Oscar Wilde

[Vatman]

Language means so very much to me, it has given me everything that I have ever come to possess in the mortal means of things. Those who wield language as their means to give color to the mundane, to reason the world into something worth believing in, those are the people I admire with utmost regard.

My hero is Oscar Wilde, in all sense of the word. His use of language, his style, his finesse, his sheer brilliance in wording the unwordable has inspired me time in and time again to better myself in this spoken art. I know it is not his birthday or some form of special day to acknowledge his significance to the world of literature. I do it today because I felt the impulse of it, the overwhelming need to say, hey look, that guy is awesome. So without further adooo, shall I paste some Oscar Wilde quotes that show his mastery of language and perspective on the world.


People

"People who count their chickens before they are hatched, act very wisely, because chickens run about so absurdly that it is impossible to count them accurately."
-- Letter from Paris, dated May 1900

"The more one analyses people, the more all reasons for analysis disappear. Sooner of later one comes to that dreadful universal thing called human nature."
-- “The Decay of Lying”

"The public have an insatiable curiosity to know everything, except what is worth knowing."
-- “The Soul of Man Under Socialism”

"Most men and women are forced to perform parts for which they have no qualification."
-- “Lord Arthur Savile's Crime”

"It is perfectly monstrous the way people go about, nowadays, saying things against one behind one's back that are absolutely and entirely true."
-- “The Picture of Dorian Gray”

Life

"Life is much too important a thing ever to talk seriously about it."
-- “Vera, of The Nihilists”

"The Book of Life begins with a man and woman in a garden. It ends with Revelations."
-- “A Woman of No Importance”

"Life is never fair...And perhaps it is a good thing for most of us that it is not."
-- “An Ideal Husband”

"You must not find symbols in everything you see. It makes life impossible."
-- “Salome”

"We are each our own devil, and we make this world our hell."
-- “The Duchess of Padua”

"The world is a stage, but the play is badly cast."
-- “Lord Arthur Savile's Crime”

Love

"Nothing spoils a romance so much as a sense of humor in the woman - or the want of it in the man."
-- “A Woman of No Importance”

"One should always be in love. That is the reason one should never marry."
-- “A Woman of No Importance”

"To love oneself is the beginning of a life-long romance."
-- “An Ideal Husband”

"A kiss may ruin a human life."
-- “A Woman of No Importance”

"A man can be happy with any woman as long as he does not love her."
-- “The Picture of Dorian Gray”

"Young men want to be faithful and are not; old men want to be faithless and cannot."
-- “The Picture of Dorian Gray”

"Faithfulness is to the emotional life what consistency is to the life of the intellect - simply a confession of failures."
-- “The Picture of Dorian Gray”

[Gaiyara]

I'll have to read The Picture of Dorian Gray some time.

[Vatman]

When Narcissus died, the pool of his pleasure changed from a cup of sweet waters into a cup of salt tears, and the Oreads came weeping through through the woodland that they might sing to the pool and give it comfort.

And when they saw that the pool had changed from a cup of sweet waters into a cup of salt tears, they loosened the green tresses of their hair and cried to the pool and said, "We do not wonder that you should mourn in this manner for Narcissus, so beautiful was he."

"But was Narcissus beautiful?" said the pool.

"Who should know that better than you?" answered the Oreads. "Us did he ever pass by, but you he sought for, and would lie on your banks and look down at you, and in the mirror of your waters he would mirror his own beauty."

And the pool answered, "But I loved Narcissus because, as he lay on my banks and looked down at me, in the mirror of his eyes I saw ever my own beauty mirrored."
_______________

Oscar Wilde is honestly the pinnacle of the modern English language.

[Double]

Vatman Wrote:"The world is a stage, but the play is badly cast."
-- “Lord Arthur Savile's Crime”

Awesome.

[Vatman]

SNAEK Wrote:

Vatman Wrote:"The world is a stage, but the play is badly cast."
-- “Lord Arthur Savile's Crime”

Awesome.

Although I agree, I often wonder if that particular quote is simply a parody of Shakespears, "Life is but a stage, and the men and women merely players. They have their exits and their entrances, And one man in his time plays many parts."
Either way....Awesome.

Quote:He covered page after page with wild words of sorrow and wilder words of pain. There is a luxury in self-reproach. When we blame ourselves, we feel that no one else has a right to blame us. It is the confession, not the priest, that gives us absolution.

From The Picture of Dorian Gray.

[Double]

Hi Vatman. Where have you been?

[Vatman]

SNAEK Wrote:Hi Vatman. Where have you been?

I have been prowling the forums in search of something to say, and I must admit I haven't found a single word to say in a week...

Shocking?

[Double]

Not very.

Look at how many posts I've made, and I browse the forums every day.

Then again I don't always have that much to say.

[returnal]

Wilde is awesome. *raises glass of cyanide*

[Vatman]

Arguments are to be avoided; they are always vulgar and often convincing.
Oscar Wilde

At twilight, nature is not without loveliness, though perhaps its chief use is to illustrate quotations from the poets.
Oscar Wilde

Biography lends to death a new terror.
Oscar Wilde

Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative.
Oscar Wilde

Every portrait that is painted with feeling is a portrait of the artist, not of the sitter.
Oscar Wilde

Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months.
Oscar Wilde

Genius is born--not paid.
Oscar Wilde

I always like to know everything about my new friends, and nothing about my old ones.
Oscar Wilde

I am not young enough to know everything.
Oscar Wilde

[Vatman]

I reread all of his plays again last night...and I just have the urge.

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

All bad poetry springs from genuine feeling.
Oscar Wilde

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

Do you really think it is weakness that yields to temptation? I tell you that there are terrible temptations which it requires strength, strength and courage to yield to.
Oscar Wilde

The typewriting machine, when played with expression, is no more annoying than the piano when played by a sister or near relation.
Oscar Wilde

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