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Who really said it

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

Not Oscar Wilde — an anonymous quip Unknown (anonymous quip) In print by 1899 · originator never identified
Disputed Rights unconfirmed

No Wilde source has ever been produced for this line, and it appears in none of the fifteen Wilde texts searchable on Project Gutenberg. A close, unattributed version was already in print on page 32 of a volume of American civil-service reform proceedings that Google Books dates to 1899 — and Wikiquote records no clear attribution to Wilde before 1977 ↗. Whoever first made the joke is unknown.

Last verified 27 Jul 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

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Disputed credit — copy with the correction

“A pessimist is one who, when he has the choice of two evils, chooses both” origin unknown; commonly but doubtfully credited to Oscar Wilde. An unattributed version ("has the choice of two evils and takes both") was already in print in a volume dated 1899, and Wikiquote records no clear attribution to Wilde before 1977. Via Quotle.info

The slide-ready mistake: crediting this to Oscar Wilde. Use the credit shown above instead.

Can you use it?

We couldn’t verify where this wording comes from, so there’s no rights status to give. Safe to present as an unverified or anonymous line — just don’t assert a specific author or source.

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In context

Evoking the themes of doubt, character and happiness. Theme: "A pessimist is one who, when he has the choice of two evils, chooses both". Atmospheric and restrained, cinematic directional light, a muted period-appropriate palette, fine grain and texture. Compose with generous empty space for the quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Minimalist

Minimalist editorial slide for the quote "A pessimist is one who, when he has the choice of two evils, chooses both". Clean background, a single muted accent color, generous negative space, subtle paper or linen texture, no literal illustration — let the words carry it. Reserve clear space for a serif quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Provenance

The earliest printing anyone has produced

Popular attribution
Oscar Wilde — listed under Disputed on Wikiquote
Earliest printing cited
Proceedings at the Annual Meeting of the National Civil Service Reform League, Issues 19–24
Volume date
1899 per the Google Books record — but that single date covers the whole bound volume (Issues 19–24, six successive annual meetings), and the cited page sits in the fourth report bound into it, so the exact meeting year is not pinned down. The line there is unattributed and differently worded.
First clear Wilde attribution
1977, according to Wikiquote

… pessimist — I understand a pessimist is one who has the choice of two evils and takes both but the conditions in some places, notably in Chicago, are unbearable, and there must be some relief. It is idle to talk about anything but … Google Books search result

This is the Google Books in-book search result for page 32 of the volume, reached by searching the full-view scan for “pessimist”. The ellipses and the OCR spacing are Google’s; only the run-together punctuation has been tidied. Note what the speaker does: he prefaces the joke with “I understand a pessimist is…” — he is repeating a line already in circulation, and he does not credit anyone for it.

Scanned volume (full view)
Open page 32 on Google Books
Wikiquote: Oscar Wilde (Disputed section)

The paper trail

  • Wikiquote ↗ places the line in its Disputed section for Wilde, with a two-part note: similar versions are found unattributed “as early as 1899”, and the “first clear attribution to Wilde was not until 1977”.
  • The 1899 item Wikiquote points to is a passage on page 32 of a bound volume of civil-service reform proceedings, readable in full view on Google Books ↗. Its text reads “I understand a pessimist is one who has the choice of two evils and takes both” — a speaker quoting a going joke, with Wilde nowhere in sight.
  • The 1977 item Wikiquote links is catalogued by Google Books as The American Postal Worker, Volumes 7–8 ↗, published by the American Postal Workers Union, AFL-CIO, 1977. That is the volume Wikiquote treats as the first clear Wilde attribution; a union magazine is not a Wilde source.
  • Searching fifteen Wilde texts on Project Gutenberg — the plays, Dorian Gray, Intentions, De Profundis, the stories — turns up no “two evils” and no “chooses both” at all. Wilde does write about pessimism: in An Ideal Husband ↗ Lord Goring says “No, Lady Chiltern, I am not a Pessimist.” That is his register; the dictionary-joke is not.

No copyright status can be asserted for the famous wording, because no author and no first publication have ever been identified for it. The one printing that can be pointed to — the unattributed variant on page 32 of a volume of civil-service reform proceedings that the Google Books record dates to 1899 — would itself be long out of copyright in the United States, but that is not the sentence quote sites circulate.

Rights status is our research, not legal advice — and copyright varies by country and edition. For commercial or published use, confirm with the rightsholder. See terms.

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Fact-check

How it ended up on Wilde

Wilde is one of the internet’s great quote magnets: any epigram that is short, paradoxical and faintly cruel gets filed under his name sooner or later. This one has three separate problems — the attribution, the wording, and a look-alike proverb.

Oscar Wilde Disputed

Wikiquote ↗ files the line under Disputed and dates the first clear Wilde attribution to 1977. Wilde died on 30 November 1900; the earliest printing anyone has produced — dated 1899 — credits nobody.

Later quote collections Reworded

The 1899 text reads “a pessimist is one who has the choice of two evils and takes both” (Google Books, full view ↗). The smoother “when he has the choice of two evils, chooses both” is the form that circulates today — so even the popular sentence is not the sentence that was printed.

