Sunday, August 19, 2012

From ‘Oscar Wilde. Epigrams’published by The Peter Pauper Press



The world has grown suspicious of anything that looks like a happy married life.


How marriage ruins a man! It is as demoralizing as cigarettes, and far more expensive.


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


In this world there are only two tragedies. One is not getting what one wants, and the othe is getting it. The last is much the worst; the last is a real tragedy!


One should always play fairly when one has the winning cards.


Fathers should be neither seen nor heard. That is the only proper basis for family life.


Woman’s first duty in life is to her dressmaker. What the second duty is no one has yet discovered.


It is always nice to be expected and not to arrive.


Children begin by loving their parents; after a time they judge them; rarely, if ever, do they forgive them.


One should always be in love; that is the reason one should never marry.


After a good dinner one could forgive anybody, even one’s own relations.


There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.


The one charm of married life is that it makes a life of deception necessary for both parties.


The well bred contradict other people. The wise contradict themselves.


A truth ceases to be true when more than one person believes in it.


The old believe everything; the middle aged suspect everything; the young know everything


A woman will flirt with anybody in the world as long as other people are looking on.


Being adored is a nuisance. Women treat us just as Humanity treats its gods. They worship us, and are always bothering us to do something for them.


The public is wonderfully tolerant. It forgives everything except genius.


Truth, in matters of religion, is simply the opinion that has survived.


Man is a rational animal who always loses his temper when he is called upon to act in accordance with the dictates of reason.


Just as the philanthropist is the nuisance of the ethical sphere, so the nuisance of the intellectual sphere is the man who is so occupied in trying to educate others, that he has never had any time to educate himself.


We live in the age of the over-worked, and the under-educated; the age in which people are so industrious that they become absolutely stupid.


How appalling is the ignorance which is the inevitable result of the fatal habit of imparting opinions!


The difference between literature and journalism is that journalism is unreadable, and literature is not read.


There is much to be said in favour of modern journalism. By giving us the opinions of the uneducated, it keeps us in touch with the ignorance of the community.


1 comment:

yves said...

Hi Nirvana, so what's your opinion about those sarcastic epigrams? You quote them, but then: what can a normal person's comment be to such a statement: " Woman’s first duty in life is to her dressmaker. What the second duty is no one has yet discovered"? Only contempt, no? Or would you insist on a second degree??