"The Soul of Man Under Socialism" by Oscar Wilde

Kindle edition here.

• "The emotions of man are stirred more quickly than man’s intelligence"
• "Most personalities have been obliged to be rebels.  Half their strength has been wasted in friction."
• "The note of the perfect personality is not rebellion, but peace."
• "it is much more easy to have sympathy with suffering than it is to have sympathy with thought"
• "their remedies do not cure the disease: they merely prolong it.  Indeed, their remedies are part of the disease."

"The House of Pomegranates" by Oscar Wilde

• "The burden of this world is too great for one man to bear, and the world’s sorrow too heavy for one heart to suffer"
• "strange passion for beauty that was destined to have so great an influence over his life"
• "the secrets of art are best learned in secret, and ... Beauty, like Wisdom, loves the lonely worshiper."
• "Far away, in an orchard, a nightingale was singing.  A faint perfume of jasmine came through the open window. "
• "Never before had he felt so keenly, or with such exquisite joy, the magic and the mystery of beautiful things."

"The Canterville Ghost" by Oscar Wilde

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• "Miss Virginia E. Otis was a little girl of fifteen, lithe and lovely as a fawn, and with a fine freedom in her large blue eyes."
• "It was a lovely July evening, and the air was delicate with the scent of the pinewoods."
• "What a monstrous climate!" said the American Minister, calmly, as he lit a long cheroot. "I guess the old country is so overpopulated that they have not enough decent weather for everybody."
• "He was sitting by the window, watching the ruined gold of the yellowing trees fly through the air, and the red leaves dancing madly down the long avenue."

"A Woman of No Importance" by Oscar Wilde

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• "One should sympathise with the joy, the beauty, the colour of life."
• "Nothing should be out of the reach of hope. Life is a hope."
•  "I think the stupid people talk a great deal."
• "More marriages are ruined nowadays by the common sense of the husband than by anything else. How can a woman be expected to be happy with a man who insists on treating her as if she were a perfectly rational being?"
• "Oh, women have become so highly educated, Jane, that nothing should surprise us nowadays, except happy marriages. They apparently are getting remarkably rare."

"The Importance of Being Earnest" by Oscar Wilde

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•  "Oh! it is absurd to have a hard and fast rule about what one should read and what one shouldn't. More than half of modern culture depends on what one shouldn't read."
• "The truth is rarely pure and never simple. Modern life would be very tedious if it were either, and modern literature a complete impossibility!"
• "I really don't see anything romantic in proposing. It is very romantic to be in love. But there is nothing romantic about a definite proposal."
• "My dear fellow, the way you flirt with Gwendolen is perfectly disgraceful. It is almost as bad as the way Gwendolen flirts with you."