Oscar Wilde was born October 16, 1854. – Daily Kos

via Oscar Wilde was born October 16, 1854. – Daily Kos.

Having missed the occasion of the 160th anniversary of the great man’s birth, I thought to make amends with a selection of his pithier aphorism, courtesy of mentalfloss.com.

• Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much.
• It is absurd to divide people into good and bad. People are either charming or tedious.
• The only thing to do with good advice is pass it on. It is never any use to oneself.
• Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go.
• A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal.
• There are only two tragedies in life: one is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it.
• Work is the curse of the drinking classes.
• Anyone who lives within their means suffers from a lack of imagination.
• True friends stab you in the front.
• Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months.
• Morality is simply the attitude we adopt towards people whom we personally dislike.
• A gentleman is one who never hurts anyone’s feelings unintentionally.
• My own business always bores me to death; I prefer other people’s.
• The old believe everything, the middle-aged suspect everything, the young know everything.
• I like men who have a future and women who have a past.
• There are two ways of disliking poetry; one way is to dislike it, the other is to read Pope.
• Quotation is a serviceable substitute for wit.

And one bonus quote about Oscar Wilde! Dorothy Parker said it best in a 1927 issue of Life:

If, with the literate, I am
Impelled to try an epigram,
I never seek to take the credit;
We all assume that Oscar said it.