With Saint Patrick’s Day behind us, I’m reminded of all the great Irish actors, singers, inventors, scientists, and politicians. But I’d rather take this opportunity to mention my favorite Irish quipster, playwright, and author.
Oscar Fingal O’Fflahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London’s most popular playwrights in the early 1890s.
You may know his popular name…. Oscar Wilde.
He lived only 46 years and died penniless and a broken man because he had the temerity and bad timing to be a homosexual in the late 19th century.
He was an eccentric who defied authority, customs, and conformity.
He was openly gay before it became easy to do so.
They beat him, ostracized him, jailed him…and eventually he died.
.But his writings and his comments about man and nature and fortune and qualities of character are legendary.
On this Irish day, I refer you to, for me, the greatest one-liner writer of them all…Oscar Wilde.
Here’s are some of his quotes:
“Everything popular is wrong.”
“No great artist ever sees things as they really are. If he did, he would cease to be an artist.”
“There are only two tragedies in life: one is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it.”
“Whenever people agree with me, I always feel I must be wrong.”
“No man is rich enough to buy back his past.”
“True friends stab you in the front.”
“We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.”
“When good Americans die, they go to Paris.”
“A man can’t be too careful in the choice of his enemies.”
“Moderation is a fatal thing. Nothing succeeds like excess.”
“Hatred is blind, as well as love.”
And my favorite:
“Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative.”
By Roy Firestone | March 21, 2023
Multi Emmy-Winning Journalist
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