I suppose it’s fair to say that I was reared on Oscar Wilde as both my parents loved his sharp wit. Today marks the anniversary of his death in 1900 at the young age of 46.
So many quotable quotes but here are a few to ponder:
Laughter is not at all a bad beginning for a friendship, and it is far the best ending for one.
True friends stab you in the front
Men always want to be a woman’s first love, women like to be a man’s last romance.
We are all in the gutter but some of us are looking at the stars.
The truth is rarely pure and never simple.
Conversation about the weather is the last refuge of the unimaginative.
The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame.
Is there a specific quote from Oscar Wilde that sticks in your mind?
SOCIAL BRIDGE ~ Jean Tubridy connecting with you from Ireland 
If you are not too long, I will wait here for you all my life.
Oscar Wilde
True friends stab you in the front.
Oscar Wilde
Always forgive your enemies – nothing annoys them so much.
Oscar Wilde
He was a funny man!
Brilliant choices, Willow. The one about forgiving enemies is very true!
I know a friend always used to say keep smiling you’ll drive everyone mad wondering why you are so happy! I guess that is another version of the same! xx
Sounds very like it alright.
“Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes.”
“Some cause happiness wherever they go; other whenever they go.”
Yes, a Wise and funny man…
Great quotes, Dale. I especially like the one about experience.
“Yes: I am a dreamer. For a dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world.”
Always loved Wilde …
Hi Sue, it certainly doesn’t surprise me that you picked this one, given your lovely posts about the dawn.
There are a good many others 🙂
Jean, Oscar Wilde, but Thornton and Gene Wilder (Oh, I do wear out that tired old joke). As for Oscar, I find some wisdom in the following caution he has offered:
“If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh, otherwise they’ll kill you.”
That I am alive can be attributed to having taken that advice on more than one occasion.
Hi Van, lot’s to be said for that particular line of action, for sure.
“Moderation is a fatal thing, nothing succeeds like excess” which always reminds me of my eldest son’s oft quoted line – “Everything in moderation, including moderation” ( not sure where he got that from).
Brilliant!
I worked in Merrion Square for a year and often used to wander by his statue there, reading his many quotes.
Roy, that’s the kind of thing I miss about Dublin ~ that tennis, art galleries and the oasis of Trinity.
“Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.”
Love it!
Me too! I keep an eye on an elderly aunt who has a beautiful mind and has a literary quote for everything. She only uttered those words to me last week!
I reckon Oscar Wilde will live on forever ~ his wit and wisdom are better than any.
How about the deathbed quote “Either that wallpaper goes or I do” — or is that one a fiction?
Sandy, it’s a great one alright. I’m not sure if it was in one of his plays or if he actually said it. It would be great to be still thinking so wittily at the very last minute.