Making up Oscar Wilde quotes
Hello! My name is Lord Waltherington Spatula, you might have heard of me from either the news coverage of the tragic tram accident that lost me my arms, or the crown court trial where I was declared mentally incompetent after crashing a tram.
I see you're interested in Making up Oscar Wilde Quotes. I was like you once, so very long ago. If you wish to learn as I did then there is only one way, please step forward, my assistant, Oscar.
“I have the simplest tastes. I am always satisfied with the best.”
He's such a card. Yes that's right, it turns out rumours of Oscar's death were greatly overstated as he's here, with me, in this booth, behind these curtains where you couldn't possibly see him. So, Oscar, why don't you tell everyone what they will need to get started?
“Be warned in time, James, and remain, as I do, incomprehensible: to be great is to be misunderstood.”
I keep telling you, I'm not James, Walt Whitman or the deplorable condition of man.
“A poet can survive everything but a misprint.”
Oh shut up.
The picture of Dorian Gray[edit | edit source]
Why isn't this section named something more relevant?
“The artist is the creator of beautiful things. To reveal art and conceal the artist is art’s aim.”
We agreed that I'd name the sections and you'd just provide valuable insights as and when I ask for them, not flaunt your tedious book in my section headers.
“Those who find ugly meanings in beautiful things are corrupt without being charming.”
Why thank you. Now ...
The anatomy of a quote[edit | edit source]
The first and possibly the most vital stage is to start small. As a house is built from the ground up, your quote must rise from insignificance to ... significance! You must ask yourself, what would Oscar say? Why would he say it? Oscar was is, without question the most significant intellectualist of the last two centuries! Remember:
“A simile committing suicide is always a depressing spectacle.”
No, not that one.
“Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative.”
Yes, exactly. You are in read my mind Oscar. Oscar would always do something different, something surprising! Let your rash impulses guide you, if a quote by Oscar would seem to fit an article about gayness or perhaps a fatuous theory of existence then follow that instinct. Your instincts can guide you as they once still guide Oscar. From his early life in Dublin, to University, to Pentonville Prison, to my side, Oscar's instincts took him there and they can take you too. That being said you might want to skip prison; I gather it's quite dirty in there.
“It is always a silly thing to give advice, but to give good advice is absolutely fatal.”
What is that supposed to mean?
“Le mystère de l’amour est plus grand que le mystère de la mort.”
WHAT IS THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN???
“Reforms in Russia are very tragic, but they always end in a farce.”
Don't push me Oscar or you'll feel the power of the Dragon-fist. I once used it to kill a man.
“One can survive everything nowadays except death.”
Exactly. So to sum up, be just like Oscar Wilde himself, don't go to prison and fear the power of the Dragon.
De Profundis[edit | edit source]
That's it! From now on, no epigrams, epistles, books, novels, novelettes, plays, poems or dialogues in the section headers. Especially if you wrote them!
Non-quotable subjects[edit | edit source]
Now Oscar deplored deplores censorship, so do I as it happens, but there are certain subjects that Oscar would never been seen dead being quoted on, in or around. The first of these, and probably the most important is fashion. While we can all agree that Oscar cut cuts a very dashing figure, he doesn't like fashion. If you feel that Oscar's witticisms and insights would be at home on an article about pants or hats then you are mistaken.
“After all, what is a fashion? From the artistic point of view, it is usually a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months.”
Oscar and I are of one mind you see.
There's no need for you to think about that too much.
“I put all my genius into my life; I put only my talent into my works.”
We can all see that, so while we're at it don't quote Oscar in any article about life, unless your quote concerns his unassailable genius, and no Wilde quotes on pages about work of any kind unless they are about his innumerable talents. The only exception to the above is that quotes about his pigheadedness and how impossible he is to work with are welcome everywhere.
“There is no sin except stupidity.”
Stupid am I? Anything else to say? Perhaps you'd like to insult my looks just to complete the set?
“He is really not so ugly after all, provided, of course, that one shuts one’s eyes, and does not look at him.”
You've really done it now, as soon as I get up from this chair, make it across to your chaise longue and screw on my prosthetic punching arm, you'll wish you'd never been a figment of my imagination! What do you say to that? You overrated blotter jotter!
“Only good questions deserve good answers.”
The Ballad of Reading Gaol[edit | edit source]
That's the straw that breaks the camel's face, or whatever the saying is.
The truth of masks[edit | edit source]
I don't understand, you were here, you've always been here ... I can't hear your voice any more, the silence is deafening. I feel elated, I feel free, but at the same time I feel confined. I feel taller than the tallest trees, but lower than the deepest ocean. Now that you are gone, perhaps I too will have to Make up Oscar Wilde quotes the norm for so many, but the unthinkable for me ...
Speak to me Oscar, please, I cannot live on without you.
“Yet each man kills the thing he loves,By each let this be heard,
Some do it with a bitter look,
Some with a flattering word,
The coward does it with a kiss,
The brave man with a sword!”
Oscar! You've returned! I am sorry, so so sorry. Speak to me! Say something profound, something amazing.
“How else but through a broken heart: May Lord Christ enter in?”
I'll never hate you again.
An ideal husband[edit | edit source]
You're a fucking numbskull Oscar, you know that?
“We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.”
See also[edit | edit source]
Quasi-Featured Article (18 June 2014)