“The Sphinx Without a Secret”, Oscar Wilde
When I like people immensely, I never tell their names to any one. It is like surrendering a part of them. I have grown to love secrecy. It seems to be the one thing that can make modern life mysterious or marvelous to us. The commonest thing is delightful if one only hides it.
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| — | Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray (via bookmania) |
A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal.
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| — | Oscar Wilde (via libraryland) |
Death must be so beautiful. To lie in the soft brown earth, with the grasses waving above one’s head, and listen to silence. To have no yesterday, and no tomorrow. To forget time, to forgive life, to be at peace.
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| — | Oscar Wilde (via whizzbees) |
Oh, I can’t explain. When I like people immensely I never tell their names to any one. It is like surrendering a part of them. I have grown to love secrecy. It seems to be the one thing that can make modern life mysterious or marvellous to us. The commonest thing is delightful if one only hides it. When I leave town now I never tell my people where I am going. If I did, I would lose all my pleasure. It is a silly habit, I dare say, but somehow it seems to bring a great deal of romance into one’s life. I suppose you think me awfully foolish about it?
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| — | Basil Hallward (The Picture Of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde) |
To My Wife - With A Copy Of My Poems. - Oscar Wilde
I can write no stately proem
As a prelude to my lay;
From a poet to a poem
I would dare to say.
For if of these fallen petals
One to you seem fair,
Love will waft it till it settles
On your hair.
And when wind and winter harden
All the loveless land,
It will whisper of the garden,
You will understand
The world is changed because you are made of ivory and gold. The curves of your lips rewrite history.
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| — | Oscar Wilde (via clavicola) |
