“Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go.” Distinguishing those who bring joy from those who bring relief by leaving · Attributed Company Happiness Wit
“Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative.” Associating steadfastness with lack of imagination · Attributed Consistency Imagination Wit
“Work is the curse of the drinking classes.” Inverting the proverb about the working classes · Attributed conversation Drink Wit Work
“I have the simplest tastes. I am always satisfied with the best.” Claiming refined preference as simple taste · Conversation or letter Luxury Taste Wit
“Ah, well, then, I suppose that I shall have to die beyond my means.” A wry acceptance of financial extremity at the end of life · Conversation, on a surgical fee Death Money Wit
“An excellent man: he has no enemies, and none of his friends like him.” A pointed assessment of a contemporary · Conversation, on Bernard Shaw Character Friendship Wit
“Chaos, illumined by flashes of lightning.” Characterising a poet’s manner as brilliant disorder · Conversation, on Robert Browning’s style Chaos Poetry Style
“I summed up all systems in a phrase, and all existence in an epigram.” Claiming to have compressed philosophy into a single remark · Letter from Reading Prison Epigram Existence Wit
“Most people live for love and admiration. But it is by love and admiration that we should live.” Distinguishing the pursuit of affection from living by it · Letter, De Profundis Admiration Life Love
“Love is a sacrament that should be taken kneeling.” Treating love as a sacred ritual · Letter, De Profundis Devotion Love Sacred
“The only people I would care to be with now are artists and people who have suffered.” Limiting desired company to those who know beauty and sorrow · Letter, De Profundis Artists Companionship Suffering
“Suffering is one very long moment.” Describing pain as an unbroken duration · Letter, De Profundis Pain Suffering Time
“I have a right to share in sorrow, and he who can look at the loveliness of the world and share its sorrow is in immediate contact with divine things.” Claiming participation in sorrow as a path to the sacred · Letter, De Profundis Beauty Sacred Sorrow
“When one has weighed the sun in the balance, and measured the steps of the moon, and mapped out the seven heavens, there still remains oneself.” Placing the self beyond all measurable knowledge · Letter, De Profundis Knowledge Mystery Self
“The supreme vice is shallowness.” Identifying lack of depth as the greatest failing · Letter, De Profundis Depth Shallowness Vice
“Where there is sorrow there is holy ground.” Sanctifying the place of suffering · Letter, De Profundis Sacred Sorrow Suffering
“I don’t regret for a single moment having lived for pleasure. I did it to the full.” Affirming a life devoted to enjoyment without apology · Letter, De Profundis Life Pleasure Regret
“There is a fatality about all good resolutions. They are invariably made too soon.” Observing that virtuous intentions arrive prematurely · Maxims, Phrases and Philosophies for the Use of the Young Fate Resolutions Wit
“No crime is vulgar, but all vulgarity is crime.” Inverting the usual hierarchy of offence · Maxims, Phrases and Philosophies for the Use of the Young Crime Vulgarity Wit
“It is only by not paying one's bills that one can hope to live in the memory of the commercial classes.” Suggesting debt as a form of lasting impression · Maxims, Phrases and Philosophies for the Use of the Young Memory Money Wit
“Time is a waste of money.” Treating time as a commercial loss · Maxims, Phrases and Philosophies for the Use of the Young Money Time Wit
“Nothing that actually occurs is of the smallest importance.” Dismissing events in favour of interpretation · Maxims, Phrases and Philosophies for the Use of the Young Events Importance Wit
“The well-bred contradict other people. The wise contradict themselves.” Distinguishing social manners from intellectual honesty · Maxims, Phrases and Philosophies for the Use of the Young Contradiction Manners Wisdom
“Wickedness is a myth invented by good people to account for the curious attractiveness of others.” Explaining moral condemnation as a response to charm · Maxims, Phrases and Philosophies for the Use of the Young Attraction Morality Wickedness
