Oscar Wilde

1854–1900 · Irish poet, playwright & wit

Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Wills Wilde (1854–1900) was an Irish poet and dramatist celebrated for his glittering wit and epigrammatic paradoxes. The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890/91) was his only novel; his comedies Lady Windermere’s Fan and The Importance of Being Earnest made him the most quotable playwright of the London stage. Many of his sharpest lines — like this one — are voiced by his characters rather than delivered in his own person.

Traced to source

4 quotes we’ve traced to Oscar Wilde

“The world is a stage, but the play is badly cast”

Verified

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

Verified

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

Verified

“Be yourself; everyone else is already taken”

Disputed

Not actually Oscar Wilde

Often misattributed to Oscar Wilde

Famous lines widely pinned on Oscar Wilde that we’ve traced to someone else.

“Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much”

actually Percy Colson

“I'm not young enough to know everything”

actually J. M. Barrie

On the research bench

Commonly pinned on Oscar Wilde — under review

5 lines flagged as pinned on Oscar Wilde and queued for a full source trace — not yet verified.

“A pessimist is one who, when he has the choice of two evils, chooses both.”

Disputed

“I don't want to go to heaven. None of my friends are there.”

Disputed

“I have nothing to declare except my genius.”

Disputed

“Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go.”

Disputed

“True friends stab you in the front.”

Disputed

Did they really say it?

Thought Oscar Wilde said something else?

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