

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.

– Oscar Wilde

Cultivated leisure is the aim of man.

– Oscar Wilde

Man is made for something better than disturbing dirt.

– Oscar Wilde

In America the President reigns for four years, and Journalism governs for ever and ever.

– Oscar Wilde

Despotism is unjust to everybody, including the despot, who was probably made for better things.

– Oscar Wilde

There is no necessity to separate the monarch from the mob; all authority is equally bad.

– Oscar Wilde

If property had simply pleasures, we could stand it; but its duties make it unbearable. In the interest of the rich we must get rid of it.

– Oscar Wilde

The only thing that one really knows about human nature is that it changes. Change is the one quality we can predicate of it. The systems that fail are those that rely on the permanency of human nature, and not on its growth and development. The error of Louis XIV was that he thought human nature would always be the same. The result of his error was the French Revolution. It was an admirable result.

– Oscar Wilde

Sympathy with joy intensifies the sum of sympathy in the world, sympathy with pain does not really diminish the amount of pain.

– Oscar Wilde

The fact is, that the public have an insatiable curiosity to know everything, except what is worth knowing.

– Oscar Wilde