"There is only one thing in life..." (Oscar Wilde quote)

[Juan Perez]

"There is only one thing in life worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about".


I usually like Wilde's quotes, his wit and sense of humour (most of the things he said I find them to be true, by the way). But this quote is, in my opinion, one of the dumbest ever by any author/intellectual (dead or alive). Who cares if people don't talk about you? Are you so important? And if you feel important (that is, only for yourself) then you shouldn't care about what others may think about you. The quote seems the thought of an ultra-mega-narcissist (someone like the singer Morrissey, for example). But even worse is the fact that, in Wilde's case, if people didn't think or talk anything about him...well...he could have AVOIDED 2 years in prision. That's all I have to say. (Discuss....if you wish!!!)

[kev67]

Talking about ultra-mega-narcisissists reminded me of Wilde's contemporary James Whistler. Whistler was renowned for having a very high opinion of himself. Once when Whistler was holding forth someone said to him, "It's just as well we do not see ourselves as others see us."
Whistler replied, "Isn't it? I know in my case I would grow terribly conceited".

[AuntShecky]

Lately the good old U. S. of A. seems to be on a self-esteem campaign. When there is sufficient evidence of achievement to corroborate it, a high opinion of oneself is excusable; unlike Wilde or Whistler, however, most of us are just blowing smoke out of our donkeys.

[Bustrofedon]

Witty and pithy. A joke not a philosophy.

[luhsun]

Juan condemns Wilde, a wee bit too vehemently. The merely talented ones understand not the genius; sparrows sanctimoniously deride the dumb migration of wild geese.

[luhsun]

Wilde would have got into trouble anyway. The father of douglas, the marquess would not let wilde go free anyway. He libelled wilde as the sodomite. Degenerate douglas would have betrayed him sooner or later. Wilde went to jail fighting, and was bitter enough to be moved to write the ballad of reading goal.

[millwallbill]

Wilde would have got into trouble anyway. The father of douglas, the marquess would not let wilde go free anyway. He libelled wilde as the sodomite. Degenerate douglas would have betrayed him sooner or later. Wilde went to jail fighting, and was bitter enough to be moved to write the ballad of reading goal.

I think Wilde wrote The Ballad Of Reading Gaol, less from bitterness than horror at the barbarity of the prison system & the death penalty in particular. The bitterness was reserved for De Profundis, which railed against the selfishness & betrayal of his false friend Bosie Douglas.

[luhsun]

De profundis was a bitter letter written at the heat of the moment, and did not move me deeply when read.
The ballad, ostensibly about the murderer cruelly executed and other prisoners watching wistfully that little tent of blue- but i think it was symbolic of wilde's bitterness at douglas and his reproach -yet all men kill the thing he loves.. and wretched douglas kills oscar's heart with false kisses and douglas was not man enough to do it with a sword