Carolyn Wells Different quote

Quote Investigator ↗ credits Carolyn Wells with the neighbouring proverb “Of two evils, choose the prettier” in her 1904 book Folly for the Wise, and probably with the earlier 1896 form “Of two Devils choose the Prettier” in The Lark — a section QI notes she may have crafted together with Bruce Porter and Gelett Burgess. That investigation never mentions Wilde — and it is a separate joke, not this one.

The honest answer is that nobody knows who made the joke. Wikiquote ↗ records an unattributed version in print by 1899 and no clear Wilde attribution before 1977, and the line turns up in none of the fifteen Wilde texts searchable on Project Gutenberg.

Context

Why the joke sticks to Wilde

The line has exactly the shape of a Wilde epigram: a dictionary definition that turns on itself. But its documented habitat is different. The one nineteenth-century printing that has been produced sits in the middle of an American speech about municipal patronage, alongside a complaint that “the conditions in some places, notably in Chicago, are unbearable”. That is the world of newspaper filler and after-dinner speaking, not of The Importance of Being Earnest.

Look closely at how the 1899 speaker introduces it and the case gets weaker still. He says “I understand a pessimist is…” — the phrasing of a man passing along a joke he has heard, not one coining it. A quip that was already common property in 1899 has no single author to find, which is precisely why a famous name eventually drifted onto it.

I understand a pessimist is one who has the choice of two evils and takes both

Read the full story

Wilde did write about pessimism, and it is worth seeing what he actually sounds like on the subject. In An Ideal Husband, Sir Robert Chiltern asks Mrs Cheveley whether she is “an optimist or a pessimist”, calling them “the only two fashionable religions left to us nowadays”; later Lord Goring answers Lady Chiltern, “No, Lady Chiltern, I am not a Pessimist.” Both passages are in the Project Gutenberg text ↗.

Wilde also published a set of aphorisms in exactly the compressed, definitional style people imagine this line belongs to — Phrases and Philosophies for the Use of the Young ↗, 1894, home of “Only the shallow know themselves.” The pessimist quip is not among them.

Explore

Filed under

More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.

Doubt Character Happiness

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Dig deeper

Trusted places to keep pulling the thread — primary archives, fact-checks, and scholarship. We show how we used each one before you leave.

Wikiquote: Oscar Wilde (Disputed)en.wikiquote.org

The anchor source. Lists this line in the Disputed section and notes the unattributed 1899 appearance plus the 1977 first clear Wilde attribution.
The 1899 printing on Google Booksbooks.google.com

Page 32 of the civil-service reform proceedings volume, containing "I understand a pessimist is one who has the choice of two evils and takes both" with no author credited. The link carries Wikiquote's own search terms, so the phrase is highlighted on arrival.
The American Postal Worker, Vols. 7–8 (1977)books.google.com

Catalogue record for the 1977 volume Wikiquote links as the first clear Wilde attribution — published by the American Postal Workers Union, AFL-CIO.
An Ideal Husband (full text)www.gutenberg.org

Wilde's own lines about optimists and pessimists — and a text in which "two evils" and "chooses both" do not appear.
Phrases and Philosophies for the Use of the Youngen.wikisource.org

Wilde's 1894 collection of one-line aphorisms — the genre this quip is assumed to belong to. It is not there.
Quote Investigator: Of Two Evils, Choose the Prettierquoteinvestigator.com

QI's investigation of a different two-evils proverb: it credits Carolyn Wells with "Of two evils, choose the prettier" in her 1904 book Folly for the Wise, and probably with the earlier 1896 form "Of two Devils choose the Prettier" in The Lark — a section QI notes she may have written together with Bruce Porter and Gelett Burgess. QI has no article on the pessimist line, and this one never mentions Wilde.

About the name it travels under

Oscar Wilde

Oscar Wilde

1854–1900 · Irish poet, playwright & aphorist

Oscar Wilde (16 October 1854 – 30 November 1900) was an Irish poet, novelist and playwright, and one of the most quoted wits in English. His comedies — Lady Windermere’s Fan, A Woman of No Importance, An Ideal Husband and The Importance of Being Earnest — are built out of reversible epigrams, and The Picture of Dorian Gray and De Profundis remain widely read. That reputation is exactly why unowned jokes gravitate to him: a line only has to sound like Wilde to be filed as Wilde. This one appears in none of the fifteen Wilde texts searchable on Project Gutenberg — the plays, Dorian Gray, Intentions, De Profundis and the stories — and no Wilde source has ever been produced for it.

For writers & researchers

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How to cite this

Earliest printing cited by Wikiquote: "Proceedings at the Annual Meeting of the National Civil Service Reform League," Issues 19–24 (Google Books record dated 1899), 32: "I understand a pessimist is one who has the choice of two evils and takes both" — unattributed. Note that Google Books dates the whole bound volume (Issues 19–24, covering six successive annual meetings) to 1899, and the cited page sits in the fourth report bound into it, so the exact issue year is not pinned down. Wikiquote, "Oscar Wilde," Disputed section, records no clear attribution to Oscar Wilde before 1977.

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Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘A pessimist is one who, when he has the choice of two evils, chooses both’?” Last verified 27 Jul 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/a-pessimist-is-one-who-when-he-has-the-choice-of-two-evils/

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