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You like every one; that is to say, you are indifferent to every one.

The reason we all like to think so well of others is that we are all afraid for ourselves. The basis of optimism is sheer terror.

Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.

Keep love in your heart. A life without it is like a sunless garden when the flowers are dead. The consciousness of loving and being loved brings a warmth and a richness to life that nothing else can bring.

Nowadays most people die of a sort of creeping common sense, and discover when it is too late that the only things one never regrets are one's mistakes.

I never approve, or disapprove, of anything now. It is an absurd attitude to take towards life.

The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame.

Never marry at all, Dorian. Men marry because they are tired, women, because they are curious: both are disappointed.

The aim of life is self-development. To realize one's nature perfectly - that is what each of us is here for.

Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.

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

In old days books were written by men of letters and read by the public. Nowadays books are written by the public and read by nobody.