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Scale of 1-10: How Big of a Problem Is It That I Relate So Much to Oscar Wilde?

by Carson T. Clark on February 1, 2012

So, last night I was compiling a Top 20 list of my favorite Oscar Wilde quotes just for fun. Halfway through it dawned on me that the list probably says as much about me as it does him. Whether in faith or temperament, political views or pet peeves, it would seem we’re strangely kindred spirits kind of like I felt about Christopher Hitchens. Let us hope I’m just a more sanctified version. Anyway, in order here are my favorite Wilde quotes:

20. America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between.

19. The critic has to educate the public; the artist has to educate the critic.

18. Between men and women there is no friendship possible. There is passion, enmity, worship, love, but no friendship.

17. If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh, otherwise they’ll kill you.

16. There are only two kinds of people who are really fascinating: people who know absolutely everything, and people who know absolutely nothing.

15. Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live.

14. Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go.

13. No great artist ever sees things as they really are. If he did, he would cease to be an artist.

12. A gentleman is one who never hurts anyone’s feelings unintentionally.

11. Patriotism is the virtue of the vicious.

10. A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it.

9. As long as war is regarded as wicked, it will always have its fascination. When it is looked upon as vulgar, it will cease to be popular.

8. True friends stab you in the front.

7. By giving us the opinions of the uneducated, journalism keeps us in touch with the ignorance of the community.

6. The imagination imitates. It is the critical spirit that creates.

5. The truth is rarely pure and never simple.

4. Every saint has a past and every sinner has a future.

3. 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.

2. Conversation about the weather is the last refuge of the unimaginative.

1. Whenever people agree with me I always feel I must be wrong.

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  • Charles

    Groucho, Mark Twain, Will Rogers, Yogi Berra, and Winnie Churchill all need to step aside for the “Wilde” man. Despite being tarnished (in his own day) by “the love that dare not speak its name,” Oscar deserves to be quoted endlessly.

    You get a “one” on a scale of ten.

  • Pingback: Scale of 1-10: How Big of a Problem Is It That I Relate So Much to Oscar Wilde? | Musings of a Hardlining Moderate « Persona

  • http://leorningcniht.wordpress.com/ Matt Brench

    At least you’re being Earnest about this, Carson.

  • Leo Staley

    “Oh, what are American dry goods?”
    “American novels”

  • Charles

    My guess: Oscar kept up those quips and smart remarks non-stop perhaps to hide deep anguish. His words, as death approached, may be pertinent here. Can’t recall what they were, but they were poignant for sure. Your post has got me thinking.

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