150
To commemorate the 150th anniversary of Oscar Wilde's birth on Saturday, BBC News Online looks at some of the playwright and wit's most memorable quotes.
"I have nothing to declare except my genius"
At the New York Custom House (1882)
"A man can be happy with any woman as long as he does not love her"
The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891) Chapter 15
"Only dull people are brilliant at breakfast"
An Ideal Husband (1893) Act I
"To lose one parent...may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness"
The Importance of Being Earnest (1895) Act I
"Anybody can make history. Only a great man can write it"
Intentions (1891) The Critic as Artist Pt. 1
"I can resist everything except temptation"
Lady Windermere's Fan (1892) Act I
"Many a woman has a past, but I am told that she has at least a dozen, and that they all fit"
Lady Windermere's Fan (1892) Act I
"We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars"
Lady Windermere's Fan (1892) Act III
"A man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing"
(definition of a cynic)
Lady Windermere's Fan (1892) Act III
"Experience is the name every one gives to their mistakes"
Lady Windermere's Fan (1892) Act III
"There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about"
The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891) Chapter 1
"When I ask for a watercress sandwich, I do not mean a loaf with a field in the middle of it"
(to a waiter)
Max Beerbohm, letter to Reggie Turner, 15 April 1893
"I have nothing to declare except my genius"
At the New York Custom House (1882)
"A man can be happy with any woman as long as he does not love her"
The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891) Chapter 15
"Only dull people are brilliant at breakfast"
An Ideal Husband (1893) Act I
"To lose one parent...may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness"
The Importance of Being Earnest (1895) Act I
"Anybody can make history. Only a great man can write it"
Intentions (1891) The Critic as Artist Pt. 1
"I can resist everything except temptation"
Lady Windermere's Fan (1892) Act I
"Many a woman has a past, but I am told that she has at least a dozen, and that they all fit"
Lady Windermere's Fan (1892) Act I
"We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars"
Lady Windermere's Fan (1892) Act III
"A man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing"
(definition of a cynic)
Lady Windermere's Fan (1892) Act III
"Experience is the name every one gives to their mistakes"
Lady Windermere's Fan (1892) Act III
"There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about"
The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891) Chapter 1
"When I ask for a watercress sandwich, I do not mean a loaf with a field in the middle of it"
(to a waiter)
Max Beerbohm, letter to Reggie Turner, 15 April 1893